As her 40th birthday approached, Annette Chavez Macias wondered what had happened to her childhood dream. She had always wanted to be a published author. Indeed, Macias had spent her career writing, first as a journalist and then as a public relations specialist, but she hadn’t published a book. Meanwhile, there was a scene in her head that she suspected could be for her first novel.

“One night, I got out of bed, got on my laptop and just wrote it. I had no craft experience,” says Macias by phone. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I just let it spill out of me.”

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Eventually, that scene would morph into “Big Chicas Don’t Cry,” published via Montlake on September 1. The novel is a family drama set primarily in Inland Valley, a fictional L.A. suburb that’s inspired by the area that Macias, who was raised in Ontario and currently lives in Rancho Cucamonga. “Big Chicas Don’t Cry” follows the lives of four cousins, Mari, Erica, Selena and Gracie. They were tight as kids, but their relationship becomes strained following the divorce of one of the girl’s parents during their teen years. More than a decade later, their adult lives have followed different paths, but a combination of personal struggles, as well as a family tragedy, will prompt them to reconsider their relationships.

“From the beginning, it was always going to be a story about four Mexican American cousins because that’s what I know,” says Macias. “I’m Mexican American. I come from a very big, extended family where there are a lot of us and all of my cousins… we were each other’s best friends in the beginning.”

Macias’ journey to bring “Big Chicas Don’t Cry” to publication was a long one. In 2012, she heard about a contest that would pair budding authors with an agent and mentor. The catch was that she would have to submit a completed manuscript. “That was the incentive I needed to finally finish the book,” she recalls. While Macias didn’t make it to the finals of the contest, the feedback was good and that encouraged her to submit the manuscript elsewhere. Over the course of a few years, Macias received, by her estimates, about 13 rejections. Then, in 2020, she caught word of another contest, this one for pitches contained in tweets.

“The morning of the contest, I told myself that this is going to be the last time. If I don’t get any interest, then that’s my sign to put it away and to come up with a different book,” says Macias. “I got two offers from different agents off of that tweet.”

After signing with an agent, Macias landed three offers for book deals.

While Macias struggled to find a home for “Big Chicas Don’t Cry,” though, she carved out another career as a romance writer under the name Sabrina Sol. She’s published three novels and six novellas and short stories in this genre and will be releasing her next romance, “Second Chance at Rancho Lindo,” which is also the start of a new series of western romances, this November.

Her work as a romance novelist contributed to the evolution of “Big Chicas Don’t Cry,” which Macias describes as “women’s fiction, but with romantic elements.”

“I’ve always been a big romance reader, ever since I was young. My mom was a big romance reader. That’s probably what influenced me,” says Macias. “Definitely, as I was writing this book, I knew that the core of the story was going to be the relationship between the cousins and their family members, but because of my background and what I like to read, I had to throw in some romance in there as well.”

Overall, the long road to bring “Big Chicas Don’t Cry” to publication worked in favor of the story. “I think that, in a way, I could not have published this book ten years ago just because of how much it has changed and how much I have changed as a writer,” says Macias. She adds that the years of constant work on the novel helped improve it. “It helped that I was a romance writer because I was constantly writing and learning and reading,” she says. “I still was a big reader. That’s what helped this book evolve into what it is today.”

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As the publication date for “Big Chicas Don’t Cry” approaches, Macias notes the sense of pride that she feels. “I still can’t quite believe it, just because it did take so long to get here. I’m very proud that I was able to finish the book, first of all,” she says.

“There was something about this story that I felt needed to be told and needed to be read by others,” she says before adding that she’s been delighted by the early reviews of the book. “I can’t even describe how grateful I am that people are reading my book and enjoying it now.”