Dear Reader,

Welcome to my author website! I’m so happy to be here, doing what I like the most, creating stories, and sharing them with you. I love stories, especially love stories with a happily ever after. Life is about relationships, about feeling, loving, experiencing, learning and growing. There is a story behind every person I meet, and those stories have inspired me for years, fueling my imagination and shaping me as a writer.

I’ve been a nomad all my life—it runs in the family—first out of obligation, then by choice. I spent my childhood in Africa, where my father was teaching math in a Spanish school. When I was in college, I used to spend my summers in London, a city I absolutely adore. I had a sense of dejà vu that made me fall in love with London and its people almost instantly. After I got my M.A. in English, I studied French for five years, and I spent a wonderful summer in Rouen (France), attending school, traveling all over the wonderful country, and living in immersion before I took and passed the big French exam  in Málaga (similar in complexity and difficulty to the AP College Board Exam here).

A new chapter of my life started when I became one of the lucky teachers chosen to be part of an exchange visitor program between Spain and the US, after the long selection process, in the year 2000. It took me a while to find the right place to settle down. I spent six years in Galveston Island, TX, and eleven in San Jose, CA, until I found my perfect spot in San Diego, where I live now. San Diego is 5,967 miles from Málaga, Spain, the coastal city where my parents live, and where I grew up.

Going back in time, I was ten years old when Ideveloped a passion for reading, closely followed by an even greater passion for writing. When you’re that age, you think everything is possible and you can become whatever you want. My passion never died, only the belief that I would be an author did, until I realized that dreams do come true when we take action and wrap a deadline around them. I owe my determination to take action to my dear life masters who I’ve met in person and who have shaped me into what I am today: an unstoppable positive person. I’ll be eternally grateful to Tony Robins, Deepak Chopra, Mike Dooley, and last but not least, since I hold him dearly in my heart, the late Dr. Wayne Dyer, who already left us.

My crazy, silly husband is romantic comedy author Rich Amooi. Another author? Yes! What a coincidence! When we met, apparently we had nothing in common. He was a DJ and radio personality and I was a teacher. I loved to read and he had no books in his home. I loved dogs and he loved cats… However, we both liked romantic comedies, walking, hiking, animals in general, and the same kind of yummy food. Besides, he was learning Spanish (my field of expertise), so we started to discover more and more things we had in common such as our dream to write. Now, we’re almost twins.

When Rich and I met, back in 2008, I was taking a creative writing class at Stanford University and started a literary memoir that I plan on publishing in the future. That summer my creative juices were in full swing, and I took three more classes that gave me the confidence and basic knowledge to start the career I always dreamt of, writing. I encouraged Rich to take some classes himself. And certainly he did, starting his new career as one of the few male romantic comedy authors. He currently has 11 novels published, and is the king of rom-coms (romantic comedies).

Who says men don’t listen?

We lived with our adorable golden-lab, Chiqui Martin, who liked Manchego cheese, was bilingual and loved the beach almost as much as his mummy (me). We lost him in April 2016, but he’ll be alive in our hearts forever. Two years later, in April 2018 we adopted Tara, a beautiful golden-doodle who likes apples, tuna and bananas, and who fills our hearts with love and joy every day. She’s starting her journey next to us, loving and playful with people and animals. Even though Tara can be a handful, she’s as sweet as it gets, and will graduate from puppy school a week before turning six months old.

I keep writing and I keep teaching, but the best moments are always those spent with the people I love and our puppy.