 Well, Book Lovers and Writers who persist despite the torture that comes with writing,
These last few weeks, I have been in another pathetic writing valley. Not quite a writer’s block, but a pit of despair. Partly because December was totally shot since my family and I, all, got sick, then I started my regular work. Forget it. Just making it to work with half a smile on my face was a victory. Now, things are settling, although it seems I am busier with teaching and union work (I teach full-time at an urban community college and run my union). And, my writing energy is coming back. Mostly, I was dealing with negative crap, what I like to call “A Writing Long Night of the Soul.” That night lasted over six weeks. Well, in my creative writing classes, I tell my students to flip the script. I know that sounds like contemporary self-help babble, but it works for me. Plus, there’s nothing wrong with a little self-help. The point is that I finally stopped bitching and decided to see this revision process as an opportunity to write something awesome. Thus, I am postponing the second edition of Wolf Trek, obvi, as I have published nothing. The book is also supposed to be a fundraiser for Poet Jay Mehta who suffered a third stroke last week. (He is recovering and wish Jay and his family good health and better times ahead) Well, I already sent his family money and will continue to do so for the year based on this book's profits. However, they could use the support: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme2/authorjaym Add that self-imposed layer of pressure and the negative reel and forget it. Look if I don’t give the process my 110%, I’ll be complaining about it later. In fact, that is why I am producing the second edition, since back when I started publishing, I didn’t have this amazing editor, Aditya Deshmukh, and I should have spent more time with the novelette. It is now over 100 pages, but who cares? I’m on my deadline; I just don’t want to be such a negative jerk and stop producing because I love to write--despite all the torture that comes with it. Writing is wonderful, wonderful, but can be a major pain. Enough rant. I also want to #writerlift Author David Bowmore. But pay heed. If you sign up for this site, use the Reader option. His book The Magic of Deben Market is up for a contest. I would appreciate if you voted for his book @ booksoffice.com. It is an amazing pastiche of short stories that take place in Deben Market. I am loving the book and can’t wait to review it. Well, that is all I have because the novelette is calling—the bastard. Hope you are having a less contentions time with your writing. Also, if you haven’t done so, subscribe to my new YouTube channel Radical Books and Politics. Right now, it’s on hiatus because I’ve postponed the novelette, but I will most likely review a book mid-week of Red Bird by Author Steve Carr or The Magic of Deben Market. Keep on, and drag yourselves out of your pits of despair. Putting your work out there is worth the climb. I'm rooting for you!
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 MARK, THANK YOU FOR THIS INTERVIEW. NOW, I KNOW YOU ARE A LIBRARIAN. TELL MY READERS MORE ABOUT YOURSELF, WITHOUT REVEALING YOUR TRUE NATURE. I was originally an octopus but they excommunicated me because I thought we should call ourselves octopodes. It was a huge rift in the octopus community. So now I am a librarian and write fiction. Before that I was a shepherd who focused on rhyming couplets. I've worn many hats. All of them small. I have three very tiny heads. Most of all I miss the abyssal depths. And krill. Delicious krill. WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE A WRITER? WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST STORY ABOUT? When I was 10 or 11 I wrote a grisly story about a failed stuntman who nearly died after every stunt but was resuscitated by his handlers and nursed back to health just in time for the next catastrophe. I think he ended up being eaten by sharks, and his last words were, “Fuck youuuuuuuuu!” YOU ALSO WRITE AMAZING POETRY. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE POEM? I admire so many. But I think I am most awed by Stephen Dunn's "Loves" and Andrew Hudgins's "Heat Lightning in a Time of Drought." I AM ALWAYS IMPRESSED BY YOUR USE OF HUMOR AND WEIRD FICTION. WHAT INSPIRED THE LIBRARIAN AT THE END OF THE WORLD? It's non-fiction. YOU TAUGHT ME SOMETHING ABOUT A MACGUFFIN. WHAT IS THE MACGUFFIN IN THE STORY? DO YOU NORMALLY HAVE ONE IN YOUR NOVELS? The macguffin is the thing that motivates the action or keeps the plot going. It doesn't have to be entirely significant to the plot and doesn't even have to be revealed. But it is the thing that everyone is chasing. In Repo Man it was the thing in the trunk of the car. In Pulp Fiction it was the briefcase. In Librarian it is Carrie Fisher's washcloth. IF YOU COULD MEET ONE AUTHOR, DEAD OR ALIVE, WHO WOULD IT BE? WHY? Would we be able to communicate if we spoke different languages and came from different times and cultures? I have lots of questions about this. Like, I would like to meet whoever put the Q source text together in the early Christian church, but I doubt we'd be able to span the language and culture gap. That would be really frustrating. How long do we get to suss shit out? Like is this a coffee date, or are we gonna be in a long-term relationship? Are we able to set aside time to get to know each other and establish the kind of rapport that would reveal something about ourselves? Do I still have to work, or could I take a sabbatical to talk to William Blake? Surely, I could get a sabbatical to tell William Blake that "eye" and "symmetry" don't rhyme. PLEASE, TELL US ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS. I have nothing on the horizon. I'm supposed to be working on a follow up novel to The Librarian at the End of the World that will be called The Two-Headed Lady at the End if the World (you may detect a theme) but I've been busy with real life. It's funny so far though, so I hope I can get back into it soon. ONE LAST FANTASY QUESTION: DO YOU THINK WRITING CAN TRANSFORM THE WORLD? IF SO HOW? I used to. Now I just think we need to make fun of everything. We are on a sinking ship and our last recourse is to mock the captain, the crew, the passengers, the iceberg, and the ocean. WHERE CAN READERS FIND YOU ONLINE OR ON SOCIAL MEDIA? Home: https://authormarkmiller.com/ Twitter: @AuthorMarkMill1 Facebook: @theabsurdmarkmiller MARK, IT’S BEEN A REAL PLEASURE! I HOPE TO HAVE YOU BACK SOON. Thanks. ---- The Librarian at the End of the World is available on Amazon.  Read a book review of The Librarian at the End of the World.  Happy New Year! I hope your winter break was productive, and that you got a lot of writing done.
My family and I spent most of this winter break recovering from being sick, and then I was laptop less for a week because my cat dumped a glass of water on it, which has forced me to (a) stop eating around where I work and (b) set up a real desk. I got a refurbished laptop last Friday, but I didn’t get my novelette Wolf Trek done. I hope to work on it this week after I get my regular work done. Outside of all these blocks, I am continuing with writing basics: writing, researching, and revising my work. I want to publish my debut novel The Harvested, this summer, but I don’t want to be hasty. In fact, I’ve been awfully slow in finishing that project, over 20 some years. Recently, I read two novels other writers published prematurely. The writing would have been outstanding. Rushing can also be the enemy for writers who are running the self-publishing rat race. Oh, then, another project “Nail Shop Warriors” also got rejected. The co-author, Hector Cruz, and I are revising it, especially the ending, and sending it to other anthologies. It was a lot of fun to work with him, but we need to spend more time smoothing out the story. It is a great piece, though. This year, I am not setting New Year’s writing goals. Well, maybe one writing goal. I have a mother of a time with the omniscient point of view. I write in the limited point of view, and then, slip up. The annoying part is that I don’t see the POV errors in my work, but I do in the work of others. Does that happen to you? Do you miss your writing sins and see them in others? Whatever your New Years goals are, I hope you exceed them. Keep writing! Keep reading. Keep on.  Author Carmen Baca CARMEN, IT’S A REAL HONOR TO HAVE YOU HERE. NOW, I KNOW YOU ARE A RETIRED SCHOOL TEACHER, AN AVID CAT RESCUER, AND THAT YOU LIVE IN NEW MEXICO. TELL MY READERS MORE ABOUT YOU. I’m a hermit, a homebody, a wife, mother, and grandmother. I’m an introvert and enjoy being interviewed on paper rather than in person. I enjoy performing community service and acting as secretary for my retired educators’ association. I am the last surviving Verónica of the rural community where I live and where I write about most often. WHAT IS A VERONICA? Las Verónicas were one of the women’s groups that assisted Los Hermanos, especially during Holy Week. I AM ALWAYS IMPRESSED BY YOUR USE OF CULTURE AND FOLKLORE IN YOU WORK. WHAT IS YOUR OWN FAVORITE STORY THAT SPEAKS TO YOUR TRADITIONS? My first book is my favorite since it took 25 years from the writing of it to the publication. That’s the book I wanted to publish because I knew it would be unique. The traditions of los Hermanos y las Verónicas played an important part of my life for so long. Los Hermanos were our spiritual leaders, our first community service society; the female society operated in concert with the brothers. I became a Verónica at age 5. The rituals I was privileged to participate in for Lent—las estaciones (the Stations of the Cross) and the processions like La Procesíon de la Cruz (the procession of the cross where a brother carried the cross on his back with the rest of us following in prayer and singing hymns) and Las Tinieblas (the Earthquake ceremonies on Good Friday which lasted till midnight in raucous cacophony of sound and despair because that was the night Christ went to hell)—those are the types of traditions so many of my culture have allowed to die. I seek to preserve them in my works. WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE A WRITER? WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST STORY ABOUT? I wrote my first book in 1992 when I unlocked a wooden box which had held secrets throughout my formative years. The contents confirmed what I suspected about the practices of a private religious brotherhood of which my father was leader. So much has been published about the brotherhood that misinforms or sensationalizes their private rituals; I wanted to write about them from the perspective of someone who revered the brothers and what they stood for. After that book published, I honestly thought it was to be my “one hit wonder.” After a small book tour my first publisher arranged, I got that lightbulb moment of inspiration and immediately began my third book. That was when I knew I wanted to write until I no longer can. WHAT IS ONE OF THE MOST CHALLENGING WORKS YOU HAVE PUT TOGETHER? WHY? It would have to be El Hermano because I was careful to keep what they wanted secret a secret. I didn’t write that book to divulge what today’s brothers still keep from the public, so when I found the ledger with their rules dating back to 1850, I censored myself so as not to offend my forefathers or those brothers who would possibly hold that against me. I explain in my forward that I wrote that book as a tribute to my father and los Hermanos, not to disclose what is not ours to know about their brotherhood. I KNOW YOU HAVE LEARNED A LOT FROM STUDYING AND TEACHING LITERATURE ABOUT HOW TO CRAFT A GREAT STORY, BUT IS THERE SOMETHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO BETTER? I wish I could change my writing voice. No matter how I strive to write in a different voice, I revert back to my style. I’d like to get better at flash fiction and attempt drabbles. I’m too verbose and have to work hard to condense. I also want to experiment with more genres and POVs. IF YOU COULD MEET ONE AUTHOR, DEAD OR ALIVE, WHO WOULD IT BE? WHY? I’ve already met the two authors I admire most: Rudolfo Anaya and Jimmy Santiago Baca. I communicated through email with Sandra Cisneros and Esmeralda Santiago, so I’m content with having made those connections. These are authors whose works I taught in my classes, so I’ve admired their styles and identified with some of their stories for a long time. It blows me away that both Anaya and Baca’s endorsements are on the covers of El Hermano and that Santiago asked for a signed copy of my book. I LOVE IT WHEN WRITERS DO THAT, WHEN THEY GIVE AWAY SIGNED COPIES OF THEIR WORK. PLEASE, TELL US ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS. My fifth book is one I’m proud of because it developed from one plot to three intertwining plots as I wrote it. I didn’t even know what genre it was till I asked in writing groups. It’s a short story cycle. My sixth is another short story collection divided into sections—ghosts, saints, demons, and sinners. Two of my short stories have already been accepted for anthologies publishing in 2020, so I’m hoping I can get more of those published between books. ONE LAST FANTASY QUESTION: DO YOU THINK WRITING CAN TRANSFORM THE WORLD? IF SO HOW? Books in general can transform those who read them, and the readers can change the world depending on the contents, the themes, or the morals learned. In the case of my books, I hope to keep my culture’s traditions, customs, dialect, etc. alive for future readers to learn about a simpler time, a more rustic way of life, an era when respect and responsibility governed la gente’s actions. WHERE CAN READERS FIND YOU ONLINE OR ON SOCIAL MEDIA? http://plu.us/cbacacreations This one stop link takes you to my website, my page on my publisher’s website, my Amazon & FB pages, my YouTube channel, email, Flipboard, and Twitter accounts. CARMEN, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING TIME OUT OF YOUR DAY FOR MY READERS! I HOPE TO HAVE YOU BACK SOON. Thank you, hermana, for supporting my endeavors and for inviting me to do this interview. ---- Carmen Baca's works are available on Amazon.
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Jesú Estrada
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