Award-winning Author + Freelance Writer

I am a novelist and freelance writer. After graduating from the University of Central Oklahoma with a Masters in Fine Arts, I was determined to create a career out of writing…and that’s what I did.

Author Life
My novel, Secrets of the Casa Rosada, was published by Arte Publico Press October 31, 2018 and has received accolades like the 2019 NACCS Tejas Foco Young Adult Fiction Award, MG/YA Discovery Prize Winner of the Writers League of Texas Book Awards 2018, the Texas Library Association’s TAYSHA’s list, and Kirkus Reviews’ Best of YA Books 2018. I'm represented by Mary C. Moore of Kimberley Cameron & Associates and have upcoming publications in the LatinX Archive and Living Beyond Borders: Stories about Growing Up & Living Mexican in America. I've had several creative writing pieces published in PALABRITAS, Cigale Literary Magazine, and Scissortale Review, and two book reviews published on Colorado Review. In 2020, I was the Discovery Prize judge for the Writer’s League of Texas Book Awards.

My second novel, Half Outlaw, a magical realism adult fiction novel, was acquired by Blackstone Publishing in 2020 and is expected to be published in 2022 in print and audio form.

My career as an author has led me to teach creative writing, freelance writing, and publishing courses and seminars with WritingWorkshops.com and Writer’s League of Texas. I'm the brains and moderator of LitTalk at Interabang Books, a quarterly author panel series in DFW, and a public speaker at conferences, universities, festivals, and high schools. In college and graduate school, I held such positions as Assistant Editor of Turnrow Magazine and Assistant Editor of Everett Southwest Literary Award, and presented at various national, state, and local English, History, and Liberal Arts conferences.

If you enjoy stories that feature people of color, especially Mixed Americans or people of Mexican-American/Chicano heritage, characters with strong voices and diverse identities, stories about messy families with hidden secrets, magical realism and literary fiction, books that make you like characters you should hate, learning about new cultures, and stories with authentic settings in Texas or the South, you’ll enjoy my work.

Freelance Writer

My portfolio consists of mostly travel, arts, culture articles that have appeared in: Outside Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Dwell, Travel + Leisure, Artsy, Lonely Planet, TravelPulse, GEN by Medium, Architectural Digest, Scalawag Magazine, Roadtrippers, Dallas Morning News, Make Change, HighSnobiety, D Magazine, Texas Highways Magazine, Oyster, Hotels.com, Matador Network, Amuse (VICE), Wanderful, Shermans Travel, Texas Lifestyle Magazine, LA Travel Magazine, Culture Trip, Neighborhoods.com, among many others.

Although I’ve covered a wide range of topics, I’m best known for my articles that focus on diversity and inclusion in the travel, arts, and social sectors.

I’ve also written hotel features and reviews for Oyster.com, Trip.com, and Cyties, as well as a Dallas guide for an HMP Communications, LLC conference. For a few years, I worked as a Content & Brand Strategist for The Next Family, Shira Gill Home, and Susan Howard Fitness. Occasionally, I do copywriting work for companies like PMG Advertising and fact-checking for travel companies like Insight Guides and Texas Highways.

I identify as a Mixed (half Mexican-half White) Latinx woman who is a proud feminist, an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, and an advocate for people with intellectual and physical disabilities.