About
I’ve been writing for a good while now. Mostly about Latinos, underdogs, survivors, trying to make it through another day. Same as you in most respects.
I started when I was about 16 but didn’t really get serious until a few years later when my dad had cancer and was in the hospital. We’d never had a real conversation.
And I wound up writing him a story to convey all the pain he’d put us through. He read it! And we had a moment of clarity and empathy that came through the power of fiction.
Much to the dismay of loved ones. I decided to forego law school and study writing. It was a terrific risk for a first generation, poor Mexican kid from the barrios of San Antonio’s West side.
I found I was good at it. Wrote my first novel, Crossing, at 21. Since then I’ve written four more and a book about the counterculture. I teach fiction and run the Creative Writing Program at the University of Texas at Dallas
My true joy is my two daughters and wife. I also love building stuff out of wood. I’ll post some pics of projects I make. As a writer you get to the place where making something with your own to hands is about as satisfying as it gets.