My first book, LUMINOUS, featured a Latina superheroine based on Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. (Full story starts here.) It wasn't intentional--I didn't start out thinking "I'm going to write a Latina book with a strong female protagonist and a diverse cast" because, honestly, when does THAT ever work? I can only blame the synthesis on the bizarre inner workings of my rant-tastic brain, where all good things spark and bump in the night. I blame the genesis when two disparate things collided:

and:

Add sprinklings of dark fantasy, psychotic murder and guardian angels and you've got something-not-quite-but-close to what I was up to with the Flow. Now the funny thing is that since its debut, I've written the TWIXT novels (INDELIBLE, INVISIBLE & two more coming up!) and many reviewers compared my style to other dark artists with twisted imaginations and faerie tale plots. On of my favorites was this:

“Strange, romantic, and at times fascinatingly grotesque,
this book reads like a Guillermo del Toro version of Twilight.” – BookYurt

So imagine my giddiness when I saw that a new stop-motion animation movie was coming out, Dia de los Muertos Guillermo del Toro style! Book of Life has all the color, music, imagination, adventure and heart that I'd ever wanted and here it was on screen. It's been years since I swam in the world of Consuela Louisa Aguilar Chavez, Giovanni "V" Russo, Sissy, Wish, Nikki, Abacus, Tender and Joseph Crow. It's a little like nostalgia and a lot like anticipation. I can't wait to see this movie!

"From producer Guillermo del Toro and director Jorge Gutierrez comes an animated comedy with a unique visual style. THE BOOK OF LIFE is the journey of Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart. Before choosing which path to follow, he embarks on an incredible adventure that spans three fantastical worlds where he must face his greatest fears. Rich with a fresh take on pop music favorites, THE BOOK OF LIFE encourages us to celebrate the past while looking forward to the future." - IMDb

Hmm. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something...

It's been a while since I squeed about steampunk art, but when I saw these iron sculptures from John Lopez Studio, I knew that I just had to share! It felt sort of like exploring an artistic nod to Firefly in another alt-universe.

(And you know how much I *adore* Firefly!)

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These were a few of my favorites & why:

I'm sure this draft horse could pull just about anything!
(Honestly, I pictured a locomotive at the end of this hitch-up.)

Can you imagine wrangling a heard of *these* across the plains?
Makes me wonder what the First People warriors would look like...

And this makes me smile in all kinds of ways.
Dinotopia meets Wild Wild West?

Personally, I don't have the acreage to show these beauties off, but I can dream! I imagine having one of these in the yard and what the neighbors might think... of course, more likely we'd have all the neighborhood kids over trying to ride one and parents snapping pictures, but then it'd be the perfect excuse for another Steampunk Tea Party! Hm...

You should go check out the website at www.johnlopezstudio.com and get inspired! Me, I'm re-watching the entire Firefly series and mooning about what might have been...