After a fourteen year marriage to Duncan - a bully who'd been terrorizing and controlling her for all the years they'd been together - Lee thought divorce was in the cards. But ten months after telling him she wanted that divorce, Duncan was diagnosed with cancer. Eight months later, he was gone. Lee hoped her problems were gone with Duncan's death; instead, she found that without his ranting, raving, and screaming taking up space in her life, she had her own demons to face.

The Perils of Beginnings weaves two periods of history that tell the story of 18-year-old Barbara invited by her Auntie, Eloisa Cavazos Diaz on a road trip in 1967, from San Antonio, Texas, to Tampico, Mexico. Auntie wants to find her official baptismal certificate left behind or lost when her birth father is murdered in Tampico and her mother escaped with her life. Auntie pulls all the stops to search for this elusive document.

They say that authors write the books they want to read. If so, this poignant memoir “Choosing Magic” delivers author Karina Pacific much of the insight and guidance she so desperately needed as a child.
Born in Mexico to a father never knew and an overworked, reticent mother, Karina’s story unveils a childhood filled with colorful characters, dark secrets of abuse, and a nomadic existence that bounced her all over her native country eventually leading her to the land of opportunity – America.