We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Erica Castro. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Erica below.

Erica , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

I have always been the type of person to help others. I honestly did not think I could create my own press, but in 2021 I wrote my first book, and a company wanted to charge me 5,000 dollars to publish and that did not include editing. I was very discouraged, and then I wrote another poetry book in 2022, and I did not get picked up by a press, so another disappointment. My friend was also struggling to get her book published, and so I signed up for the literary magazzine class at East La College, and I met Professor Mathew Mejia, the owner of Nervous Ghost Press, and he taught me the basics. I also had some coaching from Riot of Publishing house owner Brenda Vaca. If it were not for them supporting me, Daxson Publishing would not have happened. Then I convinced my friend Lili of the Valley, to let me publish her book, and she did. At the same time, I was working on the literary magazine for my high school, and I published that through the school. Then a miracle happened and I found an amazing poet in my class Adrian Fuerte-Campos, and I challenged him to write a book, and his book is now published. I am beyond proud of both Lili, and Adrian for getting their books published.

Erica , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a high school English teacher, and I have written three books, and the turning point for me was seeing my friend struggle through the publishing process, and I just decided I was going to publish her book if she allowed me to. I felt her work needed to be out there. I always think if one of my books would have gotten picked up by a press, this would have never happened. I realized the beauty in this rejection led me to something greater. The mission of my company is to help marginalized voices be published. This is really a dream for me, to help others have their voices heard. I started my press in March, and by the end of July I will have five books published, and one through my school. I think books change people’s lives, and I feel that writing helps others heal, so the more books that are out there, the more people have a chance to heal. I had a very difficult childhood, and there was this Mexican musician named Chelo whose music was about heartbreak, and I was in the fifth grade, and her music kept me alive because I knew there was someone out there in the world who knew the pain I was carrying. I feel the same way with poetry. People need to read and feel the power of poetry for them to know they are not alone in the world, and someone out there knows what it is like to be them.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I am completely new to publishing, but I have worked really hard to master the craft of putting out books. I am not the best at everything, but I have a group of friends that help me out when I get stuck. One of the biggest struggles I have had is figuring out the spine for a really thin book. In the platform ingramspark if you do not follow the specifications it will be marked error. I kept getting error after error, and I had the deadline of my school’s literary magazine looming, and the spine kept coming out wrong. I am solution oriented, so I knew there was no way I could figure out the problem before school let out, so I went with a local printer and fronted the money for the school’s magazine with the hope that I would sell out pay myself back, and put the surplus in the school’s club account. After four different tries, and help from two different people I figured out the spine, and I was so proud. I was like a little kid who had just made the winning shot of the championship game. I know life is going to be hard, and things are going to get in the way of your goals and dreams, but you cannot fail unless you stop trying. I was going to try, and try, and try until I learned and figured it out. No matter what we can’t quit, we have to keep going and trying.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I have always gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, and I think at their core people are good. My mistakes generally growing up was trusting people that would eventually betray me, mainly females. I had girls that were considered my friends who would go after my boyfriends, or would spread rumors, and I could not see that they were not my friends. I guess I wanted to be accepted so badly that I would forgive too easily, not realizing that hurt people hurt others, and they will continue to do so. Later as an adult, I had another betrayal from two adult women friends who were after my ex husband. After that happened, I had to look at myself and think what inside me was attracting these kind of friends. After deep shadow work, I determined that I felt betrayed by my mother for dying when I was five years old, and I was repeating those patterns as I grew up and in adulthood. It was not until I healed, and reached acceptance about the reality of my mother’s death, and explained it to my five year old self, that I could really have beautiful trusting and loyal female friends. I had to unlearn to not trust everybody. People who are damaged will try to damage others. I had to pay attention to people’s actions instead of their words, to determine their sincerity. Of course, the famous Maya Angelou quote, “When people show you who they are believe them.” This is important because if you have someone in your circle who is trying to sabotage your growth or success, you have to rethink that relationship. We need to be surrounded by cheerleaders, and supportive friends and family members to keep going. Sometimes we have to lose some friends who cannot go where you are destined to go unfortunately. Your goals and dreams are too important and you have to think who will suffer if you do not make your dream happen, and for me it means whose book will not get published if I do not continue, and that book is too important for the healing of the world, so I must keep going.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: ericalopez74
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ericalifecoaching
• Other: [email protected]

Image Credits

My photo was taken by Marissa Forbes

The other pictures are from my authors I started in March and by July I will have six books published. I am most proud of my 18 years old student that just published his book In Solace Adrian Fuerte-Campos.

Names of my authors from left to right

Rosalilia M. Mendoza, Cherice Cameron, Clara Roque-Wagner, Lisa Montagne. Esteban Miranda, Áurea María Altamirano