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To Strike Through The Pasteboard Mask of This World – Reading John Langan’s “The Fisherman”

On the last full day of vacation in Maine, I got "The Fisherman," by John Langan and started reading. Something about the languorous tone of Abe, the story's protagonist, and his tale of grief and loss drew me in. So much so that several hours later, when I put the book down to go swimming, I was 40% through the book. I wouldn't finish it until I got back to Maryland, driving for the better portion of a day, and passing over the Hudson River to get home. By that time, though, I'd already gotten to the story-within-a-story portion of book detailing the background of Dutchman's Creek, running from the Ashokan Reservoir in the Catskills. When we drove over the Tapan Zee Bridge in the early evening, with the last streaks of daylight dancing on the horizon, singing along with Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now," I could see why the Catskills...

August 19, 2018
Horror, Reading
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A Long-Awaited Acceptance

I am overjoyed at being able to announce the acceptance of one of my favorite stories, "How Juan Bobo Got to los Nueba Yores" to the Latinx Archive. I remember hearing Juan Bobo stories at my late grandfather's knee in his marquesina. He interspersed the Juan Bobo stories with his own memories of his childhood living in the mountains of Aibonito. I learned from him the fact that if you lived in rural Aibonito, you didn't wear your shoes to come down the mountain on your way to school. You slung them around your neck by their laces and walked barefoot to school. You could always wash mud off your feet at the pump in the schoolyard, but it wasn't so easy to do the same with your shoes. My grandfather's stories were so vivid, they stayed with me and meshed with his own experiences. This is what inspired writing...

July 23, 2018
Fantasy, Latino, Writing

Short Update: Named as a New Writer at Tor.com!

I was thrilled to find out I was included in a list of "new" writers over at Tor.com. I was in good company, including many of my colleagues on the writer's forum, Codex, as well as Sherri Cook Woosley, one of my fellow writers in our local group. She also has an exciting novel due to come out in September of this year! Being mentioned in an article in one of the largest publishers of speculative fiction made me realize, though, that I hadn't collected previous mentions of my work. I have since corrected that oversight and included a new page, titled "Press & Reviews" with links to any reviews on the Web. That's everything I wanted to discuss this week. See you all next time!...

June 18, 2018
Latino, Writing
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The Politics of Disaster

This is a follow-up on my Hurricane Maria post. In recent days, a study conducted by a research team from Harvard University made plain what most people already knew: the death toll in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria was higher than the official tally of 64. Much higher. The study found the death toll could be 4.645 dead in the aftermath of the hurricane, as light, water and cellular services were interrupted in the wake of the storm. Thankfully, my partner and I were able to get most of my family off the island, and they--as many other Puerto Ricans--have decided to stay, leaving their lives there behind. In that respect, we have been very fortunate. My family was able to avoid the uncertainties of, say, Puerto Ricans granted vouchers to stay in hotels and motels in Florida and Connecticut. Overall, my family has been very fortunate, compared to many other Puerto Ricans. Why...

June 11, 2018
Latino
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Short Review Time: Solo and Cobra Kai

In the last few weeks, I caught Solo in the movie theaters and just churned through the YouTube Red series, Cobra Kai. I'll be covering my impressions on each of these properties, both of which are follow ups to existing movies. There's a marked difference, in my opinion, on how I received the nostalgic elements of each. I've attempted to stay spoiler-free, but I'm a bad judge of what constitutes a spoiler to some folks, so please don't call the spoiler police on me because I didn't mean to do it. . . honest! Solo: A Star Wars Story Solo is a prequel (no, not that type of prequel) to Star Wars (aka, A New Hope or Star Wars 4), set in the time period between A New Hope and the last of "yes, those prequels" Confusing? Yes, it can be difficult to explain the chronology of the ongoing Star Wars movies to...

June 4, 2018
Films