Videos

I've redone my two YouTube videos because somebody told me how to put up better quality stuff on YouTube. Enjoy!

Affirmations: The Video

Just a video I made recently to promote the book. Let me know what you think.

(in case you have trouble viewing the version above, you can also find it on YouTube.)

Writers and "drug" culture

Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle had a series of articles about popular culture, and interviewed many young people, mostly artists from the Bay Area. Many of these artists alluded to drug and alcohol abuse influencing their work, expanding their minds and so forth. None of the artists said much about being more integrated into the so-called "mainstream" of popular culture and art (though a guy said it's important to be innovative while "trippin' it mainstream," whatever that means) and that they would rather continue to use mood-altering substance to create "daring" art. I wonder why. Maybe it's the U.S.'s drug policy. You don't see much detailed talk about drugs other than "don't do it," which usually backfires by making people want to use.

So, what does this all have to do with my writing and/or my book (I guess you're probably expecting me to bring up Nefertari Gundangamo, the drug family character in Affirmations). Well, yes, kind of, but I'm going to talk about how I, as a writer intimately involved in the drug trade for many years, am expected to write stories about drug abuse. I don't know how many people who have not seen the cover of Affirmations, ask me about the book. When I tell them that the girl on the cover is a bright-eyed, dumpy redhead, they're in shock. Most people, regardless of ethnicity expect me to write stories about drug addicts or the horrors of growing up in a notorious cartel. They expect me to be like Bret Easton Ellis or Tony Ruggiero. They don't expect a normal protagonist nor do they expect a drug-trade character who is rebellious, but at the same time a drug addict. What do you think? Do you think writers of unique backgrounds are expected to write unique stories? Is it all that shocking that most of my characters have never touched drugs?

By the way, writing drug stories isn't something that I'm going to completely abandon. It's just something that I'm not really going to explore right now.