Susan McKinney de Ortega
There are two stories to my life: One is that I am a coach´s daughter. My father coached in the NBA and I grew up going to basketball games. In 1979, he coached the Los Angeles Lakers. During that season, he fell from my brother´s bicycle and suffered a head injury that left him in a coma. He recovered, and in 1981, when he was with the Indiana Pacers, was voted NBA Coach of the Year.Story Number Two is my Mexican romance. When I met Carlos, he was a teenager from a poor colonia of San Miguel de Allende. He hadn´t finished high school. He was 19. Yep, I said, You´re the one. I´ll stay in Mexico to be with you.
For years I struggled with how to mesh the two stories. For my memoir, Flirting in Spanish, I finally decided to only relate the story of how I went for Mr. Wrong. I do mention my sports family background a little, just enough for readers to see the contrast when I end up living in my novio’s tiny, cramped home, sharing a room with him, his brother and his sister. My basketball stories are tucked away for now, probably for another book.
Come to think of it, there really is a Third Story to my life - having bicultural, bilingual kids. Sean is a reader and doesn´t want stories about vampires or kids living under highway overpasses. She wants to read about teens like her. Hm, maybe her mom could write a book like that. She´s an author after all. Carla, 16 can see ghosts, cure headaches and tell the future. Life with an Adolescent Shaman. Wouldn´t that be fun to write about too? Want to know where her psychic gene comes from? The answer is found in Flirtingin Spanish.
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