Your body is only a vessel. Your essence is inviolate. It is only when you give up your soul that you are lost. - Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa

My writing begins with dreaming, journaling and meditation.

Working the knots has taught me something: to wait is not to waste time; to wait is to take time to see, to listen, to unfold and untangle what has come before. (chapter 10 p120)

(How did Daughters of the Stone come to being?) It evolved over a long period of time for many reasons. One important reason was the absence of authentic stories about Afro-Puerto Ricans in American literature. I wanted to tell our stories, our way. When I started, I thought I was going to write memoir. Very soon it became evident that I would need the freedom of fiction to include the many stories that had not been told. It wasn't about me. It was about a whole group of people who had been erased from our national dialogue.