I'm gearing up for the release of Names I Call My Sister. I'm so excited about this book, full of fun stories from my old friends Mary Castillo, Sofia Quintero and Lynda Sandoval. Stay tuned for more news about this terrific anthology from HarperCollins. Also coming soon are my essays in Everything I Know About Being A Girl I Learned From Judy Blume (Pocket, June 5), and the June 1 release from Rayo, Fifteen Candles: 15 Tales of Taffeta, Hairspray, Drunk Uncles and other Quinceañera Stories. It's going to be a fun summer!

Speaking of upcoming, Michelle Roper and I received prelminary artwork for cover of our young adult urban fantasy, The Tree Shepherd's Daughter. Wow! I can't say much yet, but I'll post it as soon as it's finalized. It's everything we hoped for. Michelle and I will be blogging on MySpace as Gillian Summers, our pseudonym for young adult books. We're going to be hitting the Renaissance Faires, too, since our story is set in a series of Ren Faires. Renaissance Faires are so much fun. I wonder if it would work as a theme park in Miami - only instead of the English Renaissance, it could be Cuba in the 1950's. La Cuba de ayer - Think it would be a hit?

More exciting news: I've been invited to join a vibrant, exciting group of multicultural authors, the Femme Fantastiks, as one of their guest authors on their 2007-2008 tour! Click on the link in the Appearances tab to read more about these lovely, talented, sophisticated, smart, (help, I'm running out of adjectives). Anyway, I love them all and can't wait for September, when I join them for a tour of four military bases in Texas and Oklahoma. More on this later!