A Book 30 Years in the Making

Happy Yule! The Winter Solstice is upon us, and on the longest night of the year, one should ideally have a fun new book to read. It’s why this is one of my favorite dates for a book release. It also seems like a nice way to wrap up a year that’s been complicated in many ways, but in which writing has been a welcome refuge. In fact, the main thing that’s brought me happiness this year was working on Magic Lessons for Margo, the new novel just released today!

But did you know that while a lot of the work was completed this year, I went in having a pretty solid first draft I started tinkering with 5 years ago, and the story itself is 30 years in the making?

Magic Lessons for Margo is a novel about overcoming childhood trauma, about a bond between two sisters, and an epic road trip from New Orleans to Galveston and Houston in search of ghosts, culinary adventures, and ultimately healing.

To shield herself from her volatile mother and the secrets lurking in the house she grew up in, Marga develops a love of science, order, precision, and comforting rituals. Later, as a pre-med student at UCLA, she reinvents herself as Margo, a stellar student who loves chemistry, albeit a socially awkward young adult reluctant to step out of her comfort zone and explore the world around her or even her own identity. But Christmas with her long-estranged sister changes everything. Ana is only sixteen, but rather sophisticated. She loves elegant meals, expensive clothes, the nightlife in Madrid, and seems determined to inspire Margo to have more fun and indulge in occasional frivolity. But the dazzling younger sister also has a dark side – no surprise, considering the difficult childhood she refuses to talk about. Among other secrets, Ana hides a men’s Rolex watch in her bedside drawer, something Margo suspects she’s kept as a souvenir from a rebellious teenage escapade nobody in the family wants to tell her about. Worried for her sister’s well-being as well as her own ability to fully be herself, Margo embarks on an unforgettable journey, challenging herself to face what she fears most: the magic of places such as New Orleans, Galveston, Houston, and ultimately Bucharest, the city she grew up in, but which she was always afraid to revisit. Along the way, Margo is determined to learn her sister’s secrets, but also her own. What she doesn’t bargain for is a newfound desire to understand the mother she was often fearful of and embarrassed by in childhood, a woman whose short, tumultuous life experience reveals itself as more complex, sadder, and more relatable than Margo would have thought.

Magic Lessons for Margo is a novel that can be read on its own, or in conjunction with The Adventures of Miss Vulpe, a book written from the perspective of Margo’s younger sister, Ana, in which she sets out to uncover the mystery of her mother’s death by whatever means necessary. Including pretending to be older than she is in order to seduce a grown man.

If you’ve read The Adventures of Miss Vulpe, you’ll be excited to encounter Ana again in Magic Lessons for Margo and see how she deals with the aftermath of her disastrous sleuthing mission. In Magic Lessons for Margo, she’s about to turn 17, and she’s still trouble, but she’s also a young person with a contagious zest for life that might just be what her sister needs.

Did you know that Ana’s story is one I first concocted when I myself was sixteen? Inspired by something very creepy my own mother said (because, like me, she had too much imagination, and it occasionally led her to dark places), I wrote this story by hand in 10 lined notebooks I circulated among girls in my class. Yes, the plot was a bit different. I was playing around, experimenting with what writing could do, and I overloaded it with gothic imagery, unnecessary drama, and all sorts of crap. I was sixteen. I obviously had no idea what I was doing.

At some point in my twenties, I came across those hand written notebooks and, embarrassed by the horrible writing, I ripped them to shreds. I don’t regret that. Especially since the gist of the story stuck with me. I decided to give it another go, with much better writing skills and the ability to cut out a lot of unnecessary stuff, about seven or so years ago. I published The Adventures of Miss Vulpe, and people had a strong reaction. Some were scandalized, some loved it, others loved it while being scandalized, and I wouldn’t be surprised, though I’d certainly be flattered, if some decided to burn it. I got a lot of comments and questions. A writer friend asked: What about the sister? It would be interesting to learn the story from her perspective. I immediately decided to write that book, but it was slow going at first. Now, here it finally is.

And I can’t stop thinking about these characters. So stay tuned for Book 3! Coming in 2024.