Self‑Publishing Truths, Yeti Wizards, and Raising Readers with Theresa Villarreal

But before we get going to the meat of our conversation, we have to do our random question of the week, which is, what is the scariest thing you've ever done for fun?

Um, so just a little backstory about me.

I am, um, married to a Mexican American, and his family lives in Mexico, in San Miguel de Allende.

So I don't know if you guys know where that is, but that's in the heart of Mexico.

It's actually considered to be the center of the world in Mexico.

Um, it's one of the oldest areas, and it's got a-- Obviously, if you go there, it's got a lot of Spanish elements.

It's got the cobblestone streets, et cetera.

So here's a fun fact.

So obviously, my husband's family lives there.

And his dad, about two years ago when we went, we stayed at a rental house that my amazing father-in-law had, um, prepared for us that, you know, we could stay in for, like, two weeks.

And we were kind of left to our own devices, and my, my husband, my kids, and I, we were all hungry, and we wanted to go and get something to eat for dinner, obviously.

And it was late, and we'd been traveling all day, and so we wanted to find something.

And they don't-- obviously, they don't have, like, a, you know, like, a fast food restaurant in the area, so we had to think, "What can we do?" Right? So my husband, he Googled a place, and it was like, oh, well, this has a lot of five-star reviews.

Let's, let's go check it out.

So we go into this area that it's, like, an older area, but it's not too far from the rental place that we were at, and, um, it has, you know, the Spanish cobblestone streets.

And I don't know if you guys have ever been to Mexico, but the streets are not like American streets, especially if you're in the older part of Mexico because the alleys and the streets themselves are a bit more narrow.

And, um, they don't actually have lights on, uh, at night, like, like, streetlights when you think.

And you go, "Okay, this is, uh, an experience, but, uh, I guess if there's a five-star [chuckles] review, let's give it a try." We're very adventurous people, and we like to try those things.

[chuckles] So we go looking around.

We have the car, and if you-- it's been bumping, you know, when you're driving on cobblestone [chuckles] streets.

So it's, like, a dark alley, and you're going, "Are we sure we wanna do this?" So we go, and there's, like, a neighborhood, and in front we see a lot of-- There's lights, and the lights go into a house.

The house is a garage transferred into a restaurant where there's-- everybody is there, right? So we go there [chuckles] and, and we park the car, and in front of the h- place where we park the car, it looks like a house out of-- I don't know if you guys have ever seen the movie The 'Burbs with Tom Hanks.

Um, this house has, like, got, like, large grass, and it's got a-- It's not the house, thank goodness, that we, we were gonna go eat at, but it's across from where we were gonna go eat.

And I go, uh, "Do we..." and my American gringo self, "Do we wanna park the car here?" [chuckles] And, uh, my husband's like, "We'll be fine.

Trust me.