And now back to the party . . .

Multi-Grammy Award Winning Singer & Songwriter Gloria Estefan hosted an event for her friend and two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author Liz Balmaseda to celebrate her first novel “Sweet Mary” at the Eden Roc.

Courtesy of SocialMiami.com

Atlantico Rum Sweet Mary Mango Sour specialty cocktails were flowing among guests including Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Andy Garcia, model Cindy Taylor, Steven Bauer, Belkys Nerey, Lisette Chirido, Tim Hardaway and David Siguaw & Greg Cook of The Eden Roc. Liz Balmaseda, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, has a gift for breathing human complexity into issues that many see only in black and white. A writer for The Palm Beach Post and former columnist for The Miami Herald, she covers stories in a fresh and direct way that makes people think.

For the rest of the Miami Hot pics.

Andy Garcia & Sweet Mary author Liz Balmaseda at her book party hosted by friend Gloria Estefan at the Eden Roc. For more pic, click link above.

Photos by Peter Richardson

Listen to Liz on FOOD & WINE TALK

produced by www.SouthFloridaGourmet.com
Hosts Carole Kotkin and Simone Diament
a culinary, cultural and lifestyle one-hour program

Click for the full YUMMY interview

BOTTOM LINE: “Still, it’s a fun summer read. And it’s not often readers get to cheer a stylish Cuban-American soccer mom turned gun-toting detective.”

Reporter’s fiction debut from headlines

• Buzz Up
• Send
• Share
• Print

By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ, AP Hispanic Affairs Writer – Mon Jul 13, 3:47 pm ET

“Sweet Mary” (Atria Books Hardcover, 242 pages, $24.99), by Liz Balmaseda: Real estate agent and single mom Mary Guevara is preparing for work when U.S. marshals suddenly show up at her door.

The next thing the heroine of “Sweet Mary” knows, she’s in handcuffs. The marshals have a warrant for her arrest on cocaine related charges. Never mind the name of the woman in the warrant doesn’t match Mary’s, nor does the suspect’s birthday or even her photo. None of that matters as Mary is led away, leaving her young son screaming.

Pulitzer-prize winning columnist Liz Balmaseda serves up only a brief introduction before she knocks readers in the gut with her fast-paced fictional debut, which is based on a true 2003 story.

FOR THE REST OF THE REVIEW

Posted on Sun, Jul. 12, 2009

Review | ‘Sweet Mary’: Two Marys and a bad DEA arrest in Miami

BY ELLEN KANNER

Sweet Mary. Liz Balmaseda. Atria. 256 pages. $24.95.

Former Miami Herald reporter and two-time Pulitzer winner Liz Balmaseda goes from star journalist to debut novelist with her sleek ripped-from-the-headlines Sweet Mary. The story she chooses as inspiration isn’t related to her 1993 award-winning reportage on Miami’s Haitian and Cuban refugees or the Elian Gonzalez saga, for which she earned a shared Pulitzer in 2001. Sweet Mary is inspired by a story Herald columnist Joan Fleischman covered in 2003, about a Kendall woman wrongly mistaken for a cocaine queen with a similar name.

Now with The Palm Beach Post, Balmaseda takes the bare bones of the mistaken-identity case and with confident, easy strokes, shows how quickly the life we each work to build can be ”smashed on the floor.” But her heroine is not going to take that lying down. Dulce Maria (Sweet Mary) Guevara is 33, divorced, a devoted mom to 8-year-old Max and a Miami Realtor to be reckoned with.

”In just about every real estate deal there comes that critical moment when you’ve got to do the dance,” Maria says. ”It’s that do-or-die moment when the client is holding all the

FOR THE REST OF THE REVIEW

LIz Balmasada and a few of her friends . . . .

For the rest of the story as only Perez Hilton can tell . . . .

FACT AND FICTION

Gloria Estefan is hosting a private book launch party for Liz Balmaseda on July 8 at the Eden Roc. Garcia-Perez will be there.

Plot synopsis from Publishers Weekly: ”. . . Gun-toting DEA agents burst into the house of Dulce Maria “Mary” Guevara, a divorced Miami, Fla., Realtor, and arrest her, having mistaken Mary for cocaine queen bee Maria Guevara Portilla. The charges are eventually dropped, but the stigma remains. . . . Mary’s boss puts her on mandatory leave and her ex-husband persuades a judge to give him full custody of their young son.” A desperate Mary hunts down her drug-dealing nemesis in an effort to reclaim her life.

The Herald reported the real incident June 28, 2003, in this column: Virginia Fatima Garcia-Perez of Kendall, who sold paper towels and toilet tissue to independent grocers, was making lunch for her young son when three U.S. marshals knocked at her door. They had a warrant for a Virginia Tirado Garcia – conspiracy to distribute cocaine from a ’93 indictment out of Dallas.

Garcia-Perez tried in vain to convince them they had the wrong woman. They hauled her off in shackles and booked her into the Federal Detention Center, where she was strip searched. She remained in lockup for two days before her release on a $100,000 signature bond pledging assets. Fifteen days later, the feds ‘fessed up to their error, and a judge quashed the arrest.

Garcia-Perez, 41, who now sells bottled water to grocery chains, said Friday she remains haunted by the episode. ”I still have backlash.” She carries around court documents to prove she was cleared.

On July 14, the book release date, Balmaseda appears at Books & Books’ in Coral Gables for an 8 p.m. reading and signing.

By the way, Balmaseda’s pal Gloria Estefan is hosting a private book launch party July 8 at the Eden Roc. Garcia-Perez will be there.

“Slick, efficient and spare, this story smokes like a well-rolled cigar.”  Kirkus reviews

“This book is teeming with sexy South Florida characters, but them biggest turn-on in Sweet Mary is Mary herself, a soulful, ass-kicking single mom who goes all out for the only real man in her life–her son.”  Carlos Coto, co-executive producer of “24”

“Liz Balmaseda’s emotional, inventive and provocative writing, engrosses you in the most satisfying of ways.” Andy Garcia, Academy Award nominated actor, director, producer

• AMAZON

• At a Barnes & Nobles near you.

• Books and Books, Coral Gables, FL