Almost There: Chapter 25, Audiobook Prep, and Channeling Salvador

https://youtu.be/VCOikzBco38

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but I am officially on the second-to-last pass of The Ordinary Bruja! Chapter 25 out of 40 is polished and less than a month stands between me and release day. Thank goodness for local printers, because this timeline would be impossible without them.

This pass isn’t about rewriting the story—I already know from early feedback that the story is strong. What I’m working on now is how the story flows: tightening the pacing, smoothing out clunky dialogue, cutting down on repetition. It’s the final sanding before the book goes out into the world, making sure readers have the most seamless and immersive experience possible.

But beyond these edits, there’s something else I’m really looking forward to—voicing the audiobook.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I have a flair for dramatics. (All those drama classes really do pay off eventually.) And when it comes to Salvador—the ghost who thrives on manipulation and superiority—I know exactly how I’m going to bring him to life.

I’ll be channeling a very specific Tía. The one who came back from Nueva Yol acting as though she didn’t even know what a coconut was. To this day, we still laugh about that moment in my family, because it was such a perfect performance of “I’m above all this.”

That energy? That pompous, inflated self-importance that thinks proximity to whiteness makes someone superior? That’s Salvador to a tee. Only, in his case, it’s not funny—it’s dangerous. His arrogance feeds the psychological horror of The Ordinary Bruja because it’s rooted in something real: the harm that comes from internalized racism and superiority complexes within our own communities.

So yes, I’ll be voicing him with that air of smug condescension, minus the laughter. Salvador doesn’t laugh with you—he laughs at you. And that’s what makes him terrifying.

As I get closer to publication, it feels surreal. Less than a month away. Just a few more chapters to comb through. Just a few more rehearsals before I step behind the mic to embody these characters fully.

If you haven’t already, preorder The Ordinary Bruja and be among the first to step into Marisol’s haunted world on November 1, 2025.

Until then, I’ll be here with my red pen, my microphone, and my memories—polishing, practicing, and preparing to introduce you to Salvador in all his pompous horror.

The Ordinary Bruja: Book One of Las Cerradoras Series – Johanny Ortega

$4.99 – $23.99Price range: $4.99 through $23.99

Marisol Espinal has spent her life trying to disappear from her family’s whispers of magic, from the shame of not belonging, from the truth she refuses to face. She’s always wanted to be someone else: confident, capable, extraordinary.

But when strange visions, flickering shadows, and warnings written in her mother’s hand begin to stalk her, Marisol is forced to confront her deepest fear: what if she isn’t extraordinary at all? What if she’s painfully ordinary?

Yet Hallowthorn Hill doesn’t call to just anyone. And the more Marisol resists, the stronger its pull becomes. The past she’s buried claws its way back, and something in the mist is watching—waiting for her to remember.

If Marisol cannot face the truth about who she is and where she comes from, the same darkness that destroyed her ancestors will claim her, too.

Somewhere in the shadows, something knows her name.

And it’s time for Marisol to learn why.

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SKU: Category: Books, Books for Adults, Fantasy, Fiction Books, Horror, Literary Fiction, Magical Realism, Women’s Fiction Tags: ancestral magic, atmospheric fiction, books about brujas, dark fantasy, Dominican folklore, haunted inheritance, Isabel Cañas fans, Latine fantasy, magical realism, psychological horror, Silvia Moreno-Garcia fans, spooky reads, supernatural mystery, The Ordinary Bruja, witchy books

Why The Ordinary Bruja is the Perfect Pick for Your Spooky Book Club

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Born in the Cold: How Lockdown and Isolation Birthed The Ordinary Bruja

There are stories you write because they’ve been living inside you.
And then there are stories that sneak in when the world shuts down and says, Now what?

The Ordinary Bruja was the latter.
Born not from a place of inspiration—but isolation.
From the grief-laced silence of lockdown. From the heavy stillness that filled every room during those early months of COVID. From the deep need to escape, even if only into fiction.

Quarantine, Cold, and Creative Survival

At the time, I didn’t set out to write anything heavy.
I wanted to write something fun. Something magical. Something that could offer readers (and me) a break from the relentless trauma we were witnessing daily. But the truth is, when you’re sitting inside four walls with nowhere to go and too much time to think, the story that bubbles up is rarely light.

Instead, what came through was Marisol Espinal—a young woman suffocating under the weight of inherited silence. A bruja who didn’t know she was one, stuck in her own kind of quarantine from her identity, her power, and her past.

It was supposed to be a cozy fantasy.
It became a reckoning.

Writing Through the Grief

Every day, I’d write between doomscrolling, homeschooling, and trying to pretend things were okay. But they weren’t. Not in the world, not in my house, and not inside of me. So I did what I always do when I can’t fix things: I wrote through it.

And that’s when the story started to sharpen.

The coldness Marisol feels at the start of the novel? That was my own.
The isolation in her haunted ancestral home? That was me, in mine.
The slow realization that something unseen but very real is feeding on your fear and insecurity? That was all of us, watching the death toll rise and wondering if we’d ever be the same.

But the turning point for her—and for me—was this:
The only way out is through.

Why The Ordinary Bruja Became the Book It Did

Lockdown didn’t just give me the time to write—it gave me the emotional depth to write something true. Not autobiographical, but spiritually honest. Every choice Marisol makes, every doubt she wrestles with, is rooted in that feeling of being trapped by something bigger than yourself. And the eventual decision to fight anyway.

It’s a book about ghosts, yes.
But it’s also about the ghosts we carry inside us.

A Book for the Ones Who Felt Everything

The Ordinary Bruja is for the people who felt the weight of those early pandemic months in their bones.
Who grieved people they didn’t know.
Who wrestled with their identity while the world asked them to stay still.
Who tried to create joy while everything was falling apart.

It started as an escape.
It ended up a reflection.
And now, it’s a reminder:
Even in isolation, even in grief, even in silence—you are still becoming.

Want to know how it all turns out? Preorder The Ordinary Bruja

The Ordinary Bruja: Book One of Las Cerradoras Series – J.E. Ortega

$4.99 – $23.99

When grief pulls Marisol Espinal back to Willowshade, she uncovers a legacy buried in shadows, silence, and ancestral magic. The Ordinary Bruja is a haunting coming-of-age story that blends psychological horror with Dominican folklore and magical realism. For fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Isabel Cañas.

If you love what you read, I’d be honored to hear your thoughts. Please leave a review on your preferred platform and let other readers find the magic in The Ordinary Bruja.

SKU:ORDINARYBRUJAPAPERBACK Category: Books, Books for Adults, Fantasy, Fiction Books, Horror, Literary Fiction, Magical Realism, Women’s Fiction Tags: ancestral magic, atmospheric fiction, books about brujas, dark fantasy, Dominican folklore, haunted inheritance, Isabel Cañas fans, Latine fantasy, magical realism, psychological horror, Silvia Moreno-Garcia fans, spooky reads, supernatural mystery, The Ordinary Bruja, witchy books

Becoming Marisol: A Character Study in Hesitation, Heritage, and Healing

https://youtu.be/9Tztn8sQ4Ek?si=jE7lMQ6-NY3kEljy

If you’ve read even a chapter of The Ordinary Bruja, you know Marisol Espinal is not your typical “chosen one.” She isn’t eager. She isn’t confident. She doesn’t wake up one day thrilled to be the next link in a magical bloodline.

She wakes up confused.
Disconnected.
Deeply hesitant.
And honestly? Same.

Marisol is the young woman who didn’t know who she was—not because she wasn’t paying attention, but because no one ever told her. No one gave her the language. No one pointed to her inheritance and said, this is yours. Instead, the people who should’ve guided her—through fear, trauma, or silence—let her fumble in the dark.

And like many of us do when faced with the unknown, she chose comfort.
She chose invisibility.
She chose ordinary.

But here’s the thing I’ve learned—and what I teach my kids, whether I birthed them or they came into my life through marriage:
There comes a point in young adulthood when you are faced with a choice.
You either accept what you were (or weren’t) taught…
Or you break away.
You unlearn.
You relearn.
You grow.

Marisol, reluctantly and resentfully, chose the latter. Not because she was ready—but because her family’s souls were quite literally being tormented on Hallowthorn Hill. Because the past wouldn’t stay buried. Because Salvador—the manipulative ancestor who cursed the family’s magic—was still lingering, still feeding off their silence.

So yes, she was pushed.
But she still had to walk.

And that’s the beauty of her journey. She’s not fearless—she’s frustrated. She’s not the girl with the glowing destiny—she’s the girl who looks in the mirror and wonders if she’s too late.

Writing Marisol was, in many ways, writing myself.
Because I too spent years clinging to comfort, masking self-doubt as practicality.
I too had to unpack what was inherited, what was indoctrinated, and what was mine to define.
And like Marisol, I came to realize that growth doesn’t come when you’re ready.
It comes when you’re needed.

Marisol’s story isn’t about magic saving her.
It’s about her saving herself—bit by bit, choice by choice.

So if you see yourself in her—if you too are hesitant, uncertain, angry at what you didn’t know—just know that this journey isn’t about perfection. It’s about intention. It’s about saying, “I don’t know who I am yet, but I’m ready to find out.”

That’s where the real magic begins.

Ready to meet Marisol Espinal? Preorder The Ordinary Bruja now:

The Ordinary Bruja: Book One of Las Cerradoras Series – J.E. Ortega

$4.99 – $23.99

When grief pulls Marisol Espinal back to Willowshade, she uncovers a legacy buried in shadows, silence, and ancestral magic. The Ordinary Bruja is a haunting coming-of-age story that blends psychological horror with Dominican folklore and magical realism. For fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Isabel Cañas.

If you love what you read, I’d be honored to hear your thoughts. Please leave a review on your preferred platform and let other readers find the magic in The Ordinary Bruja.

SKU:ORDINARYBRUJAPAPERBACK Category: Books, Books for Adults, Fantasy, Fiction Books, Horror, Literary Fiction, Magical Realism, Women’s Fiction Tags: ancestral magic, atmospheric fiction, books about brujas, dark fantasy, Dominican folklore, haunted inheritance, Isabel Cañas fans, Latine fantasy, magical realism, psychological horror, Silvia Moreno-Garcia fans, spooky reads, supernatural mystery, The Ordinary Bruja, witchy books

So, Why Is Friday the 13th Considered Unlucky?

The superstition surrounding Friday the 13th didn’t come from one place—it’s a mashup of old fears, patriarchal erasure, and cultural myth-making. Here’s a little historical tea:

The Number 13 Itself
In many Western cultures, 12 is seen as a “complete” number (12 months, 12 zodiac signs, 12 apostles, 12 hours on a clock). So 13? It’s the outsider. The rebel. The disruptor. And we all know systems don’t like disruption.

The Fall of the Templars (History Buffs, This One’s for You)
On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the mass arrest of the Knights Templar. Many were tortured and executed. Some believe this is one of the roots of the Friday the 13th curse.

Christian Influence
Some tie the superstition to the Last Supper—13 guests, including Judas, the betrayer—and Jesus was crucified on a Friday. The math and mythology started stacking up.

The Erasure of the Divine Feminine
Here’s where it gets juicy: in many ancient traditions, 13 was sacred. It matched the lunar cycles and was linked to femininity, fertility, and goddess worship. Friday itself is named after Frigg (or Freya), a Norse goddess of love and magic. So Friday the 13th? That used to be a day of divine feminine power. What better way to suppress that than to label it cursed?

My Take as a Storyteller

As a Dominican writer steeped in magical realism and ancestral memory, I see Friday the 13th not as something to fear, but as something to reclaim. A reminder of what was lost—and what still lingers in our bones.

In The Ordinary Bruja, I write about how the supernatural isn’t always evil—it’s misunderstood. The same could be said for this day. Maybe it’s not cursed. Maybe it’s calling.

So, What Should You Do This Friday the 13th?

• Light a candle. Honor your ancestors.
• Trust your gut. It’s louder today.
• Write something that scares you. (Emotionally, creatively—you pick.)
• Rethink what you’ve been taught to fear. There’s often power hidden inside it.

Friday the 13th isn’t unlucky—it’s unsettling.
And sometimes that’s exactly what we need to wake up.

And if you are curious? Start by ordering The Ordinary Bruja

The Ordinary Bruja: Book One of Las Cerradoras Series – J.E. Ortega

$4.99 – $23.99

When grief pulls Marisol Espinal back to Willowshade, she uncovers a legacy buried in shadows, silence, and ancestral magic. The Ordinary Bruja is a haunting coming-of-age story that blends psychological horror with Dominican folklore and magical realism. For fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Isabel Cañas.

If you love what you read, I’d be honored to hear your thoughts. Please leave a review on your preferred platform and let other readers find the magic in The Ordinary Bruja.

SKU:ORDINARYBRUJAPAPERBACK Category: Books, Books for Adults, Fantasy, Fiction Books, Horror, Literary Fiction, Magical Realism, Women’s Fiction Tags: ancestral magic, atmospheric fiction, books about brujas, dark fantasy, Dominican folklore, haunted inheritance, Isabel Cañas fans, Latine fantasy, magical realism, psychological horror, Silvia Moreno-Garcia fans, spooky reads, supernatural mystery, The Ordinary Bruja, witchy books