By Liz Ohanesian
FROM: Orange County Register

As her 40th birthday approached, Annette Chavez Macias wondered what had happened to her childhood dream. She had always wanted to be a published author. Indeed, Macias had spent her career writing, first as a journalist and then as a public relations specialist, but she hadn’t published a book. Meanwhile, there was a scene in her head that she suspected could be for her first novel.

“One night, I got out of bed, got on my laptop and just wrote it. I had no craft experience,” says Macias by phone. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I just let it spill out of me.”

Eventually, that scene would morph into “Big Chicas Don’t Cry,” published via Montlake on September 1. The novel is a family drama set primarily in Inland Valley, a fictional L.A. suburb that’s inspired by the area that Macias, who was raised in Ontario and currently lives in Rancho Cucamonga. “Big Chicas Don’t Cry” follows the lives of four cousins, Mari, Erica, Selena and Gracie. They were tight as kids, but their relationship becomes strained following the divorce of one of the girl’s parents during their teen years. More than a decade later, their adult lives have followed different paths, but a combination of personal struggles, as well as a family tragedy, will prompt them to reconsider their relationships.

“From the beginning, it was always going to be a story about four Mexican American cousins because that’s what I know,” says Macias. “I’m Mexican American. I come from a very big, extended family where there are a lot of us and all of my cousins…we were each other’s best friends in the beginning.” Read Rest of Article Here