Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} Back in the 1970s I was involved in an experience that profoundly affected me: I joined a “Marxist-Leninist-Maoist” organization. Dancing with Mao and Miguel is a fictionalization of that time as seen through the eyes of protagonist Jenny Apple. Jenny wrestles with the beliefs and dogmatism of the organization and with fears of intimacy and low self-esteem, all the while engaged in a difficult relationship with a Dominican immigrant. In the novel the reader is swept along on a roller-coaster ride through those heady times. (You can read the first chapter on kittykroger.com.) And now about me.... Never content to let grass (not that kind) grow under my feet, I was raised in northwestern Montana, got involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement in Berlin, Germany, then joined that Maoist group in New Jersey.  After organizing in several factories, my path led me into E.S.L. teaching in Los Angeles, where the grass did root. My commitments today are prison justice, nonviolent communication, universal healthcare, writing, global warming, and the worker-cooperative movement as practiced in Mondragon, Spain. Watch for more about these in my blog at kittykroger.wordpress.com. I have another blog on the craft of writing, based on lessons I learned while writing my first novel. It's on my website, kittykroger.com.