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J.P. Der Boghossian: Why, hello, everybody, my name is J P. Der Boghossian. And for our new listeners to this podcast, we have a new episode of This Queer Book Saved My Life! that drops next week. And today we present to you Seven Minutes in Book Heaven, where I interview Queer authors about the new books they have coming out for us to love and to cuddle up with. With me today is Gerardo Sámano Córdova. Hello!

Gerardo Sámano Córdova: Hello, how are you? I am well.

J.P.: I am well, so glad to have you here. I'm really looking forward to this

Gerardo: Thank you for having me. I'm excited.

J.P.: Absolutely. Per the rules of the game, Gerardo and I are going to spend seven minutes in this virtual studio talking about his new novel Monstrilo, while also getting to know more about the amazing artist and writer who is Gerardo Sámano Córdova. Are you ready?
Gerardo: I am ready.

J.P. : I will set the timer, and here, we are. Question number one, Would you please describe your new novel Monstrilio, as if you're sharing it with your celebrity crush and telling us who that crush is of course,

Gerardo: Yes, so I would be like, Hello, Michael Fassbender!

J.P.: Oh!
Gerardo: I’m so happy you're interested in knowing more about my book Monstrilio. The book is about a mother who loses her child and she takes a piece of his lung and keeps that piece, and then she feeds the piece of lung ?? and he becomes a monster. The rest of the novel is that family raising the monster as their own child, So you get four different perspectives: the mother, the father, their best friend, and of course, Monstrilio himself, the little monster.

J.P.: Michael Fassbender, and I don't know about you, Michael, but I am really looking forward to reading this novel. Hopefully you can join us as well. Okay, question number two, What is a sentence from a novel, a poem or other book that every time you read it, it gives you all of the feels.

Gerardo: So it's from, Would Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. I love that book and it's right at the beginning and it goes like this. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf because the two middle fingers in both my hands are the same length. But I've had to be content with what I had.

J.P.: What is it about the book?

Gerardo: I love it. So it's about these two sisters, Mary Katherine Blackwood and her sister Constance. They live in this house, and the rest of their family are dead. You kind of get a hint that Katherine, the narrator, the one that wants to be a werewolf, kind of killed them. And so it's kind of their journey in this family life. Then there's a cousin that comes in and it's just very gothic. But the voice of the character is just amazing. In one sentence you get so much depth on who this person is and such a particular way of expressing someone's desires because it kind of doesn't make sense. Why would two middle fingers being the same signal that you are a werewolf? At the same time it makes sense for her, so I love that.

J.P.: It definitely grabs my attention. Have you ever wanted to be a werewolf?

Gerardo: Yes.

J.P.: Okay,

Gerardo: I think it would be horrible and awesome at the same time.

J.P.: Okay, I do want to know more about that, but we've got to keep moving here. So question number three, what do you feel is the best sentence you've ever written?

Gerardo: That's a hard question. but I'll read one that is one of my favorites from the book. It's also towards the beginning when the mother Mags and the Father Joseph have just lost their child Santiago, It goes like this. ‘We didn't so much exist as much as we haunted with no one else to haunt, we haunted each other.

J.P.: I cannot wait to read this book. Oh my goodness. Thank you. Question number four, what's the best romantic scene you've ever read?

Gerardo: So that's from a book I recently read and I'm obsessed about right now. It's called In the Distance by Herman Diaz. It's his first fiction book. Now he has another one called Trust, that's doing the rounds and all the awards and everything but this one was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist. It's about this Swedish guy that goes to the U S. as an immigrant with his brother, but he takes the wrong ship and his brother ends up in New York, and he ends up in San Francisco during the gold rush era. So it's his adventures trying to go to New York. He's a very lonely character and there's a point in the book where he's rescued from a series of events, but he's rescued by this other guy called Asa. They travel together and there's a moment and it's very romantic and also platonic. Hawk, who's the main guy, the Swedish guy gets hurt. Asa takes him into his arms and puts his head into his chest, and he can hear his heart beat. Hawkins says this is the first time that I've been embraced and it's just such a beautiful moment because he's been lonely during this whole time. This is like the first moment where he feels seen and touched and I just love that.

J.P.: That's so lovely. I want to know more about that, but we have about a minute left. Question number five, but what are your favorite scents or smells to write about?

Gerardo: Well, one that I keep coming back to and maybe I shouldn't use as much is the scent of jasmine at dusk, But I also love writing about the scent of blood and sweat. I think people have their own scent, and so I'm very into bodily things. I love bodies and love writing about bodies, so sweat and blood I love to write about.

J.P.: We're going to run over on time. How are you describing the scent of blood? What does that smell like? How do you write that?

Gerardo: It's iron. It's tangy. There's also taste very involved with scent. It's also the scent of life, almost its mineral. It's earthy.

J.P.: Wow! Okay, Wow, Yeah, You've really got me thinking here, so we're gonna do our last question. What is the worst writing advice you've ever got?

Gerardo: I think the worst writing advice for me is the one that kind of stops you from writing and usually for me that has been when people say don't write a certain kind of word. For example, don't use adverbs or don't use the word that, or don't use the word it, or things like that. It's so prohibitive of certain words without even knowing the context of what you're writing. it just stops you from creation. I would just say like right, whatever you want, even if it's all adverbs. I'm sure it could be amazing.

J.P.: I want to read that now, an all adverb like essay or short story. Okay, promote yourself. How do we pre order your book? How do we follow you on Social?

Gerardo: The book is in most stores. It's on the main online stores: Bbookshop.org, Amazon. Barnes And Noble. I think it's going to be in most independent bookstores, which I'm excited about. I hope it is. You can follow me on social. It's @samanito on Twitter and Instagram,

J.P.: That's all the time that we have. Thank you so much, Gerardo.

Gerardo: Thank you so much, J. P. It’s been fun.

J.P.: Yes! This has been another episode of Seven Minutes in Book Heaven, which is presented to you by This Queer Book Saved My Life! Our podcasts are executive produced by Jim Pounds, Our associate producers are Archie Arnold, Natalie Cruse, Paul Kaefer, Nicole Olilla, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Shawn Smith. You can be an associate producer as well, and we welcome you to join us. All the details are at patreon.com/bookshop. Transcripts of all of our episodes are available at this queer book dot com. You can buy the books featured on our podcast on our bookshop page: thisqueerbook.com/bookshop. We are on Facebook, plus, we’re at thisqueerbook on Instagram and Twitter. My name is J P. Der Boghossian and stay tuned to this space every Tuesday for new episodes of Seven Minutes in Book Heaven or This Queer Book Saved My Life! Until then, See you Queers and allies in the bookstores!

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