Chatting with Colin Broderick, the writer of Orangutan

Released by Random House December

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3H-HlIYhHk

It's been awhile since I've been excited about a book release. After hearing about Orangutan and pounding the pavement to find the writer, I finally got an interview with the Colin himself. He openly discussed his difficulty getting sober in an environment that condemns recovery, to the process of his book and finding an established agent...who holds the key to world wide publication/distribution so others in his predicament can be helped...before it is too late.

It's so nice to meet you...I'm so excited for the release of your book! I've heard so many great things about it. Tell me what it was like getting an agent for it?
I met a guy called Chris Campion...he wrote a book called Escape from Bellevue. I said, "If you get me an interview with your agent you'll never regret it!"

Just like that...that's the luck of the Irish for ya.

And she's the same agent for Barack Obama's book, "Dreams From My Father..." Three Rivers Press-Random House.

How many millions of copies do you think that book sold?
It hasn't left the best seller list for like two years now. Yeah, we hit it off immediately. She's huge now...we met just before he became the president. She just encouraged him to write a book after he graduated....

She obviously has an eye for talent. How many books have you actually written?
Three altogether, this is my first book that's been published.

Tell me about this soon to be released in book stores nation-wide book!
I'm actually working on the final edits as I'm speaking to you then the book will be in stores in December.

This is magic! I'm just in time...this interview is going to be gold soon. What will readers expect?

It's a memoir that chronicles the 20 years I spent working as a construction worker here in New York...and all the drinking...and trying to become a writer...

The title of your book is really significant...

Yeah, the book is called, Orangutan and the direct translation is man of the forest...the title of the book comes from when I was in a bar in California at the age of 23 and I was drinking with a black drag queen who was convinced that she was the true queen of England and she was crying on my shoulder about it...

Oh my god!
...And he/she said, "You don't know what's it like to be trapped inside a man's body" and I said, "But I do understand... I know what it's like to be trapped! I want to be an orangutan but I'm trapped in a man's body."

(laughing)

...so everytime I drank I became an orangutan and started acting inappropriately in public and ended up in jail...because that's what happens when you're an orangutan in an urban environment!

How many times did you go to jail?
Twice here in New York.

What were the offenses?
Drunk driving...I began to attempt recovery at the age of 23.

What happened?
I was knocked down by a car at the age of 24 and broke my back in two places and became a pill popper for about seven years...

As an Irish man, how long did it take you to return to work after breaking your back?
They told me I'd never be able to do construction again but I was back in less then a year.

Sounds like something my own father would do...What did you do for money when you weren't working at that time?
Workman's Comp.

Thank god!

I didn't drink again until I was 31 and was going through my second divorce and then the cycle began again...everything that didn't happen the first time around happened...the waking up in hospitals, the jails...

So when you returned to work after getting hit by a car and stopped drinking for those few years before your relapse at the age of 31, what else were you doing?
I went back to college and studied under Billy Collins and he became my mentor...I studied poetry with him.

Did you ever publish any of your poems?
I won the Alice B Croft Award while I was there.

Did you graduate?
No, I quit before I graduated...

Oh no!
...and opened up a book store/coffee shop in Riverdale.

Sounds awesome...was it successful?
No, but it stayed open for two years anyway....

What happened, why'd it close?
It's not as romantic as you'd think...when you're on the other side of the counter...I detail it in the book...how I just got sick of working 17 hours a day. But we had the best of the top poets world wide: Column McCann, Billy Collins, a long list of names...

Are you still in touch with Billy Collins?
I'm not sure, I haven't heard from him since I quit drinking. I'm beginning to think I might have insulted him in a late night drunken phone call. We've been friends for fifteen to sixteen years...

Who is your favorite writer?
Hemingway and Bukowski.

Who?
Charles Bukowski...he's a German...he just wrote all about his drinking and his debauchery...he's just a wild man, he's great...and Hemingway just for his clarity.

So, you never gradated college but you still wrote a book? I love it!
A few of my professors told me to just go write...I guess they were afraid I'd become a teacher and get lost in the system.

That happens way too often. Is there any censoring in Orangutan?
No, none whatsoever...whatever came out of my mouth went into the book...I wrote over 500 pages and it got edited down to 386 something like that...it's tough when you're writing a book...the people who know me are actually surprised of what I left out, you have to keep the thread of the story moving along so that the reader doesn't get bored with it.

What countries are mentioned?
I do a drunken trip to Paris, Russia...it goes from NY to San Francisco, Ireland, England....and in the end I wind up in Prague!

Why does the book end there?
I met this bartender called Renata and she gave me the will to finally sober up. We moved to Prague together to get away from it all for a while. At the moment I'm working on my new book and putting my documentary together and still working construction when I need the work.

Did you feel there was a lot of peer pressure to drink as an Irish Construction worker?
Sure, absolutely...it's in the book about the irony that the more I drank...the better I got paid and the more jobs I got...

That is ironic...so not good if you have a drinking problem!

(laughing) ...because all the Irish guys I know will claim they drink more than you do anyway so it's hard to say, "Hey guys...I have a problem."

True...where did you drink in Woodlawn (Irish section of the Bronx)?
I used to drink in the Catalpa and if a sane person walked in one night and seen what was going on they'd call people to come for straight jackets...I mean it's insanity...it's easy when you're drinking in the nuthouse to say,"They're the problem...it's not us, we're just drinking,..having fun."

Do you think the ugly stereotype for the Irish is true then?
Yes, it's very grounded in reality...what Mexican bars? What Italian? No...it's Irish...the stereotype is there because we drink. There are Asian, Italian, Chinese restaurants but 8 times out of 10 where there's a bar...it's Irish and that's because we drink.

You're right...come to think of it, I've never seen a Chinese bar, ever, maybe once.

When this book comes out the Irish are going to burn me at the stake but they'll buy the book anyway because they'll want to see if they're mentioned in it and what bars I talked about...

Wow!

There's actually been a book burning of Angela's Ashes....for this one they'll forgo the burning of the book and just burn me...

I hope not...I want you to keep writing, this stuff is really good.
Most Irish writers had to leave Ireland or stay in it and drink themselves to death...the Irish are famous for murdering their own talent...

That's very sad.
The Irish don't want to see anybody rise above the rest..that's why people like Shane McGowan and Brendan Behan were revered...it's only when Irish writers became honest and wrote about the truth that they came up against criticism......

In your book do you mention any dry out sessions?
Yeah, the book discusses how "Real Irish" don't need detox..the American dries out, goes to rehab and then to recovery....

Not common for many Irish!

No, the Irish guy dries out and goes back to the bar....

In conclusion...
In conclusion, it's much harder first of all culturally to admit defeat and then ask for help...we don't need no help...

I'm so excited to own a copy...I think your book will help others. It is so sad to see people suffer when they don't have to.

I always say in my book that in every room in recovery there needs to be an Irish guy to lend an air of authenticity.

That's interesting.
I think the Irish culturally have real problems with communication especially when it comes to talking about their problems and emotions....Americans are much more open...

Ah...thank you...
...when you sit down with an American they'll tell you everything whereas in Ireland they'll tell you about the weather and what they're wearing or they'll talk about the other great past time football...I guess you could say that I've been amazed that for a country that is revered for it's literary history...there are no contemporary writers...it's amazing...

Yeah, we need another Joyce and I hope that'll be you. So what happens in the end?
...I got married for the third time, to Renata.

THIRD TIME!
...we moved to Prague and I'm now back living in New York with my wife and daughter doing what I was meant to do, which is writing.

Doing what you love! That's perfect...your story is perfect for my book/blog because it stays true to its premise. I'm dying dying for a copy of your book....they're going to sell like crazy.
Thank you.


Below is a link to a recent piece by the author published in The New York Times:


www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/opinion/29broderick.html?pagewanted=print

Talking with Tony Napoli

Speaking with Tony Nap was something I never imagined I would get the opportunity to do. He has had an incredible life. He is the son of Jimmy Napoli, the original Italiano...long before there was Gotti. In his new book, My Father, My Don, Tony recounts his combat training, how he took the law into his own hands, found sobriety and rediscovered the strong bond between him and his father. This book is currently being given to those in recovery at many rehabilitation centers around the country. Although he helps hundreds of people turn their lives around for the good, he is first and foremost a family man...

It’s wonderful to meet you Tony, thank you for sitting down to discuss your book with me, it’s a great honor.

You’re welcome.

I see you collaborated with Charles Messina?

I hired a team of writers that I paid because I’m not the writer, I’m the author…I’m just telling the story, Charles was the last writer I hired and he finalized the book… it is now the 9th best selling organized crime book!


Sounds like he did a good job.

He did. The book can be purchased at Amazon.com, just go to book search and type in the title and they’ll have it to you in a couple of days.

Has Hollywood approached you about the book?

Yes, I’ve went to Vegas twice and Hollywood twice to promote my book…we’re all in talks of a movie.

When?

Not anytime soon, there are some things they (Hollywood) would like to see changed but I won’t change.

Like what?

We do not live the Soprano lifestyle…we had to be at the diner table every night and Sunday by 3 PM and that was family time. We never brought the business inside the home. We never questioned my father. If we read about him in the papers…he was the king of the numbers racket of 5 boroughs of New York…we never asked questions.

Were there any similarities?

Sure, the night clubs, loan sharks, places like Va-Va-Voom, being the judge and jury, we didn’t call the cops. If there were any assaults, we handled it within the family…all domestic fights are handled in the family.

Are the roles they depict realistic in any way?

In some ways…usually the wife does stay home. She doesn’t go night clubbing with the husband and usually the man, especially if he has a title, travels with a group of people. And he might meet a broad but not on a steady basis…only if he was looking for a woman for the night. Wives were kept at home and it was a no-no for any man of the mob to fool around with a married woman, that’s a no-no.

When did you begin writing this beautifully articulated memoir?

When I was 26 years old but what happened was when I was writing (it) my father came in my room and ripped up my material…years later, I get older, everyone passes away. I get older, I get more material…

Oh wow…

In the year 2001, I hired some writers. The big boys…I’m from that blood line, like the FBI calls it. I started hiring writers six years ago in June 2001. I finished my story with a young writer from NYU; it took us two years to complete, from the year 2006-2008. He put the excerpts together...about a thousand pages of them…I still have over three hundred pages that I didn’t use.

That’s a lot of material!

My publisher and the young writer, who’s also a screen play writer suggested a second edition if it doesn’t go into a film first…I also have a screen play sequel and prequel to the book, My Father, My Don.
What is the moral of the story?

My story is about how a son journeyed from organized crime to sobriety. On the cover of the book, there are amazing quotes from Nick Pileggi "A must-read for anyone looking for an insider’s look at life in the mob"(wrote the screenplay for Wise Guy and Goodfellas, and Casino), Bill Gallo (Daily News correspondent) "A knockout! This powerful book examines, in great detail, Tony Nap's checkered past and his amazing comeback, including all the help he now provides former fighters through his work with the Ring 8 Veteran Boxers Association," Sonny Girard (writer of Snake Eyes and Blood of Our Fathers)"Unlike mob rats telling their stories with gratuitous and self serving lies, Tony tells his with honesty and a peacefulness of a man having come to grips with past conflicts in a peaceful way. Readers will see things as they really were, not as the writer wishes they might have been."…he learned to write while serving time in jail…and Sonny Grosso (producer of the academy-award winning picture, The French Connection).


Oh, I heard of Sonny Grosso, wasn’t he a cop?

Yes and at one point we didn’t get along but he changed his position with me because now we’re both on the same page. He said my story was “a true story told in the style of the French Connection.”

That’s fascinating. So where in your life do you start retelling (it)?

When you read chapter one of my book…how I took the law into my own hands when a punk in my daughter’s college sexually assaulted her…I said I’d ‘handle it’ and that meant I wasn’t gonna call the cops.

I would have killed him…I’m sorry, that’s such a tragedy.

I almost did. In chapter one, I detail the incident. After slicing the man's part of the body that he
doesn't want cut in the classroom, I was sentenced to three and a half years...

In the classroom? In front of the teacher and students?

I pushed the punk against the door that opened into a biology class dissecting a frog. That teacher went back to England after that and never came back!

You said you were sentenced to three and a half years?

The judge knew of my probable cause and believed I needed therapy more than a jail sentence and protected my daughter's honor and thought of it as a ‘sensitive case.’

That’s really honorable of you. Any father would have done the exact same thing. You were protecting your family…

The sobriety part of my life began July 11…15 years ago, that’s what helped me out of my life of crime, you can find you’re way into sobriety no mater what…

That’s amazing, getting sober is the hardest thing to do…how is your daughter now?

My daughter today is happily married and has two masters’ degrees, she’s doing fine now. Now she teaches teachers how to teach.

You’ve had many ups and downs...your story is such an inspiration. What was it like when you were sentenced to the VA hospital as a prisoner for therapy treatment?

I had classes six and a half hours a day, five days a week learning bout how alcohol harms the body. Before that I was considered 'The Prince of Vegas' hiring entertainers like Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and Sinatra, etc, etc. to work at Caesar’s palace, I was their employer… and all that drinking I did takes a toll. I thought my best years were my drinking years…but it was hard for me to handle my responsibilities. Thanks to the judge who sentenced me to the VA hospital where I found sobriety.

Do you sponsor people in the program now?

My phone is available for anyone who needs my help and I am responsible for retired fighters. I help raise money for those who can’t afford it and I’m a volunteer for the VA hospital, I bring to them the knowledge I had when I was a union rep.

How would you describe yourself now?

I’m dull; people say no, you’re more exciting now because you’re doing good things.
When you do bad things everyone wants to know about it, it’s not when you do good.

That’s so true; the media is obsessed about it when anyone famous screws up! It’s not right. What other celebrities did you meet?

Laura Bacall, Joe Lewis…I walked the floor at Cesar’s Palace as a floor boss with heavy weight champion Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, Former Heavy-Weight Champ of the World, Paddy DeMarco, Light Weight Champ of the World.

What was it like meeting Sinatra? I am a fan.

Sinatra is in chapter 21 of my book and it tells of how he went to the casino manager at the Sands Hotel (Vegas, Nevada) in 1967 and caused a disturbance. I was a floor boss and Frank was looking for a 10,000 dollar marker at the craps table. That's when Carl Cohen, the casino manager told Frankie we sold the casino to Howard Hughes' people and their representative Bob Mahu changed all procedures stating, 'No Markers!' And Frank got mad and pushed Carl Cohen. And Carl escorted Frank to his suite and knocked a few of his teeth out because Frank said he would not perform that night and refused to work for Howard Hughes' people. That was the last time Frankie worked at the Sands Hotel and he went up the road to work at Cesar's Palace.

Would you have given Sinatra the marker?

Yeah, if it was up to me…I mean if a celebrity's working for you and his pay is $250,000 a week and you're paying him and he wants a $10,000 marker, you give it to him.

What else do you discuss in your book?

After I got discharged from the United States Air Force, I was a Sergeant…when I got discharged I had disagreements with my father and had to leave. I had to leave because I worked over a crocked cop who tried to shake me down! My father settled the dispute and I had to leave town and I went on a lamb for three and a half years. And changed my name to Tony Reo and I did my boxing and fighting under this name out West to make a living. While doing that I read the New York papers and it was printed in Forbes magazine that my father was number four as one of the richest men in the United States who never paid income tax. And I was picking cotton for 75 cents an hour! I traveled in carnivals as a fighter fighting spectators under the name of Tony Reo to eat. During this time of my life, I lost my mother to cancer and I was not aware of it.

There must be a lot of publicity surrounding the publication of your book?

Hollywood wants me for five segments of a TV show, a reality pilot, “Home Made." It's about seven ex-mobsters who want to go straight and open up a chain of "Home-Made" restaurants and compete with the likes of McDonalds...and there's another video called "Cooking with the Family" about the wise-guys favorite recipe...and the book trailer video, My Father, My Don that I narrate explaining my autobiography.

So at the moment, no movie?

I keep turning them down because they want me to sell my life rights. I don’t want it just to be entertaining…I want people to see the discipline, the family life. The way it was back then...the way only the father discusses the 'occupation', (Jimmy Nap was also a boxing manager, promoter, helped entertainers get jobs, a gambler, he banked the number racket for over 40 years in the five boroughs in New York). There'll be no movie if I have to sell my life rights.

I like that, that’s honorable.

Meeting Malachy McCourt

It was an amazing experience to speak with Malachy McCourt, the writer of many great books and actor in wonderful films and plays (including many off-off). In my research I discovered that he, like my own father left school at the age of 13 to work in England! He spoke with me about the importance of finding true love, his concept of what makes a good film and the making of Beautiful Kid written by Mike Carty and produced by Patrick McCullough.

Hello Malachy, is it a good time to talk?

Yes, what would you like to talk about?

The making of this amazing film and other amazing things you’ve done.

Okay. I really loved working with Column McCann. He is fabulous. I’ve read all his books, I am in awe of him…his determination…

You’ve achieved so much as an actor (Molly McMaguires, She‘s the One, The Devil‘s Own, Green Card, Beautiful Kid, Happy Hour, Gods and Generals, Ash Wednesday, HBO‘s Oz), Soap Star (Ryan‘s Hope, Search for Tomorrow, One Life to Live and All My Children), stage actor (Mass Appeal, Da, The Hostage, Inherit the Wind, Carousel and A Couple of Blaggards) and as a writer (History of Ireland, Voices of Ireland, Harold Be Thy Name, Danny Boy, The Claddagh Ring, A Monk Swimming, Singing My Him Song), of all these achievements, what do you consider your greatest?

What I found to be my greatest is what I consider my true love, my wife Diana…that transcends anything that I have done…and becoming a parent and a grandparent. The other stuff is transient…people see you for a minute and then you disappear. There is something about falling in love and staying there. It’s like pealing the onion…more shall be revealed.

That’s wonderful. What is your advice to someone who is trying to accomplish their goals but is struggling?

You can accomplish anything if you stick around…now if you’re dead your accomplishments will come to an end, so stay above ground!


(laughing) Good advice. Let’s talk a bit about your books depicting the history of Ireland (Danny Boy, Voices of Ireland, The Claddagh Ring, History of Ireland). Would you consider these non-fiction?

It‘s historical but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re factual, a lot of it is factual and opinion. Because in (recounting) history you can always get something wrong, and I do!

Can you give me an example?

For example there’s a continual thing about “Danny Boy.“ People say it’s an Irish Song. It has Irish music. But it’s not about a young man going off to fight for Ireland (as many believe). I have no idea. Who is Danny? And what is he doing? I put in my own version and people may not like this…

And you did a lot of research to get to the bottom of this mystery…you talked to historians, musicologists, academics, Irish icons…

Also my brother Frank, Liam Nissan, Seamus Heaney, Larry Kirwan (Black 47)…

And? What was the outcome? Who is the real Danny Boy?

They all had different opinions.

Aside from meeting and falling in love with your wife, what is another achievement you consider most important?

Another accomplishment is getting sober for the last quarter century…it’s a stroke of a divine providence… even though I’m not of the religious…I am spiritual.

That’s ironic because in the movie, your character tries to help the alcoholic family cope. Are there any Irish stereotypes that go with drinking?

As depicted clearly in the film…there is a similarity. However, there is this annoying thing that the Irish are automatically an alcoholic. However, the consumption isn’t anyway near as it is in other countries. Did you know that statistically the Irish spend as much money on books?

Wow, that really goes against those stereotypes.

The movie is fascinating…kind of a ghetto enclave (the Irish) who are besieged… they’ve always thought of themselves as being under siege. These characters as….at one time as Andrew Greely said, they (the Irish) climbed the ladder of success and pulled it up after them and became the seiged. The Irish had to attack and shatter their way into this country. They were the criminals, the prostitutes, they had to put up a fight….which in many ways has ruined their creativity. Now, they write insurance policies instead of books (laughing).

Is your writing approach of fact and opinion also evident in your book, Claddagh Ring?

It’s mythology and legend so nobody really knows. Again how it (the history of the ring) came about…nobody knows. There is a museum in Galway in a tiny shop dedicated to its history…

Does it get a lot of tourists?

No, you put three people in there and it’s packed (laughing). You know historical truth has always been written by the winners. There were no winners in Ireland when Ireland wasn’t ours so in the meantime we told all sorts of stories…

In your book, The History of Ireland you wrote and I’ll paraphrase: one characteristic of the Irish is having “an exhorted sense of resentment.."

Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die. However, it makes for good writing. I don’t know what we would have done without the English. The French make great wine by crushing grapes. The Irish make good writers…to get great Irish literature you have to crush the Irish! (laughing) we are very shy…

I like your sense of humor…and I look forward to reading all of these books, especially your histories. You’ve done some mainstream films like, She’s the One. What was Ed Burns like?

I’m close to his mom and dad and I’ve known him since he was a kid. I really liked doing Oz. I mean it was pretty gritty and rough and violent and everything but it was an interesting exercise in the acting field even though it depicted the prison conditions……

You were also a Talk show host for many years.

For six years in the 70s. There was a lot of people pulling you up or abusing you with ‘Why don’t you go back to where you came from?’ Because of my attitude toward religion, ‘You’re disgusting …‘ So anyway, there isn’t anything I didn’t enjoy including being a barkeep. In everything I do, I can’t wait to hear what I have to say next…I am very egotistical…..

Which can be a very good thing.

Yeah, (laughing)you can get a lot done.

A Monk Swimming and its sequel Singing My Him Song seem to be autobiographical...

They are Memoir…not autobiographical. Memoir is impressionistic.

Wouldn’t want Oprah to tear you to shreds…

That’s right…if you’re going to call it an autobiography, it better be. With a memoir you don’t have to do that…

How many films did you do before Beautiful Kid?

35.

Really?

It was my first film with my brother Frank though. He’s not an actor.

That's very neat. Did you do anything else with him?

We wrote a play together but we hadn’t done much together in film…talks and things like that.

Beautiful Kid written by Mike Carty took place primarily in Woodlawn, was that your first time in Woodlawn?

I liked it. It’s not a place where I would go too often because I live in the city but I was fascinated by the Irish enclave again…

The movie paints a picture of an Irish American family, what are your thoughts and feelings about the stories‘ negative aspects such as the alcoholism, etc.

It wasn’t negative or positive, it was accurate. That’s what happened. We (Irish) can be pretty stupid like everyone else. I thought it was well written and well done in every way and I hope the very talented team of Mike Carty, Colum McCann and Patrick McCullough will do well with it.

And last but not least, this movie won Best Supporting Actor (John Carty) and Best Actor (Dan Brennan) Awards…do you have a favorite actor?

They were all great. But I think a movie is not an actors medium, it is a directors medium…there should just be best team work in a movie and there should be no awards for acting because it’s the directors efforts, the best way you know a movie is good is when you can’t pick out an actor. A good movie is when everything is working smoothly…to get out a well pulled story….with its big and small roles.

I really like that concept. Thank you very much for speaking with me, I appreciate your time.

You are welcome.

Visiting Victor Rodriguez

Victor Rodriquez is the author of two books: Eldorado in East Harlem (a partly autobiographical coming-of-age novel) and Ravenhall: Introducing Detective Sid Rodrigo, a murder mystery. Dr. Ulla Dydo, a former professor at Bronx Community College and Gertrude Stein scholar, has used Eldorado in her readings and class discussions. This book was also used as an historical fiction piece depicting Spanish Harlem in the 60s in a college classroom in Germany. It was inspiring for me to meet him and discuss his novels and current projects....

When did you begin writing?

Let's see...let me be brief. I was born in Puerto Rico and moved to East Harlem when I was two, and grew up there. I've lived most of my life in New York. When I was seventeen I suddenly fell in love with reading after being hooked by a murder mystery. This led to an appreciation of classic nineteenth century literature, particularly the works of Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Herman Melville and Mark Twain to name a few. But most of all it was the great Jules Verne who inspired me to become an author. I’m still mesmerized by his Extraordinary Voyages.

Do you like contemporary authors?

Yes, of course. But I’d have to say that the late Howard Fast, with whom I had the honor of meeting and corresponding, held as tight a grip on my psyche as did Verne. From Verne I learned to love adventure, and Fast’s historical novels, Citizen Tom Paine, The Last Frontier, Spartacus and April Morning gave me a deep appreciation of the struggle for human dignity and freedom. Fast was a gifted storyteller. I’ll never forget his words of encouragement.

What inspired you to write?

It began as desire to escape from the poverty of working class neighborhoods like East Harlem and the South Bronx. Not only did reading transport me to intriguing worlds, but it also made me aware of and appreciate art, classical music and other human endeavors.

Do you always write?

I try to write every single day. I’m sixty-five and have been writing since I was seventeen; when you love writing for that long, it must mean something. But getting published is even more difficult than writing. I got married at the age of nineteen and raised a family while working as a laboratory technician. After many years of struggling to get published, Arte Publico Press liked Eldorado in East Harlem and published it in 1992. Arte Publico Press is the foremost publisher of Hispanic authors.

What does the title mean?
Dorado is a Spanish word for gold. When the New World Indians saw how pernicious and greedy their Spanish invaders were they made up stories just to be rid them; virtual legends later woven into American folklore. One of these legends is the one about Ponce de León and the Fountain of Youth. The Aztecs told them of a city of gold to the north, which the Spanish later called Eldorado. I used the word as a metaphor for the image that some poor foreigners thinking of immigrating to America had of this country. But once here they found not an Eldorado but a place requiring lots of hard work to overcome poverty. Most of my characters are people struggling daily with life’s challenges. After Eldorado in East Harlem I worked on short stories and kept a journal for ten years. I then wrote Ravenhall a novel about an NYPD detective
named Sid Rodrigo, which was published last summer by PublishAmerica.

How much time do you dedicate to writing on a daily basis?
Five years ago I went into early retirement to devote myself to full-time writing. Now that I have the time I work four or five hours a day. Even If you write just a single page a day, in twelve months you’ll have a book length manuscript. But for me, it's not simple story telling. My love of history lets me enjoy doing research for my novels. For Eldorado I dug into the history of my old neighborhood and read several books about the politics of the early 1960s. And for Ravenhall, which is set in the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage in the Bronx, I re-read all of Poe’s works, though it’s not about him, a biography about Poe and numerous books on crime. I also delved into numismatics, jewelry making and the war on drugs. I interviewed detectives, watched TV shows like Forensic Files and, believe it or not, read about cockfighting. Though fiction, it is based on a real case. Poe Cottage is still there on East Kingsbridge Road just as Poe left it in 1849. It’s a museum now. The minute I toured the cottage I realized that its eerie atmosphere was a perfect setting for a murder mystery. Why not? Poe wrote some of his best ones there. Ravenhall is about a Bronx cop who goes on a furlough to relieve burn-out, but after finding a dead body in Poe Cottage he’s forced to go on a hunt for a murderer with ties to the Colombian drug cartel. I had lots of fun writing it.

I've taught Sandra Cicerones, The House on Mango Street and Esmeralda Santiago's When I was Puerto Rican, these writers focus a lot of their work on "The Puerto Rican experience," is this what you do?

I’ve read and enjoyed When I Was Puerto Rican and many other books like it. Although I write for a general audience, it must have a Hispanic angle to it because of my background and the fact that our heritage is a unique element of the American experience. Esmeralda Santiago is distinct in that her story is different from mine. It's a good contrast...my book involves a young man growing up in a rough New York neighborhood; his sole background. She has memories that harkens back to the island as well as experiences in New York because she moved here during her teens, I think. She was able to describe both experiences in wonderful detail because of this.

Why is there such a recent surge in the marketing of Hispanic work?

I believe that by the 1970s American and European readers, tired of reading traditional novels with familiar settings and situations, turned to the more imaginative and highly original Latin America writers such as the Colombian Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He perfected that literary movement know as magical realism, wherein he mixes reality with fantasy in such books as his dazzling One Hundred Years of Solitude, which gave new life to the modern novel. I strongly believe that Garcia Marquez and his contemporaries have also sparked the current trend among today’s youth for books like the Harry Potter series. It’s a wonderful thing seeing young people eager to read, learn and imagine enchanting worlds.

I agree. I remember reading Marquez in this great contemporary literature class I took at Manhattan College and it was difficult but I really liked it.
Even some major publishers, like Simon and Shuster, have an imprint which focuses on publishing Hispanic writers. However, I think general readers always keep an open mind and know a good book when they read it. I’ve read somewhere that countless bibliophiles, regardless of their ethnicity, have read, wept over and loved Angela's Ashes.What are you reading now?
There’s a wonderful Spanish author named Arturo Perez-Reverte, whose historical adventure novels are as exciting, enjoyable and informative as the classics of Alexandre Dumas and Rafael Sabatini. Perez-Reverte’s hero is a seventeenth century Spanish soldier named Captain Diego Alatriste who lives as a swordsman-for–hire in Madrid. Captain Alatriste is the first title in the series. And because I’m a New York history buff, I’m enjoying reading Victoria Thompson’s mysteries set in late nineteenth century Manhattan: Murder in Astor Place, Murder on Mulberry Bend, etc.

Are your novels intended for Young Adults?

Not in particular; I always aim towards the general reader. However, I was surprised that Eldorado in East Harlem did attract adolescent readers because its hero is a seventeen-year-old who gets into sticky situations with which they can relate. Several years ago I was invited to the public library at Newark, New Jersey. Many of the local high school kids, and their teachers, had read my book. After my speech and an answering session I signed so many copies of Eldorado that it numbed my right hand. But I was thrilled and surprised that so many young people had read it!

Why?

I think some scenes in the book are unintentionally racy and have some spicy street language.

That's probably why they loved it so much.

Well, I like to think of myself as being as much of a naturalist and realist as Jack London. His books depict life the way it really is, and not colored by the romantic sentimentalists that preceded him. Good blokes like Charles Dickens for instance. When London wrote about two animals in a life and death struggle you can almost see and hear them tearing each other apart. That’s the reality of life. I like to write about life the way it really is, warts and all. But one should always bear in mind readers’ sensitivities and not overdue it by sickening or offending them.

Is there a typical theme/message your characters portray?

I’m not a philosopher or moralist. One is a straightforward coming-of-age novel and the second one is a police procedural; a crime drama wherein a homicide is committed and solved in the end. I leave it up to readers to draw their own conclusions about what motivates my characters. What I'm working on now is a historical novel set in sixteenth century Puerto Rico and Spain. As you can see my interests vary.

What will that be about?

At this stage, I've finished two years of historical research and am working on the novel’s outline. It’s like constructing a house: you draw the plan, start with a foundation and work yourself up. I'm very very careful with the research and can back up all my sources. It may take several years to complete because the subject is a very broad one. Generally speaking it’s about the Post Colombian period and the devastating affects the Spanish conquest had on the Taíno Indians. Its main character is a mestizo.

What is that? I'm sorry...I should know this.

A mestizo is a Hispanic person with mixed ancestry, especially someone of both Native American and European ancestry.

What inspired you to write on this topic?

While a student at Bronx Community College I wrote a term paper about a Spanish Dominican monk named Bartolomé de Las Casas, who devoted his long life fighting for the rights of the New World Indians. He sought to have them recognized as rational human beings with souls and that their lives and property should be protected. He called for the abolition of slavery and condemned the cruelty, hunger, hard labor and diseases that were rapidly killing them by the tens of thousands.

That's very fascinating. What is your philosophy on life?

When the late great cellist Pablo Casals was in his nineties he was asked, because he was considered a musical genius, if he still leaned anything. His answer: “Yes. Every day. I never stop learning; I learn something new every day." I try to live by that same philosophy. Life is too wondrous to waste on trivial matters.

Describe one of your most memorable experiences you've had as a writer?

That visit I made to the Newark Public Library was in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. I was deeply moved by everyone’s interest in my life story and the impact it’s had on my writing. I think some of those young people may’ve identified with me and, hopefully, learned that the power to change their lives is deep within each of them.

That is very inspiring. I'm looking forward to reading your books. I think I'll start with Eldorado...I love books that takes place in the sixties. I love reading about how much New York has changed.

Thank you very much. Yes, New York has changed. But one thing will never change: it will always be the gateway to America.