Hi Friends: If you’re on this page, we probably know each other through my first book, Mamalita.

I’m writing now to tell you where I am in my second book, a novel, Mother Mother. The cover is set and galleys are in final proof stages. The cover artwork uses a painting by one of my favorite artists from Guatemala, Hugo Ayala. The title is “Nahuala,” from the Guatemalan town, and shows a winding cobblestone road filled with light, and a blue sky behind the dome of a white church.

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I crossed my fingers Ayala would grant me permission to use the work, and he has. If you’ve been to Antigua, you probably know the La Antigua Galeria de Arte, now on Fifth Avenida in the Nimpot building near the Arch, formerly on Fourth Calle up from Dona Luisa. The gallery represents Hugo Ayala and was generous in helping me secure permission. Thank you, La Antigua Galeria!

After laboring so long on a book–I don’t want to tell you how many years: off and on for 7–this stage feels surreal. To finally see the pages typeset, my name on the cover. I still can’t believe it.

The book cover uses only a detail from the Ayala painting, so I’m posting the entire image here. The painting hangs in our living room; I bought it several years ago in Antigua after we’d visited that part of the country. I’m honored to have it part of my first novel.

The Advance Reading Copies of Mother Mother should be printed in about three weeks. Publication date is November 2020.

xoxo