Writing my novel Stepchildren
08/31/2009

One of the most tragic consequences of my marriage to “Domingo,” whose family inspired Family of Strangers, is the relationship I had, and abandoned, with his two children, whom I fictionalized as Ramon and Mariana.

Ramon and Mariana were six and four when I met them and, along with Mami Luana, part of the package I fell in love with. 

Writing my novel::Mami Luana
08/09/2009

A real-life Dominicana was also the inspiration for Domingo's mother, Mami Luana, another main character in Family of Strangers.  Like the fictitious version, the flesh-and-bone Mami Luana is “as strong and life-giving as a tree.”  Like Luana, she is good-natured, but doesn’t take any bullshit.  She once prevented our party of pleasure seekers from becoming inadvertently caught up in a crowd of drunken brawlers simply by lifting her skirt to reveal a knife strapped to her leg.  Without a word, the brawlers tumbled off in another direction. 

Like the fictional version, the real-life Luana also channels St. Michael, the Archangel of Heaven.  The word “channels,” however, implies some type of control over the process, while in reality our heroine has none.  When St. Michael is sufficiently pissed off about something, he commandeers Mami Luana’s body and lets his outrage be known. 

Writing my novel
08/03/2009

As some of you know, for the last year I’ve been finishing a novel with the working title Family of Strangers.  The novel was inspired by my marriage to a man from the Dominican Republic and subsequent introduction to his family and culture.  Although the marriage ended disastrously, it enriched my life in numerous ways—as life challenges so often do.

“Domingo,” as I’ll call him, was, like the fictional Jaime, a beautiful peasant with contemporary aspirations.