MARNIE The first time I saw Marnie naked, she was lying on her back in an ambulance while two paramedics cut her yellow Burton shell off her torso. The zipper must’ve been caught on the fabric. The medical boys sliced her jacket and all the fleece underlayers right up the middle with a razor-sharp scissors […]
Chapter 1 The other problem I had was that I was falling in love with my best friend, Gretchen, who I thought the rest of the world considered fat. We were in her crappy car and singing, and at the end of the song “White Riot,” the one by the Clash, I realized by the […]
Everyone knew there was power in names. If an obeah woman got ahold of your true-true name, you were doomed. She’d write it on a slip of paper, and then she’d hold your soul in her fist. Nina claimed that the obeah was nonsense. But I’d heard the cook and gardener whisper that Nina didn’t […]
Grab Bag is comprised of two novels, Dark Rides and Wish Book. Is this a natural coupling? Do the two books have a particular relationship to one another? I want to say: There are no natural couplings in my books. But I won’t. It’s not true. Dark Rides and Wish Book couple nicely, I think. […]
“This book is what has been missing from the parenting section of every bookstore in America. It provides some much-needed irreverence in a realm (parenting) that can be prone to taking itself way too seriously, and I think its honesty will provide relief to a lot of sleep-deprived parents. And the juxtaposition of words and […]
Discussion Questions 1. Why did the author choose to name the protagonist Easter? How does her name relate to the story? 2. Describe the setting of Glorious. Why might the author have chosen to write about this time period and these places and events? 3. Why do you think Easter continuously chooses to walk away […]
In the “Author’s Note” at the beginning of Cold Havana Ground, you write that you were given access to police files of a case that was “deeply tied to believers in three African-rooted religions practiced in Cuba.” How were you able to get access to these police files? How did you come to learn so […]
Author’s Warning to the Reader This novel is based on events that occurred in the recent past in Cuba. The characters are real, the names fictitious. Descriptions of the Afro-Cuban religious practices are authentic. A glossary is provided at the back of this novel with explanations and definitions of some of the religious words and […]