Now that you have a little flavour of what this book is all about, here is Mary Castillo talking about how the book relates to her own family history... enjoy!

From Mary Castillo:

Lost in the Light is not just a homage to one of my all-time favorite movies, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, it is also a journey into my family history. Much of my childhood was spent at my Great Grandma Nana's house in the Westside barrio of National City. As a child, I remember watching the first runs of the San Diego trolley and flagging down the ice cream man during the summers. When I smell pink “naked ladies” flowers, or peppertree and ivy, I'm taken back to my Grandma Nana’s house where she had grown yerba buena next to the white shed and still used her scrubbing board to do the laundry.

Like Vicente, the ghost in Lost in the Light, my great grandmother, Eduvijen Holguin Melendez and her little brother, Ceferino Holguin arrived in National City in 1925 from Douglas, Arizona. Their grandmother, Maria Duran, moved out west because a nephew had said there was a lot of work to be had with the Santa Fe Railroad. Back then, the barrio was a muddy railroad town. Families lived in make-shift train cars and little clapboard shacks with chickens in their yards. My Grandma Nana used to tell me how she would wash my great grandfather’s work clothes in kerosene to get the tar out.

While researching at the Local History Room at the National City Public Library, I found my great grandmother and grandfather's address in the 1926 city directory, my great great great grandmother's listing as well as my mother's grandmother. I also listened to my Great Uncle John Mendez's oral history and found out that my great grandfather on my mom's side had been shot in a gambling hall! By looking at those addresses and the Mexican last names, it was plain to see that the Westside of National Avenue in the 1920's up till the 1970's was the Mexican side of town. Anglos, the term my Grandma Nana used, lived on the east side that had paved streets, lawns and running water. The Westside got a sewer system and paved streets in the 1940's.

The research that went into Lost in the Light has given me a greater perspective of exactly how far my family, like many Mexican Americans, has come from those early days. In 1996, when my Grandma Margie saw me in my USC cap and gown, she said, "Look at this. Everyone told me that my sons would grow up to be bums. One is a fire captain and the other an engineer. Now my granddaughter is a USC graduate."

One of my deepest hopes with this book is that it will honor the humble, but hard-working people I come from.

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Mary Castillo is an Amazon bestselling author and audiobook narrator. She writes chilling paranormal mysteries and sexy, heartwarming romantic comedies, all with compelling characters that keep you turning the pages long past your bedtime! Her debut, Hot Tamara was selected by Cosmopolitan magazine as a Red Hot Read and Latina magazine called Mary “an author to look out for” and selected In Between Men and Names I Call My Sister for the Top 10 Summers Reads in July 2009. Lost in the Light was a finalist in the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Paranormal Mystery.

Mary grew up in a haunted house in National City, CA. She cries every time she sees the movies, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Casablanca, and may have developed a mild addiction to listening to audiobooks while she knits.