Marisa Montes: Hello, my name is Marisa Montes. Hola. Mi nombre es Marisa Montes. That's Marisa with one S, and sounds like Theresa. Not Marissa, which sounds like Melissa and has two Ss. And when I lived in France, my French friends called me Maris.

But Marisa isn't my real name. It's my nickname and also my pseudonym or pen name. That's the name I use when I write a book. My real name, the name I was baptized with is Maria Isabel, or Maria Isabelle. Marisa is short for Marisabelle, which means Mary Elizabeth.

So, Marisa is like the nickname Mary Beth, but in Spanish. My last name Montes, is my family's name. The name I was born with. Montes means woods or forest in Spanish. So, if you ever see a book written by Mary Beth Forest, it might be written by me using another pseudonym.

I'm very proud of my family and of the Montes name. So, I decided even before it was popular to do so, to keep my family name forever.