Book Review: Waking Up in the Land of Glitter by Kathy Cano-Murillo

Kathy Cano-Murillo a.k.a. The Crafty Chica is one of my favorite people on the planet. I'm not just saying that because she paid me. Because she didn't. (Hey Kathy, if you're reading, just email me for the bank deposit info.) No, no, no, all kidding aside, Kathy is a true force of nature. She's a whirling dervish of creativity. She's a wild roller coaster ride of great ideas meeting unstoppable determination. Absolutely no one I know can go from idea to reality with as much precision and exactitude. (My apologies to the reader who complained about my advanced vocabulary words in my last post, but I like words. I intend to keep savoring them so just think of my those words as a prompt to hit Google and learn a few new ones.)

I won't go into the details now, but the manner in which Kathy and I became friends is worthy of a scene in a novel or a TV sitcom. We're kind of like two Lucys without an Ethel. I count her among my most treasured compadres and she's one of the few people in my industry I can call mid-career crisis for some straight up, no holds barred conversation and advice. I simply adore her, and I'm not alone. Everyone adores her. She's absolutely adorable!

When Kathy first started talking about writing a Crafty Lit novel, I knew then she'd do it, she'd get it published, it would be fabulous and it would sell like mad. Kathy has the Midas touch. She is the ultimate example of manifesting your dreams into reality. She knows how to dream big and she's willing to work harder than anyone else each and every day to make her dreams come true. Plus she generously encourages others to explore their creativity and pursue their dreams. I ordered her book on Amazon last week, sat down and read most of it before bed and the finished it the next night...and I loved it!

Book Review
Waking Up in the Land of Glitter
by Kathy Cano-Murillo
Hachette Book Group
March 2010

Craft celebrity and design guru Kathy Cano-Murillo has written one of the most glittery feel good craftacular debut novels in memory. It's a fun filled romp through the wild world of crafting and the bustling arts and craft scene in Phoenix, Arizona. Main character Estrella "Star" Esteban is a lovable hot mess of a girl with plenty of energy but little direction. As the novel opens, Star loses her one true love, her job and the respect of her family through an ill-fated and ill advised drunken spray paint rampage and spends the remainder of the novel working to get back all of the things she's lost. In the process, she finds true friendship, the meaning of true love and most importantly she finds herself.

Ms. Murillo is a wonderful writer with a breezy style that is easy and enjoyable to read. She has a playful sense of humor and fun and a vivid imagination. This isn't a novel for the terminally serious, it's filled with copious amounts of whimsy and wonder and lots of crafty references. Ms. Murillo has created larger than life characters that manage to be entirely believable and even the most outrageous scenes in the book feel totally real. It's impossible not to fall in love with the introverted and craft challenged Ofie who longs desperately for acceptance but is saddled with an unnatural love of glitter and a horrific sense of design. You'll find yourself cheering out loud when she accidentally finds her true craft calling. You can't help but be drawn to Crafty Chloe, a wannabe Martha Stewart who can't craft her way out of a paper bag, especially once she gets her well deserved due and rises to the occasion with grace and dignity. You'll root for Star to find her true calling and win back rising artist Theo, her charming and handsome former flame. We all know people like the characters in this book and that makes it easy to relate to them.

What happens when you take 350 pounds of accidental glitter, 3 strong women in search of themselves, a huge project for a major craft event and a series of seemingly insurmountable crises and you mix them up in the mind of a craft industry insider like Murillo? You get crafty gold! Ms. Murillo is hard at work on a series of Crafty Lit novels and I'm personally looking forward to the next one with glittered breath.

Margot Potter
Author
The Impatient Crafter Series, Beyond the Bead, Bead Chic