While the characters go through some real troubles in their lives, Cano-Murillo manages to keep up the beat by interspersing humor like Ofie strews glitter. Ofie is that best friend we all wish we had, who bubbles over with exuberance and cannot see her own faults, but is too sweet to have her bubble burst. Chloe starts out as the type of woman that chick lit readers love to hate but then goes on a real journey of self-discovery. Star's life is full of the ups and downs that make you laugh and cry – often at the same time. However, the larger-than-life characters outshine any negatives. There are some technical problems with Waking Up in the Land of Glitter - mainly instances of telling not showing, which most likely stems from Cano-Murillo's former work as a journalist and non-fiction craft book writer and will improve with experience. Life may not be looking good for these three ladies, but can they pull themselves together to finish the centerpieces on time? The only member of the committee who pulls them together is Benecio, a thirteen-year-old handbag designer at odds with his family. When the committee meets for the first time, it is a disaster as Ofie cannot make a decent craft to save her life, Chloe will not offer any ideas because she hates crafts, and Star looks down on crafts because she does not see them as real art. Star has signed up La Panchanga to make the centerpieces and has enlisted her craft-happy friend, Ofie Fuentes, to help out and form a committee.
In order to get her name out there even more, she joins a committee to make the centerpieces for the big CraftOlympics banquet. With the CraftOlympics finally coming to Phoenix, Chloe sees this as her big break to make it as a national crafting celebrity. Luckily, she has a crafty assistant who supplies her with all of her ideas. In order to get ahead as a journalist, she is sleeping with her boss and stuck doing a crafting segment when she hates crafts.
However, being La Pachanga's PR director, she puts a positive spin on it by finally getting Crafty Chloe Chavez, a local celebrity reporter, to cover her family's restaurant and art space.Ĭhloe has some problems of her own. This same brightness runs rampant throughout Waking Up in the Land of Glitter.Ĭarefree Star Esteban has just committed the biggest mistake of her life after a drunken binge fueled by her cousin, Maria Juana: she defaced her somewhat boyfriend's mural at her parents' restaurant, La Pachanga, by covering it in smiley faces. I was drawn to brightly colored flower pots, for which she had provided instructions. March is National Craft Month, so what could be a more perfect time for Kathy Cano-Murillo, aka The Crafty Chica, to release her debut novel, Waking Up in the Land of Glitter? I first encountered the Crafty Chica's work in the first volume of the no-longer-in-print Craft magazine.
Waking Up in the Land of Glitter: A Crafty Chica Novel by Kathy Cano-Murillo
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