I think my family and closest friends are learning about my need to withdraw, and I am learning how to restore and store my energy to both serve the community to the best of my ability and to serve my writer's heart.

I've always read broadly: literary fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, chick lit, historical, dystopian, nonfiction, memoir. I've even read Westerns. I prefer female protagonists.

I want to write an essay called "Fear of Mexico," because I always feel like Mexico's this lover that never writes to me.

I can get by and chatter and talk and tell funny stories, make people laugh, but I don't have as many words, I don't have the vocabulary. I think if I forced myself to read in Spanish - you know, I always say I'm going to, but I lose my patience reading in Spanish, because I really do read the way a third grader does, mouthing the words. That takes a long time!

I was interested in cross-pollinating the two. I thought there was something lovely in the little vignette forms. I wanted to explore that.

I can't do a linear novel. I'm just going to write what I need to write.

That's what you need for your writing - to learn how to be present, learn how to be calm. So take that nap, do that meditation.