Carlos Colón is a Bronx-born Puerto Rican singer/songwriter. He graduated from Lehman College, CUNY with a degree in English Creative Writing. His play "Jerome" won Honorable Mention for the Jacob Hammer Memorial Prize in 1979. Since then he has spent most of his years as a local musician, most recently as the charismatic front man for Retro Rock n’Roll band The Jersey Shore Roustabouts, one of the most in-demand entertainment acts of the Central and Southern New Jersey/New York/Philadelphia area.
1.
What
inspired you to write Sangre: The Color
of Dying?
It was well over twenty years
ago when I first got the idea of using the symptoms that created the vampire
legend as a disease in modern day society. At that time, the hero of the story
was Dominic, the NYPD detective. But then I realized that the real story was in
Nicky, the one suffering the condition. Nicky may have been a threat to
civilians walking the streets, but he was also a victim. He didn’t ask for
this.
2.
What
differentiates your book from other vampire novels?
I’m glad you asked that because
in today’s literary climate, the thought of another vampire novel is usually
greeted with a roll of the eyes. Sangre:
The Color of Dying is really two novels in one. First we have what is
essentially an autobiography of someone that grew up in the Bronx during the
1960’s, who overcame a devastating family tragedy and was able to rebuild his life
after meeting Stefanie Torres, a brainy puertorriqueña
that would later become his wife. Secondly,
we have a current day tale that treats the condition of being a vampire with a
realism and believability that blurs the genre lines so well that the reader
doesn’t know where the reality ends and the paranormal begins. Think of The Exorcist back in the seventies. The
fact that it felt so real is what made it so scary.
3.
What
are the struggles that Nicky goes through?
Nicky struggles with the fact
that he needs to take lives to exist. There is not enough access to alternate
sources of human blood to keep him moving forward without doing so. That’s why
he feeds on criminals and lowlifes. But the bigger struggle for Nicky is the
ongoing love that he has for his wife Stefanie and his children. His inability
to let go, now that he is not among the living, results in him performing
misguided, well-intentioned acts that hurt them even more. He is also haunted
with guilt over a tragic accident that he felt responsible for. Yeah, Nicky’s
definitely got some issues.
4.
Would
you classify Nicky as a hero character? Why or why not?
I would classify Nicky as a
flawed and dangerous hero. While Nicky’s heart is very much in the right place,
he also has a judgmental quality and a cruel sense of humor that can be
unbecoming. He judges Veronica’s promiscuity while overlooking his own lustful
behavior, he makes homophobic remarks to his gay friends, Travis and Donny,
even though they’ve done nothing but support him, and he is forever taking
cheap shots at his brother-in-law Dominic about his weight gain. And then there’s
that other thing about feeding on humans.
5.
Do
you feel Nicky changed in any way at the end of the story?
One of the qualities readers
love so much about Sangre is the
emotional journey that Nicky has taken from the first page to the last. Readers
love that he often demonstrates an ability to recognize his own, sometimes,
questionable judgment and his own prejudices. By the end I think it’s safe to
say that the reader will witness an emotional growth and maturity in Nicky that
wasn’t there at the beginning of the novel.
6.
What
are some of the main themes and issues that you explore in this book and why
did you explore them?
One of the things that I am so
proud of, that makes this book so different, is that it is a psychological
character profile that explores grief, guilt, and uncontrolled desires. I love
how three Latinas, the most important women in his life, play a big part in
forming Nicky’s personality; his mother, who took the love out of his life, his
wife Stefanie, who brought love back, and his friend, Veronica, who is trying
to teach him how to love again. The reader will find that the novel carries
many allegorical passages that address issues like lust, adultery and divorce.
The reason I explored these
themes and issues is because I did not just want to write a pulp, genre piece.
I wanted to take that kind of genre and make it as real as possible. The more
real and universal the themes are, the more the readers can identify with the
character, and the more willing they are to go along in their journey.
7.
What
do you hope readers will gain from your book?
I am hoping that my description
doesn’t sound like a too-deep, analytical character piece that can be a chore
to read. The story is intended to be an entertaining and refreshing effort to
mix reality with the supernatural. Rather than pursuing the vampire legend from
the gothic angle, I take a scientific path to make the story more real. The
emotional depth of the characters is also something I emphasize in the tale. So
many horror or action pieces treat the killing of characters as collateral
damage without showing the toll that is felt when they are lost. That does not
happen in Sangre. Readers will find that when someone dies in
this story, they will feel the loss along with the surviving characters.
But don’t for a second think
that this book is a self-serious downer. All of the fun stuff is there, too;
the stakes in the heart, the hypnosis, the not being seen in mirrors, etc. Why write in this genre if you’re not going to
have some fun with it? And for the not-to-squeamish, there are also a couple of
sex scenes that are sure to be conversation starters around the water cooler.
With that, I hope that readers
will gain an acceptance that, even when they think they’ve read all they’ve
cared to read in a particular genre, there is still some writer out there that
could have the ability to surprise them.
8.
What
do you like best and what do you like least about being a writer?
There was a wonderful meme going
around in Facebook, which was a quote attributed to Victor Hugo. It goes, “A
writer is a world trapped in a person.” Man, that says it all. There is a world
inside you and writing gives you the access to bring that world out. Very often writing is not something you set
out to do. More often than not, it is something that you have to do. It just comes out like a bodily function. I’m sorry if
that sounded disgusting.
As for what I like least, it’s
the time that the writing process can take. So often you are excited about
something you’ve written and you just want to get it out. But that’s the worst
thing that you can do because it is probably not ready. That’s where the
grueling process of proofreading comes in—and what a painful process it is.
9.
Who
are some of your favorite authors?
I guess it would come as no
surprise that Stephen King and Edgar Allen Poe are two of my favorites, but
I’ve also enjoyed John Irving in the past. I think that readers will find some
very Garp-like qualities in Nicky.
10. If your book would be turned into a movie,
who would you imagine playing the part of the main character? (Actor can be ANYONE, living or dead.)
I can see either Gael Garcia Bernal or Lin Manuel Miranda as Nicky. Those two
need to read this novel; either one of them would be perfect, although I lean towards
Miranda because he’s Nuyorican and
that’s a big part of the story. As for Stefanie, I think Gina Rodriguez would
capture her beautifully.
11.
Are
you working on anything right now?
So many are surprised that I
never intended on the Nicky saga continuing. They talk about how the ending
begs for a sequel. Well, actually, I think the ending is perfect because it
leaves what happens next up to the reader. That being said, popular demand has
won over and I am about a third of the way through in completing Sangre: The Wrong Side of Tomorrow. This
one is going to focus more on Nicky’s upbringing in the Bronx in the 1960’s,
while the current-day tale goes into the consequences following the events of
the first book.
12.
And,
finally, what do you think is in store for the future of Latino literature?
I
think right now the vast majority of Latino literature has a lot of educational
qualities that explain our culture and who we are. So much of the world knows
so little about the Latino experience that the outside interest lies primarily
in that category. But we are more than that. In the many ways that we are
different, there are also many other ways where we are the same, we like
romance, humor, pulp, gothic, paranormal, science fiction and so on. I think
the key to exposing more Latino Literature out into the general public is to
demonstrate our versatility and combine our efforts to show the riches of
talent that the Latino community has to offer.UP NEXT: A review of SANGRE: THE COLOR OF DYING
For more info on Carlos Colón, visit http://www.sangrethenovel.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment