Commitment is a very hard thing for a Libra! In September of 2014, when Silviana Wood, the host of our monthly Mujeres Que Escriben writers group meeting, requested all the writers to bring our writing commitment and share it with other writers. I prepared a certificate in which I committed to deliver the two novels I had been writing for over two decades.

In my certificate, I explicitly made the commitment that within the next 365 days, starting on my birthday, October 2014, I would write the first  novel in the series and post one chapter every Sunday on my website. I signed the document in front of the five writing comadres who witnessed my motion to produce one final draft chapter per week while working a very demanding full-time work.

I framed the certificate, hung it in front of my computer where I could see it,  bought the domain poetandmuse.com and a white erase board to brainstorm order and keep track of thoughts, created my logo, contacted Bluehost, designed this website with the help of Wayne, and forced my self to produce the 1st novel in the series. The purpose was not to make the process visible to the entire world. I did not invest in SEO nor did I wasted time in premature marketing efforts. I did take an intensive online course on building blogs that matter. In essence, I simply needed a space offering a platform for me to post, organize, monitor the progress and see the book grow. It worked!

Once I hit the ground running, I could not stop writing. Too soon, the commute from my home in Oro Valley to Downtown Tucson turned into an obsessive drive in which ideas flew and my android voice recorder became my best pal.  The Butterfly’s Ring and Where the River Meets the Jaguar evolved from this commitment.

Special thanks to Silviana Wood for requesting our commitments and to my writing comadres, Maria Elena Wakamatsu, Estella Gonzalez, and Valerina Quintana for all your support. Muy agradecida, muy agradecida, muy agradecida, estilo Carlos Gardel.

Welcome to my words!