The Search for Substance

The Search for Substance

I am a realist. Though my mother might disagree (I suspect she equated my head in a book with my head in the clouds), on the bottom line I’m the ultimate pragmatist. I believe—and write—about life in all its humble glory, yet that’s a spiritual reality. I search for SUBSTANCE, the core value inside the…

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

“Art takes nature as its model,” Aristotle said. In other words, art imitates life—and I believe that to a point, since much of my own writing reflects the settings and characters I interact with every day. While I’ve never suffered from a scarcity of story ideas, after experiencing the Chilean version of a “24” season…

New Legends of Chiloé

New Legends of Chiloé

“If you want to change the world, pick up a pen,” Martin Luther said—and did. Thirty-two years ago, as a young wife and mother in the (almost) godforsaken Islands of Chiloé, I decided I wanted to change the strangely delusional world I lived in. So I picked up a pen and began to write some…

How’s Your WIP Coming Along?

How’s Your WIP Coming Along?

In writer’s terminology, a WIP is a Work-in-Progress. Our lives, like my books, are a work-in-progress. They’re in process. In preparation, on the path to perfection. When friends ask (some with dubious confidence, I suspect) how my latest project, Anchor at Alcázar Reef, is coming along, I share about four factors that indicate the status…