I just turned in After Hours on Milagro Street, my first book in a new series, to my editor. It’s about a Mexican-American middle sister and black sheep who returns to her small Kansas hometown to save the family bar and discovers an idealistic East Coast professor standing in her way. It’s a high-heat, small town contemporary with:
a huge Mexican-American family
two opposites who are irresistibly attracted to each other
a just-one-bed scenario
and lots of small-town legends and family lore.
A story close to my heart
I was born in a small town in southeast Kansas; the Mexican-American side of my family has lived in the same town since the early 1900s. But so often, when I told people that I was from Kansas, they’d answer, “Where are you originally from?”
As if someone who looks like me, with the last name Lopez, can’t be from Kansas.
People think small towns can only look one way. In today’s day and age, that has unfortunately translated to a belief that the United States only looks one way, or was somehow an ideal when it looked less diverse. My family’s story – part of a community since 1908, tortillas at every meal, huge 50-person family gatherings for lunch every Sunday after mass, a Mexican food stand at our town’s annual celebration, piñatas at every birthday – shows that America has been an integration of a lot of people, a lot of cultures, and a lot of ideas for a long time.
The Milagro Street series is finally an opportunity for me to tell that story.
Why I wasn't -- at first -- excited to tell this story
After the ugliness of the 2020 election season, I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell this story. I was embittered about the backwards way we seemed to be heading as a country. Also, my story was about a Mexican-American male bartender coming home.
I realized the core story that I have to tell is about women finding their strength to determine their destinies, so I decided to make the story about three sisters coming home. And that’s when the idea really came alive for me. This series is about three Mexican-American sisters who return to their small Midwestern hometown to revive their family bar and, to their surprise, save the town they didn’t realize they loved. It's got all my standard tropes: bonkers story lines, strong women, supportive men, a focus on life's pleasures, lots of sexy times. But it’s also an opportunity to talk about the magic of brown women. The world is made magical by the strong, diverse women who make an impact on it.
I’ve seen the cover for After Hours on Milagro Street and it’s GORGEOUS!!! I can’t wait to show it to you. The release date is July 12, 2022, but you can preorder it now. Preordering is a great way to show your favorite authors love because it builds hype for the book. Thank you!
