I was born with Spanish, Scotch-Irish, German, Ecuadorian, and West African genes. The sounds and rhythms of these cultures influenced me and my writing. I make music while I write using rhythm, silence, and beats.
As a child, my Ecuadorian Indian nursemaid told me stories of St. Martin de Porres, the first black Catholic saint along with Snow White, Blanca Nieves. The local library was my sanctuary and I read about five books a week. By the time I was eight, I was published in a children’s magazine. I loved to illustrate my books.
Growing up, my best friend was Jewish, Lorna Pomeroy-Cook, and together we weathered an inhospitable environment in the San Fernando Valley. We easily shifted from one boisterous home to the other and survived by being artists, living apart from society.
As a young adult, I worked at NBC and The Tonight Show as a writer’s assistant where I learned comic writing. The writers were hilarious pranksters who taught me how to write jokes, but under my desk was a copy of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. My passion for social justice spurred me to college where I studied photojournalism. Upon graduation, I sold my first photo assignment to Time Magazine, an essay on Jackie Onassis visiting families in the Watts ghetto. Jackie and Rosey Grier had hired me for this top-secret job.
Other assignments and jobs followed including work with the Los Angeles Times, Burda Publications, then as a writer for Don Bluth Productions (Disney). I moved to Northern California where I clerked at the Biblioteca Latinoamercana and wrote an Op-Ed that helped rally the community to build a new library and youth center. I became an arts and entertainment writer for The Mercury News. I interviewed some of the world’s greatest artists and developed a book on art and consciousness.
After a spinal injury, the project came to a halt, but I restored myself in a wholistic program and gained a new appreciation of life.
On Upwork’s Top Talent Cloud, I developed a worldwide scriptwriting business including screenplays, TV pilots, documentaries, short films, treatments, web videos and investigative scientific research. My first play Badass Women—The World’s First Ladies Strike Back, has had five readings in San Francisco and New York. I also wrote the screenplay.
The best decision I ever made, besides moving to Northern California, was to study Zen. I have studied Zen for twenty years and this August I will be ordained as a Sōto Zen priest in the Suzuki Roshi lineage. My new teacher, Kyōshō Valorie Beer, has encouraged my free-spirited practice and creativity. Zen has made my voice stronger and life calmer. Words still have a magical effect on me. May I heal others through musical words, insights, and laughter.
Kannon Do Zen Center in Mountain View, California
A SNAPSHOT
Banjo and Me
Aside from writing and listening to music, I love dogs; some of whom are my best friends.
My home is my sanctuary where neighborhood children and their dogs visit. I lead a simple and modest bilingual life.
I wake up, meditate forty minutes, stretch exercise, have breakfast, write a few hours then rock out at the JCC, the Jewish Community Center, in Zumba!, salsa, and spin classes. I also swim laps and workout on resistance machines in the training room. Not all in one day!
The rest of the day, I eat healthy, take nature walks to cleanse my mind, then back to writing. I love to write; I don’t feel well unless I do. The magic of creating sentences still thrills me. I have another lifetime of ideas and can come up with a story on command. Never had a block!
Once a month, I attend a Cosmology/Astro Physics group on Zoom that sparks my neurons. We discuss the latest quantum theories, neutrinos, and how time stops in a black hole. This is my kind of a book club! We study Carlo Rovelli, Stephen Hawking, and keep up with the Webb Telescope. Below is a Webb image showing us the billions of galaxies in the universe.
By eight p.m., I wind down from the day’s events by reading a book with a dog nestled at my side. But wait! Sprinkled throughout the day are phone conversations with wonderful friends because friends are the whole of a holy life.
On weekends, I teach ESL students, attend Kannon Do, hike with dog friends, and if there’s time, I take Zen photographs.
