Vanishing Daughters is out now!
Vanishing Daughters is available now from Thomas and Mercer. You can purchase it from wherever you prefer to buy your books.
Since it is published by Thomas and Mercer I am posting the Amazon Publishing links below. It’s been number 1 on Kindle U.S. Horror New Release since it came out on March 11th. Thank you so very much.
It’s been a busy few weeks. I feel like a broken record when I say that but it’s true. I’m trying to keep up as best as I can. I know I’m behind on a lot. I hope to get caught up within the next week or two.
For now, here is some news about Vanishing Daughters. I know I’m likely missing some.
I’d like to also say thank you to everyone who has preordered Vanishing Daughters, who has ordered it, brought it up to their local librarians to order, and book clubs to discuss. Thank you to everyone, journalists, reporters, podcasters, reviewers and more who have reached out to me, spoken with me about the book, my writing process and my life.
I’d like to allow the articles below speak for themselves about my writing process, the book and my life. I will note there is one personal detail below that I shared earlier on Bluesky, but like all personal posts on text based social media, I usually take them down after a while. I decided to bring it over here and write a little bit more about it.
Thank you again everyone.
Chicago Magazine: Cynthia Pelayo on Grief, Mystery, and Chicago Ghost Stories
You can read that here.
Chicago Review of Books: “Why do we fear the ghosts of women who were murdered? Why don’t we fear the thing that made them what they are?”: An Interview with Cynthia Pelayo
You can read that here.
Paste Magazine: Cynthia Pelayo Weaves A Chilling Dreamscape in Vanishing Daughters
You can read that here.
Nerd Daily: Q&A: Cynthia Pelayo, Author of ‘Vanishing Daughters’
You can read that here.
Vanishing Daughters book launch at City Lit Books in Logan Square with Christina Henry
Thank you Christina Henry for talking to me about my book, fairy tales and Chicago. In bottom right photo: Christina Henry, Shawnna Deresch, and Becky Spratford
Pictures by Christopher Lamitie
New Website: www.cynthiapelayo.com
I have a gorgeous new website thanks to the very talented author Rachel Kitch.
You can find me at www.cynthiapelayo.com
Tucson Festival of Books
This weekend I’m at the Tucson Festival of Books. Here are the panels where you can find me.
Personal news
I do try to keep personal news out of social media and media altogether now, but I wanted to share this bit of news given Vanishing Daughters centers so much on grieving my dad. My dad is very funny. He died the day before The Shoemaker’s Magician was released. I like to think, in a way, it was him sending me a message related to my books, to keep writing. And so, of course his sister had to make her mark during my release week for Vanishing Daughters to compete with her brother.
His sister, and only sibling, died this morning. It was expected and we were waiting on word from Puerto Rico. What’s particularly reflective about her death is that my father came from a tiny family, just his mother, his own father, and his sister. There were just four of them and now they are all gone. An entire family, now gone. Time. What it does.
They all lived in a tiny, rural mountain town in Puerto Rico. My father was the only one who left the island and made a life on the mainland.
I’m very proud of where I come from and the people that I come from. I am lucky to have known them and I am grateful to have loved them so much and that they loved me so much.
I know I write a lot about grief, and a recent reviewer said that my books aren’t just about grief. That’s true. They are about history, cycles of violence repeating and more. I think my books are also about how when you grieve someone that just means how lucky you were to love them.
I think more and more each day I’m realizing how little time we do have. For me, personally, it’s created a major shift in my life to just learn to enjoy each and every second. All I want is to be happy. All I want is to just live a life of joy.
I’m really who I am because of my dad’s side of the family, so it’s a powerful feeling to know when I visit Puerto Rico next and drive up that mountain, I won’t see them.
Maybe one day, in some reality, when I drive up that mountain again, I’ll see the lights on in that little house. There will be salsa music streaming through the windows and I’ll smell fresh coffee brewing and hear them all say, ‘Our Cina is here.’
Descansa en la gloria mi familia querida.
Cina
LVX