CONTEST
 Congratulations to Estella Kissell for winning the trade size book cover
with a wrap around zipper. Hope you're enjoying it!!
Check my website
www.lara-rios.com for future contests!
BECOMING AMERICANA
BECOMING AMERICANA is
due to be released on November 6th! If you're planning to buy it, I
encourage you to pre-order. Only because publishers really look at the
number of pre-orders that an author gets. Crazy but true--they consider
books that have pre-orders a success and those that don't failures. So, as
a thank you to those who pre-order and as an incentive, I'm giving away 24
patriotic dog tags that have our American flag on one side and phrases like
"proud o be an American" or "let freedom ring" on the other side. If you
are one of the first 24 people to email me your paid, confirmed
Amazon or
Barnes
& Noble confirmed pre-order, you'll receive one of these cool patriotic dog
tags. Please delete all personal financial references like credit card
info from the email you send me. All I need to see if that you've
pre-ordered and paid for the book, and your name and shipping address.
 If you happen NOT to be one of the first 24, don't feel bad.
I'll put all pre-orders into a drawing for other prizes that will be given away
prior to the release of the book.
I'm also super excited(!!!!!) and proud to announce that our new
website (http://TheVibeKids.com)
which bridges the six year fictional gap between
BECOMING LATINA and BECOMING AMERICANA
has now launched! In BECOMING AMERICANA,
the main character is Lupe Perez, the rebellious 13-year-old from
BECOMING LATINA. She is now nineteen and
ready to fall in love, change her life, and challenge anyone who gets in her
way. Check out the new website weekly to read
Lupe's Diary--this
is all new material not in either of the books, and the only place where you can
read what happens to the characters in-between the two books!
This site will also have valuable articles on how to succeed in
life. Not only will I provide you with my personal tips, but also direct
you to people, websites, and books that are more knowledgeable than I am.
I want this site to be a helpful resource for you, so let me know what you'd
like to see/learn and I'll do my best to include your interests.
 BECOMING
LATINA IN 10 EASY STEPS
Thanks to all the students who have been emailing me after
reading BECOMING LATINA in their college
classes. I was happy to hear that some of the issues brought up in the
book prompted interesting discussions and questions. Students discussed
things like the tragedy of someone being willing to marry a person simply to
have a better life in America (one of the guys Marcela dates wants to marry
her). They also covered stylistic principles and structure, such as the
book opening with a wedding and ending with a wedding. I was impressed
with their dissection of the book and their thoughtful questions and comments.
Their emails prompted me to do something I've been meaning to do
for a long time--develop discussion questions. These discussions are for
BECOMING AMERICANA, and can be used in
classrooms or by reader groups. I hope future readers find these helpful.
Discussion questions are located on my website under the
BECOMING AMERICANA link.
BLOG
I've taken a break from blogging for the summer. Too much going on in
everyone's lives during the warm months, and I figured you probably had better
things to do than read my blog. Like go on vacation, hang out by the pool
with the kids, visit with friendshttp://www.lara-rios.com.okay, okay, this is a pitiful attempt to
justify my blogging failure, I admit. I've had a crazy summer, busy with
various events for my children, and I've also been working on getting the new
website up. But my blog will be back up and running in September.
Visit
http://www.lararios.blogspot.com.
NEWS
GREAT news! Warner Books has bought my next book,
with the working title, THE FAT CONTEST. Here is a little blurb
about it:
Poor Victoria Torres--not only does she win the Argentine
club's "Fat Contest" courtesy of her mother's insane purchase of a gazillion
raffle tickets, but she learns that as the winner, she gets a health and fitness
package to a local gym donated by Eric Ortelli, the guy who teased her all
through high school about her weight.
But maybe they're onto something because as she sheds those
pounds, she starts shedding some of the other negative images she has of herself
as well. She may not be the cute, chubby girl with the great personality
that everyone pegged her as in high school. There's a sexy siren waiting
to emerge and she's not going to take anyone's teasing anymore.
It will be part of the launch of a new Latino line of books
called Solana. The Warner team is doing a fabulous job preparing for it,
so I'm very excited. I met with the senior executive editor of Warner
along with the publicist and had a long discussion about their plans. Look
for these books starting next year, sometime in the fall! Mine will
probably end up being released in the Spring of 2008, depending on where it is
in the line-up.
UPCOMING EVENTS
I’d love to meet you at any of the upcoming events! More details
on my
website.
August 7 - Catalina Magazine's Essence of Latina tour - Los
Angeles
September 9 - Possible appearance at the Los Angeles Tamale
Festival
October - Latino Book & Family Festival - Los Angeles
Also, if you can get a hold of Inland Empire Magazine's
November issue (out in October), there will be an article, which hopefully
says some nice things about the "Becoming" books.
November 11 - Borders Bookstore autographing of
BECOMING AMERICANA - Pico Rivera, CA
November 12 - Borders Bookstore autographing of
BECOMING AMERICANA - Chino, CA
Until next month!
Much Love,
Lara
Rios
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