On the Road Again

After two months at home, spending much needed time with loved ones, doing book events and getting all our appointments done for the year, we are on the road again!

I loved visiting the Northeast, but the Southwest is a region that holds a special place in my heart. When I was younger we visited New Mexico and Colorado a few times to the point my parents considered moving there, and I have fond memories of exploring the natural landscapes and cultural centers of these states.

We are starting our journey in New Mexico, one of my favorite states. Driving into New Mexico, I was reminded of how beautiful the desert here is. So many folks describe the deserts of the Southwest as unbearably hot, dry and barren, but being back reminded me of how much life quietly thrives in this land, from the drought resistant trees, cacti, mesquite and shrubs, to the birds, lizards, snakes, and many other creatures that we often don’t see unless we are looking closely for them.

When visiting the Carlsbad Caverns National Park, we descended 750 feet down the two mile hike into the caverns. My knees are very different than when I originally visited these caves when I was 10 or 11 years old, but the caverns were no less awe-inspiring.

Poem for the bats of Carlsbad Caverns

Funnel up, flitting and flapping
swirling shadows 
tiny bat bodies against 
the red and white streaked stone 
up over the cactus covered hills
into the waning blue sky
lights of the city in the distance 
I too am ready for dinner 

After we used the elevator to come back up, we visited the gift shop. In addition to my Access National Park Pass, (which is for of my life!) I also got a National Park Adventure Guide that we can use to park with a sticker after every visit to each of the parks and make notes about our visits. It made me realize how many parks we have visited in our past and on the trip so far, and how many more we want to, and plan to visit!

Our legs needed some rest after that, so we skipped a day and then took Tajin on the shorter trail in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park that allows dogs on the trail. It was a more gentle hike for my sore legs, but we still had a multitude of opportunities to observe the local fauna and wildlife, and the scenic views of the mountains.

After our hike we drove to a scenic overlook nearby so that Ramiro could take more photos of the mountains. I looked after Tajin who was resting in the truck and then walked around the rest area for a bit. As I was taking my own photos and taking in the beauty before me, I glanced down and saw, to my surprise, what appeared to be a squash plant growing against the brick wall I was leaning against.

When I looked it up later, I found more information about this wild desert gourd, Cucurbita foetidissima, also known as buffalo gourd, prairie gourd, chilicote and other descriptive names. What a wonder to find a new to me plant growing in an unexpected place, the small green bulbs huddled close to bright yellow squash flowers! As has been my experience before, witnessing these small and huge wonders reminds me of how much knowledge and life this land holds, has held, and will hold long after I am gone. Later, in the truck on the way back to pick up food and rest for the afternoon, Ramiro commented at how it can be fun and meaningful to hike to the top of some of these mountain peaks like El Capitan (featured below), but that there is sometimes something more meaningful at looking up at these mountains from afar, marveling in them and their history in a way we know we cannot touch.

After Carlsbad, we have been spending the last two weeks in Santa Fe, taking our time exploring and visiting museums and outdoor spaces I haven’t been to in many years. We are enjoying the cool weather and beautiful scenery as spring moves into summer.

We hiked up the Aspen Vista trail in Santa Fe National Forest among the cool wind and aspen trees, marveling at the view, and me at the messages and graffiti art folks have left there over the years. So many small stories people left about themselves.

At the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, we had the opportunity to explore several eras of her paintings, charcoal drawings and sketches. While witnessing her work was engaging, I loved that the museum included another exhibit of contemporary Tewa artists whose work is in conversation with O’Keefe, both honoring her artistic legacy and complicating her perspective as a white woman from the Northeast painting natural landscapes of their ancestral lands, including the series above by Jason Garcia/Okuu Pín (Kha’p’o Owingeh / Santa Clara Pueblo) who wanted to create a variety of representations of the Tsi-p ‘in-owinge mountain range, also called Cerro Perdernal, as a reclamation of the deep meaning of this mountain and land to the Tewa peoples.

We also had the privilege to visit the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts and witness such an incredible variety of exhibits, including Paper Trails: Unfolding Indigenous Narratives which contained some of the most innovative mixed media artwork by a variety of indigenous creators I have seen in a long time. I also really loved Stella Nall’s solo exhibition, Offerings From My Heart, which contained her mixed media sculptures, paintings and a poetry risograph that was printed and available for folks to pick up and read. Exploring this museum, these words kept returning to me from the descriptions of the artwork and my own reactions: sovereignty, connection, innovation, displacement, erasure, ancestral archive, bodily and natural memory, found materials, cosmology. These art pieces were powerful reminders of how artwork can reclaim people’s narratives, their memories and their voices to tell their own stories.

I am reminded how each photo we take or creative piece we undertake to writing is an act of archiving, preserving, remembering and creating meaning in living memory connected to family, culture, tradition and of course, the lands we visit and inhabit, even if for just a short time.

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2026 Workshops and Events

I am currently planning the rest of my readings, workshops and events for 2026 and will announce more details in soon! Here’s where you can find me next:

• I’ll be at Stoker Con 2026 in Pittsburgh in June! I will be on one panel and reading my work on Friday and selling my book. If you’ll be there, let me know!
• I will be part of a virtual reading with Strong Women, Strange Worlds on July 16th. You can register here to save your spot!

My horror collection, The Remedy is the Disease, is out now from Undertaker Books! You can order your copy now using the link above!

I’m incredibly heartened to that the book has been received so well by several reviewers. Here are some reviews and podcasts I’ve appeared on lately so you can get a sense of the book:

• You can read a review of the book here in Sinister Scoop!
• Review by H.V. Patterson
• Susto Podcast Interview
• The Basement Girls Podcast: The Wolf Man
• The Scares That Shaped Us: The Thing

If you missed the virtual book launch I did last week with two of my favorite writers and supporters, Rios de la Luz and Ryan C. Bradley, you can watch the recorded reading here!

My poetry chapbook, Offerings to the Tumbled Temple, is also out now from Purple Ink Press! You can purchase a copy here. Chapbooks like these make great gifts for your poetry loving friends! You can also order a copy from your local indie bookstore or, if you love your local library, you can request that they stock a copy.

Indie bookstores currently stocking my books:

• BookWoman in Austin, TX
• Red Salmon Arts/Resistencia Bookstore in Austin, TX
• Lark and Owl Bookstore in Georgetown, TX
• Curio Mrvosa in Taylor, TX
• Nowhere Bookshop in San Antonio, TX
• Ghoulish Bookstore in San Antonio, TX
• Boerne Bookshop in Boerne, TX
• Interabang Books in Dallas, TX
• Palabras Bilingual Bookshop in Phoenix, AZ
• Secret Garden Books in Seattle, WA

Here are some ways that you can help me to promote my book (and other indie poets and writers):

• Buy a copy if you can.
• Share the book with your loved ones.
• If you love your local library or independent bookstore, you can request that they stock a copy.
• Nominate my book(s) for your next book club read!
• If you or anyone you know reviews books, you can request an copy from me to review!
• I am now booking for 2026 events, so if you have a bookstore, community organization or space you would like for me to provide a workshop, reading, author talk, etc, comment or reach out via my contact page on my website to plan further!

I’ve also been doing quite a bit of freelance writing in the last couple of months. Here are some recent pieces I wrote that I am proud of:

• ‘Recession Meals’ Destigmatize Home Cooking on a Budget published in Civil Eats
• Imaging a More Caring Apocalypse in Dimension 20: Gladlands published in Reactor Magazine.

What I’m Reading and Watching: Cryptids, Creatures and Weird Stories

When I first knew my collection, The Remedy is the Disease, was going to be published in 2024, I began compiling a reading list for my body horror workshop I was teaching at the time. The partial list was included in my newsletter, Bodies are Weird.

Now that my book is in the world, I am revisiting these works and many others who are writing about the body, bodily transformations, creatures, cryptids and more. My poetry collection, Offerings to a Tumbled Temple, is one response to my body, The Remedy is the Disease is another. Both are valid, full of fear, grief and tenderness, but rendered in different ways.

I grew up with a pretty body positive mother who emphasized that one could be joyful, fun, playful and curious at any size. Even still, I’ve been reflecting about growing up in the early 2000’s and the very harmful fatphobia and diet culture young girls especially endured. Although there has been a body positive and body revolutions since then, the resurgence of fatphobia and ableism is now being expressed through a new kind of diet culture: “wellness” cultural and the proliferation of GLP-1’s as weightloss silver bullets. I have spent many years working towards body neutrality. Reading Body Fascism by Da’Shaun L. Harrison expands on the anti-Black racism and ableism inherent in modern fatphobia.

Sometimes it is positive, sometimes negative and sometimes I just am. In Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia by Kate Manne, she emphasizes reaching a place of body relativity-“my body is for me.”

That is why I love reading and writing stories about bodily transformations, creatures and monsters. While they can help express the fears of being in a body that does not conform to societal standards, they can also provide the freedom to exist in liminal spaces, embodying fear, freedom, unruliness.

1. Queer as Folklore by Sacha Coward
2. The United States of Cryptids by J.W. Ocker
   • This one has been fun to read as we travel to each region of the US and explore new cryptids and creatures.
3. Howl: An Anthology of Werewolves by Women in Horror edited by Lindy Ryan and Stephanie M. Wytovitch

Anyone who knows me knows I am a mood reader, so my reading this year is focused on reading as many of my physical books that have been sitting on my shelves for a while as well as balancing new ebooks, books I find at local bookstores where we are visiting and books I am reviewing on Netgalley. This means that just because I feature a book on my newsletter doesn’t mean I immediately read it. And that’s ok. I still like to feature thematic books lists, recommendations and musings about books that I am reading, have read or that are on my radar.

To that affect, I wanted to note some books on my immediate TBR that honor Arab American Heritage Month (April) and Asian and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month (this month)

1. Martyr by Kaveh Akbar
2. Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
   • An author who has been on my must-read list for a long time!
3. As Long as the Lemon Tree Grows by Zoulfa Katouh
4. Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
   • I loved Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, so much so I included it in the reading list at the back of The Remedy is the Disease, and am very excited to have an ARC for this book from Netgalley!
5. I Love You Don’t Die by Jade Song
   • Another ARC from Netgalley by an author whose book, Chlorine, was one of my standout body horror, surreal mermaid books I’ve read.
6. The Girl With a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean
   • The Book Eaters is one of my favorite books, so I am very excited to read this next novel by Sunyi Dean.

Journaling Prompts

If you could be any cryptid or folklore creature, what would it be? Write from the point of view of that creature, or make one up!

Call to Action: Community Care Spotlight

Going forward, I plan to use this space to spotlight communities, creators and activists who are taking action to resist and do caring things for others. This month, I am highlighting two organizations I admire that you can support:

The Texas Book Festival is a festival and organization that does wonderful creative writing programs throughout the year and they always need support through monetary donations and volunteers! They recently started a partnership with Deep Vellum out of Dallas, a press that I also appreciate, called Burro Libro Press, and they are currently taking submissions for manuscripts!

Leticia