Muñeca

by Cynthia Gómez

It is 1968 Oakland, and Natalia Fuentes has been hearing rumors about the beautiful Violeta Miramontes. The young heiress to Spanish colonial wealth has been left paralyzed by a mysterious illness. But Nati knows a thing or two about witchcraft, and she is certain that this is the work of dark magic.

A vivid, surreal Gothic about a queer, Latine, working class witch who sets out to rescue a bespelled heiress and loses control of her powers and her heart in the process.

A regular of both the San Francisco Writers Workshop and the Zoom-based Wednesday Edition, where she workshopped this novel, Cynthia Gómez is also the author of The Nightmare Box and Other Stories. Her short fiction has published in Fantasy Magazine, Strange Horizons, Pseudopod, Nightmare Magazine, and numerous anthologies. She lives in Oakland.

Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Preorder on Bookshop.com or at your favorite local bookstore.

Tomorrow! Jo Beckett-King at Books Inc

Dear San Francisco Workshop Writers Community,

Our own Jo Beckett-King will appear at Books Inc. in the Marina tomorrow, Sunday, August 3rd, 2025, at 5 pm, to present her debut THE HOUSE OF FOUND OBJECTS.

This mystery about a twelve-year-old Bea from Passaic, New Jersey is aimed at middle-grade readers, so feel free to bring your kids (RSVP here) and/or buy a copy for yourself and all the young readers in your life. Jo has been a loyal regular at SFWW for the last few years and we’ve loved her novels and stories and benefited greatly from her feedback. If you can’t make it to the event tomorrow, please order a copy through Books Inc. or elsewhere and make sure that your local library carries a few copies. Let’s make sure Jo’s debut is a huge success!

More about the book: Bea is visiting her family in Paris for the summer when her grandmother’s most precious heirloom—a drawing by Henri Matisse—goes missing. After a cryptic clue arrives on Bea’s doorstep suggesting its whereabouts, Bea is determined to pursue the lead. Without the French skills to navigate her way around the landmarks of Paris, she teams up with her cousin, Céline, whose clear-eyed French directness makes her a perfect partner for curious, problem-solving Bea. The girls embark on a city-wide search, deciphering riddles, solving puzzles, and cracking codes as they try to locate the Matisse, find a thief, and identify their mysterious benefactor.

We look forward to celebrating Jo’s book with some of you tomorrow!

Judy, Kurt, Monya, Olga