I began writing books years ago when I found that I needed another way to keep students engaged with the Spanish language, but with vocabulary, grammar and sentence structures that were at their level.  It started with La chica nueva, an entry level book in Spanish for students of all ages and has blossomed into a small library of books now in Spanish, French, English, Italian and German.  I am inspired by people that I meet and their stories, and in each book I aim to present social issues to discuss as well as embedded culture.  It is my hope that greater awareness of different cultures will only lead to realizations of similar we really all are.