The very last story I published at Latino.com on January 25, 2001 was an interview with one of my favorite authors Julia Alvarez.
Eighteen years and five cities later, just a few days after moving back to my hometown Orlando, Julia Alvarez came back to inspire me.
I woke up at 3 a.m. to the sound of a loud thump. “Dios mio! What was that???” I was living alone in a little house built in 1926 in the downtown Lake Eola Heights Historic District, so in my mind it was a 50-50 chance that it was a ghost or an intruder. With my heart pounding through my chest, I crept halfway down the stairs, hoping it was a ghost cuz I didn’t have a bat or a tazer to deal with a real life human. I quickly scanned the ground floor. The door was still locked and the screens of the windows were not broken. With a sigh of relief, I continued down the stairs ready to meet my ghost. And lo and behold, on the floor was my paperback copy of “Yo!” by Julia Alvarez.
I smiled and picked it up. And then like a big weirdo I asked, “What are you trying to tell me?”
And I imagine it replied, “Yo! Get back to your roots! Be a writer. Be who you are.”
After spending the last five years trying to make use of my MA in film by turning my stories into film and pitching to producers, it felt like a relief to return to writing and just writing. And thus began the process of converting the script I had started writing about my bisabuela, a rum running cigar smoker, into a novel. The shackles of producing suddenly disappeared. I didn’t have to worry anymore about how much a period piece would cost, or the logistics of casting or raising money on Kickstarter. I could just let my imagination run wild on paper, just like I used to when I was a preteen growing up in Orlando.
Two years after Julia Alvarez’s book threw itself on my floor, and 20 years after interviewing her, I’ve got a completed novel at 80,000 words. It feels like the stars are aligned…or that I’m finally aligning myself with the stars.
I know the process of finding a literary agent and getting published will be no easier than pitching film producers. In fact, it will be even harder! But at least this time around the sun I am home. My mom is nearby with a hug and a refrigerator full of leftover rice and beans. My dad is always ready to tell me another funny story about his grandmother. My brother and the sobrinos are just a car ride away for jumping on the trampoline or swimming in the pool. And my fiancee and stepdaughter and rat terrier are all right here, inspiring me and loving me with their light and their art.
So let’s pitch this baby and have fun with it!