What starts out as a pilgrimage to a women’s conference turns into an unexpected journey toward self-awareness for four dynamic, sexy women. Jackie confronts her vulnerability as she falls for a handsome lawyer, while Hazel makes the toughest confession of her life. Lourdes stands up to her conservative mother, and Irena faces her demons. As they make their way from town to town, laughing, fighting, crying, and bonding, they learn more about one another, and themselves, than they ever bargained for–and turn plenty of heads along the way. . . .
Self-proclaimed Ivy League homegirl Sofia Quintero is a writer, activist, educator, writer, speaker and comedienne. She began her career as a policy analyst and advocate and worked for various nonprofit organizations and government agencies. An unapologetic generalist, she has worked on issues from police brutality to multicultural education. After years of working on a range of policy issues, she decided to heed the muse and pursue a career in entertainment.
While working on her debut novel, Sofia co-founded Chica Luna Productions to identify, develop and support other women of color seeking to make socially conscious entertainment. Among other projects, Chica Luna launched The F-Word for young women of color ages 16-25 who wish to increase their media literacy and acquire film and radio production skills. She wrote two short films that Chica Luna produced and have won acclaim on the festival circuit CORPORATE DAWGZ(a comedic ode to White folks who "get" it) and BLIND DATE a feminist romantic comedy with a dirty mouth.)
Under the pen name Black Artemis, Sofia wrote her debut novel EXPLICIT CONTENT -- the first work of fiction about female MCs in the hip hop industry -- which was published by the New American Library/Penguin in August 2004. Her second Black Artemis novel PICTURE ME ROLLIN' hit bookstores in June 2005 and is about a young Latina whose obsession with Tupac Shakur leads her on quest to find self-love. Sofia's novels as Black Artemis have been hailed by critics of all stripes -- reviewers, educators and readers -- for being as intelligent and substantive as they are entertaining and accessible. Her third Black Artemis novel BURN will be published in August 2006.
Sofia also writes "chick lit" under her real name. Her debut novella THE MORE THINGS CHANGE appears in FRIDAY NIGHT CHICAS the first chick-lit anthology by and about Latinas. She recently turned her screenplay INTERSTATES into a novel titled DIVAS DON'T YIELD as part of a two-book deal with One World/Random House. DIVAS DON'T YIELD follows four girlfriends as they drive from New York City to San Francisco, each packing a little more "baggage" than she thought. Sofia's second novel for Random House will be published in 2007. She also will publish two additional novellas in future anthologies to be published by Avon/Harper Collins and Atria/Simon & Schuster.
Her first screenplay INTERSTATES upon which the novel DIVAS DON'T YIELD is based was twice a finalist for the Sundance Institute'S screenwriting lab and won the 2001 San Francisco Black Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Her second screenplay the baseball comedy M.L.B. was a finalist for the ABC New Talent Development Award in 2003. She is at work on her third screenplay THE MACKTRESS which is a cross between BOOMERANG and BROWN SUGAR with a feminine twist.
With her good friend and business partner Elisha Miranda (aka E-Fierce, author of the YA hip hop novel THE SISTA HOOD), Sofia recently founded Sister/Outsider Entertainment, a multimedia production company. S/O is developing several projects for television, film and stage.
As an activist, Sofia serves on several boards of directors of several social justice organizations. She is also a member of the SpeakOut collective, the country's only national not-for-profit organization that promotes progressive speakers and artists on campuses and in communities. Her essays have been published in such diverse venues as Ms., Blu, Fuego, 360hiphop.com, politicallyblack.com and migente.com. Sofia and her work have also appeared in major publications like the New York Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Times, Latina, and Upscale.
