One of the best things to happen to me since the novel came out was being contacted by a writer I adore, Edgardo Vega Yunque. His symphonic novel-in-four-movements, No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again (FSG, 2003) is among my favorites. I’m glad I read it after finishing a draft of Mexican High, as its storyline also involves a girl’s journey to find a father she never knew, and she, too, has an unusual name, Vidamia, Spanish for “my life.” (And there’s a minor character named Milagros, which I hadn’t known was actually used as a name.) I was simultaneously intimidated and inspired.

So the other day, when I got an e-mail from Edgardo Vega Yunque inviting me to read with him at The Medicine Show Theater I was again inspired and, yes, intimidated. I won’t say too much right now, but from what I’ve gathered, this is going to be very different from your average book event! Come check it out if you can.

Vega Yunque’s new book, a satirical novel called Rebecca Horowitz: Puerto Rican Sex Freak, comes out this month. A Park Slope Jewish girl converts to – yup – Puerto Rican. I can’t wait to read it.