Why One Eighty?

I sat down one evening, after a very frustrating day, with my head full of bad juju. The number of frustrating days in my life at that time was falling out of balance –and not in my favor. So I did something that I hadn’t done since college, I sat down and wrote. I wrote about a lot of things that I had been experiencing and feeling, and it turned out to be very therapeutic.

Of course, my thoughts were mostly bits of incoherent rantings. Most importantly though was that it was then, after I’d realized that I not only felt better about my situation, I had also found an outlet. It was in that moment that something occurred to me. I wanted to get back to writing. Excitedly, the next day I sat down and thought about all of things I had to say to the world. From my perspective in this life, there was a lot that I had learned, and a lot that I wanted to see changed. I knew that with my unique voice, I was on to something.

Being the naturally funny guy that I am, I set out to express my views and feelings about our world by writing a funny story. I was going to write a novel about a Latino family that would be full of hilarious narratives and funny characters, so I sat down and began writing. The joke was on me though, as it turned out.

My sense of humor didn’t translate to the story I began writing. I began writing with Carlos and Isabelle, but they weren’t funny. They had become powerful people with strong convictions and feelings, but not funny the way I had envisioned them to be. So I brought in Johnny and Laurel, and they were also not funny, but serious too, and completely lost in life. As the story developed and I gave up on my quest to write funny, and just went with the characters and let them guide me.

I was happy with the results, to say the least. The characters were deeper and stronger than I ever thought they’d be. What’s more, I never thought that I’d be guided by my characters and their actions and decisions the way I was. Writing it all was interesting, and fun, and exciting. I couldn’t wait to find free time to do it, whether I was at a Starbux or at home, or at a park, and I couldn’t wait to do it again.

Soon after I wrote One Eighty, Gabe was born. Although I was satisfied with One Eighty, I wanted to write something really far more interesting. I dug deep and wrote my next novel. Like light shining on an altar with my destiny revealed to me in total clarity, Gabe was born. At the time, Gabe had taken me on a journey that I never knew existed in my soul. His story could not be further detached from One Eighty, but I think the same audience would find it interesting. I guess you all could let me know about that.