Puff Pieces by Adrian: Pumps is Out

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Pumps is Out

Pumps is out. I officially released my next book, Pumps, on Amazon today. I also pushed it out to most other e-book retailers, but it takes a few more days to show up to retailers like Apple or Barnes n Noble and the others. The release of this book happens to coincide with the anniversary of the passing of Phoebe, our beloved Shih Tzu. That makes it extra special. She was a big inspiration in giving me the drive to write this book. It’s not about her, but the sadness and emptiness I felt over her passing fueled me in a big way.

It still hurts that she is gone, just the same as it did a year ago. I can break down into tears if I start thinking of the sadness, but I purposely try to only remember the happy stuff. Thankfully, our daughter helps too, by keeping us so full of love. It has been a strange year, on one side so vastly filled with the pain of sorrow, yet also so filled by the love of our little one. It is one way that we have found some balance in our hearts. It feels like that, anyway.

To celebrate Phoebe’s life, we will be taking her box of ashes with us to the drive-ins. It was her favorite thing to do with us. I will drive with the window open so she can feel the cool scent-infused air blow through her fine Shih Tzu hair. I will imagine it so, and so it will be, in my mind, because I really know that she is playing in her meadow, chasing butterflies, keeping God company. God loves a Shih Tzu, or else She would not have made them so amazing.

Back to Pumps. As I’ve mentioned before, this is my best work yet. I’m very pleased that it turned out the way it did, and I’m very surprised that I had all that stuff inside my heart and mind. During the self-editing I continuously found myself surprised, which kinda seems stupid because I’m basically saying that I entertain myself. It doesn’t make sense, but it is true.

Either way, this book is for the ladies, whereas LA Ninja was definitely for the fellas. Of course, I truly think there are plenty of guys and gals that would take interest in both of these starkly different stories. I’m curious about that, so I guess we’ll see what happens.

I wanted to mention, lastly, that I’m about to announce to all my facebook friends that I’ve been writing books. They have no idea about it. Not for any particular reason, it just never came up. It really just started off as an experiment and an exercise in some kind of self-therapy, which then ballooned into a full-fledged effort to publish full length novels. I guess sometimes you never really know what’s hiding deep down inside you. It can take a lifetime to find for some. So to all of those that have yet to find that something special within themselves, whether that’s putting lipstick on from your cleavage, or being able to sing like Harold Melvin, keep searching!

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Revolution of the Soul. A Mission Statement.

I am by default, and through no fault of my own, different. I’m not out cruising the boulevard on the weekends, blasting oldies-but-goodies with the homies. I am also not listening to rock en Espanol, speaking in Spanish-only with my friends. I could fit into either stereotype perfectly though, and to an outsider, I probably appear to be from either or both worlds. I have brown skin, which is pretty much all it takes. It’s not that simple though, as others like me surely understand. I speak some Spanish but I also speak perfect English. I went to college. I love hamburgers and fries, and hip-hop, and alternative music. I have simply integrated into American culture from the start, because I was born here, and because I wanted to.

I’m glad that I’m not still stuck in Mexico somewhere, growing up a third world existence, which statistically would have been the case, had my familia never come here. But I am glad to have come from a country and peoples with such a rich and vibrant history. There are many reasons having such a heritage is a good thing, and I am proud to be a part of it. I am glad to have been born here in America, and happy to be part of this system. I’m happier yet that I didn’t grow up as a cholo gang-banging, tagger, too-cool-for school type of guy, even though I’ve had plenty of chances, given my surroundings. That subculture is not all bad either, depending on the level of involvement and the choices one makes. In other words, you can look the part without being a thug, or a social, or immigrant, or anything else, que no? This is true of all life.

So even though I am different, I am by no means alone, and I know this. The problem for me is that I’m not seeing enough representation out there in the media. I’m not seeing a lot of works written, or filmed, for people like me. It annoys me, too, for a lot of political reasons, because our image is grossly misrepresented. Sure the gangbanger cholos are fun to include in film, because violence sells. However, that only perpetuates a false image. These days, it seems as though everyone in this country sees us either as cholos or as immigrants that refuse to assimilate, legal or not. This angers me because we are so many different things including a multitude of diversity within our own subculture. It’s pretty frickin’ beautiful, if everyone only knew…

Either way, I decided to make the changes I wanted to see, on my own. I’m writing stories for me, for you, and for everyone else, and my main characters are all Latino, and not just Mexican-Latino either. My stories are not about quinceaneras or growing up as a pocho in high school. They are not about crossing the border, or starting any revolutions. The only revolution I write about is the Revolution of the Soul. My stories are meant to entertain and inspire people, and hopefully many of you will relate to them in one way or another, and see yourselves there in them, wherever that may be.