Things That Go Bump in the Nightmare
Marta, here, the last of our trio of writers on this blog. I first found out about Mario on La Bloga, a blog with links to Latino writers, and Mario "introduced" me to Jeanne. Some day I hope to get to Boulder and really meet them.
When I first sent my novel, HAPPY HOUR AT CASA DRACULA, around, it got declined by someone who said he already had a similar project. And I was like, yeah, sure, there's another comic Latino vampire novelist out there. Then I found out that Mario had a three-book deal for wacky Latino vampire novels. Whoda thunk?
So, if you're a writer and you get this excuse from an agent or publisher, you might want to believe it, even if you've written a poignant tale of a Latvian ice-fisherman who finds love and solace with a brain-eating alien bowling champion.
My exciting news for this week is that I completed and handed in my manuscript for my second novel, BARBECUE AT MOTEL DE LOS MONTRUOS, to my editor, Maggie Crawford at Simon & Schuster. It's basically demon lovers/tequila sunrises/tabloid scandals. The story features a chupacabra, a goat-killing flying monkey of Latino lore, because there are so few books about goat-killing flying monkeys and because chupacabra is a fun word to say. The other day on the Sci-Fi channel, there was a movie called "Chupacabra!" but the creature 1) didn't have wings, 2) wasn't killing goats, the preferred victim, and 3) was onboard a ship. How clueless was that? On the up side, it was fabulously badly acted.
I just got an email notice that my copy of Mario's book is being shipped. Congratulations again, Mario, and I'm happy for your success so long as you stay away from chupacabras, which are my turf.