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Author Highlight: Elizabeth Acevedo
So I’m back with another notable author, Elizabeth Acevedo. Originally Acevedo had wanted to be a rapper, inspired by her neighbohood and Afro-Latin heritage to rap about the abuelas who fed her pastelitos and the racism and sexism she faced. But since that was too “soft” for the rap word, she switched to spoken word and slam poetry. Since then she has used her natural flow to create accesible yet beautiful prose detailing such themes as family, self realization, culture and more.
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Interview with Joya Goffney
Joya Goffney is the dazzling novelist of Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry and Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl from Texas. Her work centers around Black identity, romance and other young adult trials and triumphs. She is also a kind, communicative author who has answered my emails and allowed me to interview her for this here blog. So please enjoy as she talks about her writer journey, favorite parts, inspiration and a hint at what’s coming next for her third book.
First, let’s start with your writer’s journey. You have a B.A. in
psychology and studied Black sociology before losing your job during
COVID. How did these fields contribute or guide you into writing?Psychology influences my writing a great deal. I tend to use a well-known scale in Black psychology on all of my characters to assess where they are in the development of their Black identity. Doing so also helps me to plan overall character development throughout my stories.
After getting my degree, I took the first job I could get—as an administrative assistant at a car dealership. I hated it, for the most part, thus, writing and reading became my escapes. And my hatred for my day job really motivated me to do what I had to do in order to get published. I worked in the car industry for years before finally getting a book deal. I lost my job after getting the deal, so I was lucky enough to have book money coming in during 2020.
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The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages Review
I was a fan of the series way back in middle school so when I heard they were coming out with a whole new book all these years later. I ignored it. But now I figured why not, let’s see if it holds up. So I reread the other four books and dove into The Riddle of the Ages.
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3 Latinx Romances
The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa
Carolina “Lina” Santos experienced one of the worst experiences one could live through. Stood up at the altar. And it’s all the best man’s fault, Max Hartley. Now years later, Santos has pulled herself together to making a succesful wedding planning company and is up for a big presentation that will grant them a stable revenue of weddings at a luxe hotel. The one blip, she has to present with Max Hartley who is determined to step out of his older brother’s, Lina’s ex, shadow and impress the hotlier with his marketing campaign.
With the sudden shock of seeing each other again, Max and Lina pretend they don’t know each other, which forces them to act even more professional than usual as they work closely together to achieve their goals. Yet despite the warning flags, despite all the reasons, they can’t help but screw professionalism in private and with each other.
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Pretty Little Liars Review
*I have never seen the tv show so these reviews won’t be influenced or confused by the television events.
Sara Shepard’s debut series of the sleepy little town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania sparks one of the twistiest teen intrigues of the early 200s. You see, Rosewood is a town full of secrets harbored by the prettiest most popular girls you could ever meet.
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Favorite Rupi Kaur Poems P1
If you knew me in real life, you would know that even though I love books, I despise poetry. Ironic for a creative writing major I suppose but I just find it hard to understand, pretnetious and designed to make me feel as stupid.
But Rupi Kaur is one of the few poets that speaks to me with her short, straightforward words that pack a lot of meaning as she discusses issues of feminism, abuse, sexuality, immigration and womanhood.
Here are just a few of my favorites from her first book of poetry, milk and honey to whet your appetite.
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Stephanie Plum ReRead #16-20
Things sort of reach a status quo. A stagnation if you will. But that does not mean it is no less wild. What I mean is that there is not many life reflections or revelations from Stephanie this time around about finding a new line of work even though she is thoroughly rattled by the multiple attempts on her life. Nor is she any closer to choosing between Morelli and Ranger. Well besides the usual Joe is stable but Ranger is magic.
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What Greek myth to adapt next?
Now I won’t deny I love greek myth adaptations, I’ve read Percy Jackson, The Goddess Test, Goddess Girls, Oh My Gods, so on and so forth. They’re epic in its largeness, its weirdness and dysfunction. They’re also human, explaining the origins of Earth and humanity as the Greeks believed they came to be.
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Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered Review
Even though it always gives me nightmares of cannibals and murderers, my roommate got me addicted to the My Favorite Murder podcast by Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff. Worst idea to listen before bed, but it’s a nice background noise during homework.
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Thunder Girls
Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams are back at it again. Their mai series is a long-running, well executed, semi-modern spin on Greek Myths. Now they take on Norse mythology as the Vanir, Aesir, Jotunheim and other creatures go to school at Asgard Academy.
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Rachel Reads & Reviews 