If fiction gave me the freedom to create on a grand scale, meditation gave me a compass to navigate my story. - Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa

These are the stories. My stories, their stories—just as they were told to my mother and her mother and hers. They were given to me for safekeeping, and now I give them to you. (first lines, Prologue)

She knows for certain that the poisonous barb of humiliation has done much more damage than the lash ever did. (p277)

I don't map out my novels. I go where my characters take me. In Daughters of the Stone, I wanted to explore how the past acts as a foundation for supporting the present and building towards the future. I also wanted to explore art, and especially storytelling, as healing and guiding mechanisms in our society.