The House of Six Doors (a novel about Curaçao)

For eleven years, ever since I came--by accident--to live in Curaçao, I've been looking for books about this island's rich history and people. And for eleven years I found nothing. There's plenty in Dutch or Papiamentu, neither of which I read, and even if I did, most of it is non-fiction, drab and clinical, that doesn't come close to doing this magical, surreal place justice.

And then I found Patricia Selbert's House of Six Doors. The book has flaws--it is, after all, a debut novel--but richness of setting isn't one of them. Neither is emotional charge, which comes across clear and sharp, without drama, without falling into maudlin o-woe-is-me. I teared up twice, the second time uncontrollably (yeah, near the end). But I laughed, too.

And I learned so much about this place I've called home for over a decade.

Who said the writer community doesn't TOTALLY rock?

The best gift EVER: an unsolicited review of my story in the January volume of Pure Slush's 2014 Project (read it for free on the Amazon preview here) by friend and fellow writer (and fellow IWW member) Silvia Villalobos. Read the review here.

How sweet is that?

She didn't even tell me she wrote it. I found it two days after the fact, and then only because I follow her blog. Which you totally should if you don't already. She has that incisiveness I so admire in writers, that way of cutting through the surface to get at the source of what makes us human, what makes us better... Or, sometimes, worse.

Silvia, thank you. You're a wonderful, wonderful friend.