It's my pleasure to introduce author Ricardo
Sanchez. He's here answering questions and presenting his book Bigfoot
Blues.
Take it away Ricardo.
Hi, my name is Ricardo Sanchez. I’m a comic book and
fiction writer (I still have a hard time calling myself a writer. When I think
“writer” I tend to think of names like Asimov, Christie and Zelazney.) I’ve
worked in comics for a little over a decade now and written for books like
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Resident Evil and Teen Titans Go! I’ve also
written kid’s comics. But fiction writing is relatively new for me.
My first novel, Elvis Sightings, just came out in
September of last year. It’s about Floyd, a private eye who is also a Lifestyle
Elvis – he lives his life the way he thinks Elvis would want him to. He’s got a
tip that Elvis is still alive and well, living in a small town in Wyoming. When he gets
there, he finds lots of “dead” celebrities, a cold war era government
conspiracy, and a group of ex-circus performers in a cold war with the Dutch
town founders. And then things get interesting. In the sequel, Bigfoot Blues
(which I’m promoting now,) Floyd goes to a small town in Oregon looking for a woman who may have
eloped with Bigfoot. Then he gets roped into a search for some missing
crypto-taxidermy (creation of critters that never existed, like jackalopes) and
is asked by the local PD to help nab a wild mountain lion that might actually
be a chupacabra. The novels fall into the cozy mystery category, although that
isn’t quite right. They’re mysteries, for sure, complete with a private
detective and cases to solve, but they’re also quirky, funny character pieces.
I know most writers pick a genre and are known for that type of writing, but I
don’t seem to be able to contain myself to any one genre.
How
many years have you been writing, what was the catalyst, and what are your
long-term goals?
I’ve been writing something since I was seven. Most of it
hasn’t been worth reading until recently though. (I went through a Lord of the
Rings knock-off kick between the ages of 9 and 11 that was pretty dreadful.)
I’ve always just had a compulsion to tell stories. When I was a kid, that
sometimes manifested itself as what I will generously call tall tales, but the
adults around me would call fibs. Or maybe just lies. I’ve done much better by
channeling that energy into writing.
What is
your current W. I. P. about?
I wrote two mystery novels in very quick succession,
Elvis Sightings and then Bigfoot Blues, the sequel. Start to finish, Bigfoot
Blues was completed in less than 8 months. So after tramping around in the
world of my Lifestyle Elvis private detective, I wanted to do something
different and started work on a story about a zombie. He’s not your typical
brain gobbling groaner though. He has thoughts and feelings, just like you and
me, but because he’s a zombie, he can’t get things like a social security number.
Or a job. Or an apartment. So he gets by as best he can. The name of the book
is Odd Jobs for the Undead and that gives you a pretty good insight into his
life. Jobs the living can’t or won’t do are just right for him, and things are
going well! He’s got a great new gig at a chemical company (although the staff
tends to pack a lot of heat) and he has a necrophiliac girlfriend (with a
personality that would make pacifists violent.) It’s quite a departure from
Elvis Sightings, but it was a nice way to reset the creative impulse so that
when I go to work on the third book, a traditional manor mystery in the spirit
of an Agatha Christie story, I can approach the character with fresh eyes.
What
was your inspiration for this project?
A couple years ago there was a call for submissions for a
paranormal romance anthology. I wrote about a blind date that a zombie goes on.
It was sort of a joke story. It didn’t get picked up, but I liked the idea a
lot and when I finished Bigfoot Blues, I started turning it into a full novel.
If zombies attacked, what would you do, and
why?
I’d steal a boat and head to sea. Or maybe just the
middle of a big lake. I haven’t seen a zombie movie yet where they could swim.
They always sink to the bottom.
If you could be any horror character, or
superhero, which would it be and why?
There is a character in the DC Comics Legion of Super
Heroes called Matter Eater Lad. His super power is that he can eat anything.
Brick walls. Cars. Anything. With no ill effects. His role in a story is
usually to eat an escape route. But if I could eat like that, I would go on a
food tour of Africa and South
America and try every local dish without worrying about dysentery
or parasites. I can taste the half cooked pork now…
Are you
self-published or traditionally published? Was that always your goal?
I’m quasi-traditionally published. My publisher is a
digital one, Carina Press. I went with them over some other companies because I
couldn’t remember the last physical book I bought (that wasn’t out of print.) I
wanted the experience of having an editor go through the manuscript with me,
show me where my prose could be improved and where I might have bad or sloppy
writing habits. I will say that my editor, Kerri Buckley, is AMAZING.
Absolutely spectacular. She made both of my Elvis Sightings Mystery books so
much better than they would have been otherwise. I love working with editors. A
lot. That said, I’m interested in self publishing too. With the new book, I may
try that route to market.
Where
can readers find your work?
Elvis Sightings and Bigfoot Blues are available
everywhere digital books are sold, so you can find them at your favorite ebook
shop. You can also find a lot of my work, either as a few free chapters or
entire projects on Wattpad at http://www.wattpad.com/user/Ricardo-Sanchez
What
types of books do you read?
Everything. Although mostly vintage science fiction and
crime these days. I actually just finished a male/male romance from a fellow
Carina Press writer. Not my usual thing, to be honest, but it was good. But I
read a lot of non-fiction to get ideas. There is a book called The Big
Necessity (it’s about human waste) that gave me an idea for a novel that I
really, really love.
Do you
have any advice for novice writers?
I have two pieces of advice for people who want to write.
The first one is don’t do it. Unless you have to. I would have a lot more time
to do fun things with family and friends if I weren’t writing. It’s hard work
and I need a day job too. But the truth is I couldn’t NOT write. So if you feel
the same way, that it’s something you must do, then my advice is never give up,
listen to feedback openly (especially when someone tells you your work sucks)
to see what you can do to improve your work, and never listen to anyone who
tells you your work sucks or isn’t publishable. There are lots of famous
writers who were told their books would go nowhere, then did. But it happens to
not-so-famous writers too. I was told no publisher would ever pick up Elvis
Sightings, but I kept knocking on doors until I found someone who loved my
book. Although by then I had also started working on a new project just in case
I couldn’t find that person.
Tell us
about your writing habits.
I’m lazy. I have to force myself to write (even though I
love doing it.) So I try to isolate myself from anything that might be a
distraction, which could be the cat, games on my computer, the internet,
everything. I’ve done my best work on oversees airline flights. But I’ve found
that when I turn it into a process, I do better. I start with a pretty
extensive outline that I do in a spreadsheet. It makes it easier to cut and
paste parts, move them around, and create multiple plot paths. Then I do
chapter by chapter bullets and finally, I start typing at least 500 words every
day until I get to the end. I also use an application called Scrivener. I don’t
think I could have finished a novel without it. It’s quite different from
something like MS Word, in that it is a collection of text documents, rather
than one document. So I can combine my outline, all my reference material, even
images, into one super document, then turn off wifi, and stay in that one app
while I write. It’s really an amazing app. I’ve been waiting about two years
for it to come to iPad. When it does I think that will become my primary
writing platform.
If you could live and write anywhere in the
world, where would it be?
I actually love Northern California
a lot. It’s a wonderful part of the world. But if not right where I am, I think
Barcelona. I’m
a night person and everything in Barcelona
is open really, really late. So I could get up at noon, have breakfast. Goof off for a few hours, then do
some writing and have dinner at 10. And all the food would be awesome.
If you
could change anything about your writing journey, what would it be?
Instant fame and fortune. Seriously. I find it much
easier to write when I know there is an audience for it. It’s part of the
reason I was able to finish my second novel so much more quickly than the
first. I knew someone would read it. I find it really difficult to write without
knowing whether anyone besides my immediate circle of friends and family will
know it exists. This is probably an indicator of some sort of narcissistic
personality disorder, but I find audiences very motivating.
What is
the one book you would want if it were all you could have?
I’m going to cheat a little and say the complete works of
William Shakespeare. I have that book on my shelf. Whenever I need inspiration,
I will read one of his lesser-known plays. Not so much because I want to crib
from them, but because it is remarkable how even his duds are spectacular works
of story telling. I lose myself in his characters and plots and when I’m done,
I feel energized and look forward to staring at my word processor.
She eloped
with Bigfoot. Or maybe Bigfoot kidnapped her. Either way, I've been hired to
uncover the truth behind Cindy Funk's disappearance. Me? I'm Floyd, and I'm a
PI living my life as Elvis would have wanted. Not just in sequined jumpsuits.
With character.
Cindy's trail
leads me to River City, Oregon—aka the Mythical Creature Capital of
the World—where I catch Case #2. This one from an eccentric billionaire who's
lost a priceless piece of "art." Enter one dead body and I end up
deputized to solve Case #3, tracking down a man-eating mountain lion. Or maybe
it's a chupacabra. Or just an ordinary murderer. Hard to say.
I've handled
my fair share of crazy, but River
City's secrets have me
spooked. With an influx of tourists arriving for the town's annual Elvis
tribute contest—what are the chances?—I've got to save the girl, solve the rich
guy's problem and leash that chupacabra before a second body is discovered. It
might just be mine.
Read more
about Floyd's adventures in Elvis Sightings, available now!
For More Information
Book Excerpt:
It was ten past two on a
Wednesday and I was sitting behind my desk in the office I share with Franklin,
a chiropractor. His wife had sent me looking for him almost four years ago, but
she was such a harridan that once I’d found him, I couldn’t bring myself to
turn over his location. He’d let me use his place as an office, rent-free, ever
since.
I checked my watch
again.
Wanda was flying back
to Kresge today. I resented being dragged away from her, even for just an hour,
but the man on the phone had insisted. It had been more than a month since my
last case, so while Wanda packed, I came into the office to meet Peter Funk.
And he was late.
The clock hit 2:15. I
was about to leave when a very lost-looking man in his fifties opened the door.
“You must be Floyd,” he
said, taking off his well-worn Caterpillar cap. His bald head had the baked
look of someone who spent a lot of time under the hot Idaho sun. “Your Elvis
outfit kinda gives it away,” he added.
“You’re Mr. Funk?”
He smiled weakly and
bobbed his head up and down in the affirmative.
I pointed him to a seat
and sat back down at my desk.
“So what can I do for
you?” I asked.
Funk looked down at the
cap in his hands and worried at a loose thread with his callused fingers.
“I need you to find my
daughter,” he said and looked up at me. “You’ve got to help me. I don’t know
who else to turn to.”
“I’d be happy to help,
Mr. Funk, but with missing children you’re much better off going to the
police.”
Funk stood up and
slapped his hat against his thigh. A small cloud of dirt erupted from the dull
blue denim of his pants.
“Oh, the cops won’t
help me. Cindy’s eighteen. They said they can’t go looking for her if she’s
just run off,” he said. “Besides…”
“Besides what, Mr.
Funk?”
He took his seat again
before finally blurting out, “She ran off to elope with Bigfoot.”
I would have laughed if
Funk hadn’t looked so worried.
“Bigfoot?” I said.
“That’s a nickname?”
“No, sir.”
Funk pulled a postcard
out of his jeans pocket and handed it to me.
On one side was a
teenage boy holding up a plaster casting of a giant footprint nearly three feet
long. Across the bottom it read “River City—The Home of Bigfoot.” I turned it
over. The postmark was three weeks ago in River City, Oregon. The note on the
card read:
Dear Daddy,
I’ve fallen in love
with Bigfoot and we’ve decided to elope. I won’t be coming back to Pocatello.
I’ll write again soon.
Cindy
She’d put a little
heart in place of the dot above the is in both Bigfoot and Cindy.
River City… The name
was familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.
“My girl, she’s a
willful one she is, but Cindy’s never lied to me. Not once,” Funk said. “If
Cindy says she’s eloped with Bigfoot, that’s exactly what she’s done.”
Why did I get all the
weirdos? Was it the suit? Or the Lifestyle Elvis thing? Or maybe this was some
sort of elaborate practical joke. I let out a low sigh.
A case is a case, I told myself. And
this one was just too absurd to be someone shining me on.
*****
Ricardo Sanchez is a writer, toy buff, and lifelong comic
book fan.
Elvis Sightings, the first novel in his Elvis Sightings Mysteries
series, was released in September , 2014.
Bigfoot
Blues, the follow up, was released in May, 2015.
Ricardo has written several books for DC Comics, including Batman:
Legends of the Dark Knight, Teen Titans Go! and Resident Evil among
many others. His original project, A Hero’s Death, was a successful
Kickstarter released in May, 2015.
In addition to writing, Ricardo is an Emmy award winning video and animation
producer. When he’s not writing, Ricardo maintains a vintage toy blog, drives
70's muscle cars, and shops year round for Halloween decorations for his home
in California.
You can hang out with me at
the following places:
