After Finishing the Translation of My First Book

It was a journey to publish in my native language, Spanish. I went back and forth with the book for almost seven years and finally managed to publish it in 2024. It’s called La Última Margaret Keane and it’s available on Amazon, Apple Books, and Barnes & Noble.

I am very proud of its existence.

However, once it was published, some sort of postpartum depression came over me, and what had once been the joy of writing became the shame of not selling as many copies as I had imagined, of not hearing feedback from people who bought it, of knowing that some people started it and didn’t finish it.

I stopped working on the marketing side of it and stored the few copies I had in the least-used drawer of my apartment so I wouldn’t accidentally run into them.

When the publisher sent me the English version for review, my mind was somewhere else—taking care of my mother and, ultimately, seeing her die.

Caretaking for a dying loved one, as an artist, becomes a creative process. It becomes the challenge of hiding your feelings while you are functioning and then finding space to let them out, reminding yourself how to let them out after long periods of pushing them inward.

We found out in July that my mom had two months to live, so I stayed with my parents during that time. My outlet became an upcoming book about that period called Two Months to Live. It will take a little longer to be published because once the functional part was done—once life had to continue “as usual”—it became too painful to dive into that internal pool of feelings.

It’s been five months, and I finally finished reviewing the translation of that first book. I sent it back to the editor a week ago.

I know my mom would be proud. She always knew I would be a writer.

And here I am, trying again—motivated once more.

The English version of The Last Margaret Keane will be published soon.