I’m based in Florida, but my heart belongs to Queens, New York.

As with most children of immigrant parents, my parents urged me to pursue the American dream. Get a degree and pursue a prestigious career. Doctor, lawyer… you know. The life of artist was not the safe, secure future they hoped I would have.

It was in elementary school that I discovered my love for words. Author Sam Swope became my mentor and unleashed my imagination onto the world. However, the path for my life had already been set. And so I set my imagination aside, and convinced myself I wanted to be an attorney.

As I grew, I couldn’t continue to deny the creative fire in me. The pen and the stage called to me. And neither would allow me to ignore them. While working in a medical profession (being an attorney didn’t work out very well), I found the Aerial Arts, and made my stage debut. A joy I couldn’t comprehend covered my soul in glitter. It was clear. The American Dream… wasn’t my dream.

I decided to get a Bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. It was finally time to live the life I wanted. While working towards my degree, I interned for Coffee House Writers and was officially published for the first time. There is a video of me crying when I received the first anthology published at the end of 2020. Check out my TikTok or Instagram to find it: @pinina516 (shameless social media plug).

2020 was a big year. The world spiraled into a pandemic; I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree, and was published for the first time. Epic fantasy was my niche. It was what I loved. There was something about sweeping fields, dense forests, complex angsty characters that I couldn’t get enough of. Perhaps my blistering obsession with Kingdom Hearts and Harry Potter had something to do with it (spoiler alert: it did). But my first paid writing job was a far cry from what I knew. Read the blog post “I Was A Ghost” for that story.

So there I was. Writing and performing, living the life I wanted. Two full length novels out in the world. But bills need to be paid. Read the blog post “It’s Been a Minute” for a little more on that. Which brings us here.

If you’ve gotten this far, hi. I’m Lourdes. But you can call me Piniña. I’m done living everyone else’s dreams. I’m here to live mine.