Composer and writer Nick Padron lives in Madrid and Miami. To date, he has published more than one hundred musical compositions, including a rock opera based on Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan series (diablero.com). His short stories have appeared in numerous publications and collections in the United States, Canada, Spain and Japan. His novella, It Tolls For Thee, rated number one at Zoetrope All-Story, October 2002. His first novel, Gabriel Hemingway's The Cuban Scar, is available on Amazon. His second novel, The Good Terrorist, is an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award finalist. You can find his work online at http://www.gabrielhemingway.webs.com/ and http://www.diablero.com/
Nick's short story, "Ghost Raft," appeared in the Autumn 2010 issue of The Battered Suitcase.
Nick, when did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
It was not a realization as much as part of an unexplainable desire to make up stories based on personal experiences, be them direct or indirect, and of creating artistic works similar to the ones that inspired me.
Why do you write?
Out of love of artistic creation, the work that goes into overcoming all the resistance one encounters in its completion, an act of loving rebellion.
Is being a writer/poet anything like you imagined it would be?
Yes and no. I’ve never imagined becoming a writer or a composer. I just did it.
What do you think makes a good story?
It’s got to have heart. The kind of heart that comes from the mysteries of the human experience.
What's your favorite genre to read?
Literary
Who is your favorite author or poet?
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
What books or stories have most influenced you the most as a writer?
All the works of Garcia Marquez, Ernest Hemingway, Don De Lillo, Oscar Hijuelos, Carlos Castaneda, Vargas LLosa
What books or stories have most influenced you as a person?
One Hundred Years of Solitude, For Whom The Bells Toll, War and Peace
Where/how do you find the most inspiration?
Out of personal experience
What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
Unpredictable
Do you have any writing quirks or rituals?
I must be alone in a room
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Getting it published
What are your current projects?
A try at a science fiction story and a novel with explicit eroticism.
What are you planning for future projects?
If possible, to come up with a novel that would be acceptable to today’s publishers.
Do you have any advice for other writers?
Keep writing. Luck in the book world, as with the Muses, comes while you’re hard at work.
Where can we find your work?
My first novel, Gabriel Hemingway’s THE CUBAN SCAR is available at www.amazon.com and elsewhere in the Internet
Science fiction with explicit eroticism sounds really interesting. I'd read that.
ReplyDeleteHave meant to read Marquez all these years; now I hope to read Gabriel Hemingway as well. I wonder if he's read Joseph Chilton Pearce, who loves Castenada. I've never known fully what to make of Pearce (or Castenada), but most of his theory of creativity is directly on the mark. "Acceptable to today's publishers," is something we always hear these days, yet it's always ambiguous when it comes to work that is at least considerable. Each editor has a different take (or leave). Best of fortune to Gabriel!
ReplyDeleteGreat brevity in the answers - short and to the point :)
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