Ep. 251: Mark A. Alvarez II on How to Write Scars and Vulnerability

Mark A. Alvarez II is Hispanic-American born in Houston, Texas. He’s a graduate of Texas State University, where he studied Public Relations and Mass Communications. He is a graduate of the NEW Apprenticeship, the first tech-apprenticeship program accredited by the United States Department of Labor. He is the CEO and Founder of Light Wings Promotions LLC, a digital marketing and creative branding agency based in San Antonio, Texas, where Mark currently resides. Dutybound is his first novel. 

Transcript:

Rachael Herron: [00:00:00] Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.

[00:00:16] Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode # 251 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. I’m so pleased that you’re here with me today in New Zealand as I record this intro. Today, we are talking to Mark A. Alvarez II. When we spoke, I was not in New Zealand, so you’re going to be flashing back and forth in time as you hear these things. If you watch on the YouTube channel, you will see me in my old office and in different places for the next couple of months because I stacked up so many episodes in order to give myself a little bit of breathing room, so that’s happening. But, Mark was really, really awesome to talk to. We talk about our own scars and how to show them in our writing. Basically, we talk about writing with the vulnerability, that means we are actually writing with truth and with honesty, with the kind of voice that readers lean in to listen to.

[00:01:16] So I know you’re going to enjoy the interview, just a little catch up around here. Again, if you are watching on the YouTube channel, number one, did you know there’s a YouTube channel? Number two: Did you know that you should subscribe to it? I think it’s YouTube, just google it YouTube Rachael Herron (RachaelHerron) or RachaelHerronWrites and it comes right up. Trying to do a little bit more with the YouTube channel these days. So if you did want to watch over there or put it on in the background while you’re doing something else, I would love that. But if you’re watching on it, you get to see what the inside of a New Zealand bathroom in a hotel looks like. And let me tell you, it is like nothing you have ever seen before, except it is actually like every other bathroom you’ve ever seen before. 

[00:01:54] Lala, my wife, made a very funny joke on Twitter yesterday, which nobody seemed to think was as funny as I did, but she said that she’s starting to get Stockholm syndrome because she finally understands how all the faucets and taps work. You know how, when you’re in a hotel room, you can never figure it out. By the time you start working it out, you’re leaving the hotel room. Well, we are in here long enough to figure out how to work every single little thing in this hotel. Including all the knobs of taps in the shower bath, which is where we are spending a lot of time because out there, it’s basically a 10×10 room with a queen size bed in the middle, a tiny desk that I have given to Lala because she is a web developer and she codes and she needs a couple of screens and I’m a writer. I can curl up in a corner, I can curl up on the bed. I have a standing desk, that is what I am at right now, in the bathroom. I’m so glad that I packed it in my suitcase and didn’t throw it out a million times. Also, I have like a little riser stand for my computer. And a friend sent to the hotel a little lap desk which is fantastic when I’m in bed.

[00:03:01] So I am set up when it comes to that, but the room is tiny. And if I’m talking at this volume, I’m going to annoy everybody. And also, if my wife is talking on a meeting at this level, she’s going to annoy me. So we repair into the bathroom at this time when we’re doing these kinds of things, which is pretty hilarious to me. But, we are spending a lot of time in this bathroom because there’s no place to get away from each other. And I was talking to her yesterday and actually I’m writing about this for my next Patreon essay, but, I’m not tired of her. I don’t want to get away from her. She doesn’t want to get away from me. It’s weird. This is day 10 of 14, trapped in a room. They bring us all our meals to the door. We open the meals after they’ve left, wearing our mask, bring them inside, eat them on the floor, cause the desk is too small, but yeah, we’re just not tired of each other yet. 

[00:03:53] However, we are both people who value alone time, more than anybody else we’ve ever met. So I don’t want to get away from her, but I want to be alone. So this bath tub has been saving us. I’ve been taking like a two-hour bath a day. She’s taking a two, two and a half hour bath a day. That adds up to four hours alone, four and a half hours alone when we do that. So that’s been awesome, a lot of tub time. What else has been going on? Really nothing’s been good on because I’ve been trapped in this room for 10 days. And I say, trapped, we are allowed at once a day if we make an appointment. And there’s a little yard, there’s a parking lot, small parking lot that you can walk in circles in, if you make an appointment and so we can go out there once a day. Today, my walkies are at 6:00 PM and I will definitely be utilizing that. I usually put a podcast or an audio book in my ears, and I just walk around and around and around and around and around, and I’m wearing a mask. So I can’t even smell New Zealand.

[00:04:55] It’s this really strange liminal space we’re at that we are in New Zealand, but we’re actually not in New Zealand. I’m recording this on a Thursday. On Monday, we get out and we move to an apartment for a week in Auckland. And we’re going to be able to walk around, no masks cause there’s no COVID here, not quit. And just live, we’ll be able to live. And I’m super, super, super excited about that. So I will keep you posted on how that is going. Everything else is continuing a pace I’m actually managing to get work done in the hotel room. I dunno, I said actually, there’s not much else to do, so of course I’m getting work done. It’s a pretty great environment for that. I wanted to quickly thank some new patrons cause I haven’t done that in a while, I think. Penelope Penn, my friend Penn. Thank you Penn. Very much. Melody Maclntyre, Kaye Neil, thank you. Thank you, Catherine Van Auken. Thank you, Kiersten Saxton. Yay Kiersten! and Julie H, thank you, thank you! And Juliet Martin, lovely person edited her pledge up to the $3 level, which is where you get texts from me. So, Juliet help that you have signed up for that. If you have not just going to Patreon and look at any of the essays and it tells you in there how to sign up for those text messages from me, which people like getting, and you can text me back and that’s, I really, really enjoy doing that. So thank you, thank you to everyone who follows along on Patreon. I hope you are enjoying the essays about moving to New Zealand and about existentially a little bit bigger than that. Like what the hell does it mean to make such a big move at midlife? And we bind everything that you know. 

[00:06:41] Thank God for writing. How do non-writers get through the world? How do they get through a life without writing? I was super upset, a very, very, very small thing. It was not matrimonial. It was an outside issue. And when I say super upset, like I was annoyed. For me, that’s pretty upset. And I went to bed annoyed and I went to bed thinking I cannot wait to write my journal because I’ll fix it then. And in the morning, I was still annoyed and I wrote in my journal and I realized, oh, there’s nothing to be upset about. Writing about it got me to understand the thing I hadn’t been able to understand to make it not annoying anymore. How do people function without that? So I think that we are just a very, very cool subsection of people that get that extra tool.

[00:07:30] So I hope that you are using your tool that you are putting it into service of your life, of your heart, of your happiness, only you can do that. If you’re not doing it, don’t beat yourself up. That’s the worst thing you can do. If you are not writing, stop beating yourself up and just write for 10 minutes. Write something terrible, something awful, terrible words that will let you down. That is fine. That’s what they’re supposed to do. That’s normal. Write for 10 minutes and then you get to feel smug that you did a little bit of writing and it will make you happier. So, that’s my prescription to you today from the inside of a bathroom. The next time we talk, who knows where I’ll be? I think I’ll be an Auckland, in an apartment but, anything could change. So, happy writing, my friends. Please enjoy this interview with Mark and we’ll talk to you soon. 

[00:08:18] Hey, you’re a writer. Did you know that I send out a free weekly email of writing encouragement? Go sign up for it at www.rachaelherron.com/write and you’ll also get my Stop Stalling and Write PDF with helpful tips you can use today to get some of your own writing done. Okay, now onto the interview.

Rachael Herron: [00:8:36] Well, I could not be more pleased to welcome to the show, Mark A. Alvarez II. Hello, Mark!

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:08:42] Hi. How are you doing? Thanks for having me today. 

Rachael Herron: [00:08:44] I’m so excited to have you, so excited to talk to you. Let me get you a little introduction here. Mark A. Alvarez II is Hispanic-American born in Houston, Texas and I have a lot of friends in Texas, in Houston, actually. He’s a graduate of Texas State University, where he studied Public Relations and Mass Communications. He is a graduate of the NEW Apprenticeship, the first tech-apprenticeship program accredited by the United States Department of Labor. And he is the CEO and Founder of Light Wings Promotions LLC, a digital marketing and creative branding agency based in San Antonio, Texas, where Mark currently resides, and Dutybound is his first novel. So welcome to the show! Congratulations on your release. Tell me again, when it came out. 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:09:32] It actually, it’s not out yet. It’s coming out in June 22nd. We’re taking pre-orders right now. You can, you know, you can go and find it on my website. We’ll get to that in a little bit. 

Rachael Herron: [00:09:44] I also saw it over on Amazon and by the time this podcast goes live, because I’m pretty booked out right now, your book will be live and you will be an author already. So how does it feel to have your first book coming out?

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:10:00] It feels absolutely amazing just because, you know, I spent so much time on it. I mean, I’ve been working on this and it’s really hard to believe. I’ve been working on this book since I was a kid. I was about 14 when I started writing it. Even, you can even say before then, because I had some source material, like I was actually like sort of dreaming of designing a video game whenever I was younger. But it was the day I finished reading Harry Potter and Deadly Hallows that I decided that I wanted to write this book. And I remember that day, cause like, as soon as I closed the book, I was like, I can’t believe it’s over. Like my Harry Potter journey is over. And I was like I need to start my own. And that’s how Dutybound, all the seeds for Dutybound started. 

Rachael Herron: [00:10:46] I love that and all these years later. So what are you going to do to celebrate when you’re book comes out? 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:10:52] Well, my mom is planning a small get-together. It’s a little launch party for me with close friends and family. I’m inviting some people from my, you know, high school and some people that I grew up with, things, people that haven’t caught up with in the long time because you know, it’s like a homecoming. I left home and did what I was sought out to do and, coming home, you know, finally fulfilled, finally reached the dream. And, you know, there’s still much more work to do, but that’s the way I’m treating it is, you know, a homecoming and, you know, I finally, I’m a champion and triumphant, victorious.

Rachael Herron: [00:11:30] I love that.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:11:31] Finally glad that I, you know, achieved my dream.

Rachael Herron: [00:11:34] Returning home triumphant, that’s awesome. Okay. So this podcast is a show for writers about the process of writing. So it sounds like you do a lot of things in a lot of different areas. How do you get the writing done? However, how do you fit that into your life? 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:11:49] So, it’s so odd. So writing to me is more like a compulsion. It’s an odd obsession. It’s kind of like, you know, a coping mechanism. You know, I don’t think there is a day that goes by where I don’t write. I’m, you know, either writing a poem, poetry, something I’m really keen into, or writing in my journal. But you know, it’s, it comes to me and random spurts of inspiration. And mostly when I write, I listen to music and the words really come when I’m listening to these melodies and they, the words themselves are evoked from various songs that I listened to. 

Rachael Herron: [00:12:34] Oh, cool.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:12:35] They, they’re pretty hand-in-hand, so, 

Rachael Herron: [00:12:37] So you do listen to music with words while you’re doing that.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:12:41] No. 

Rachael Herron: [00:12:42] Okay.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:12:43] No, no. No.

Rachael Herron: [00:12:43] I can’t, I can’t do that either.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:12:44] The music that I listen to when I write is not, is without words. Usually, it’s from a video game score, a movie score, a classical song that I like. I have various, you know, different, you know, places that I pull from for various sources of inspiration. And, that’s how that’s what sets my writing process is, usually, I set the tone using a song. And I use it to sort of like, and even establish the pacing and the rhythm it’s quite, it’s quite the process. It’s very important part of the process. I cannot write without it. It’s the ultimate muse for me, at least. 

Rachael Herron: [00:13:28] Do you have different sounds for different parts of what you’re writing or are they just all kind of rotating? Do you have soundtracks? 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:13:37] So, yeah, like, right now actually, I have a campaign running on Twitter where I have my poems that are going out. And a lot of my poetry, is, a lot of my poetry is very like, a lot of my writing is very dramatic and I think I do have a very unique style and I write about certain things that are very close to my value system, my belief system, and you know, the same with Dutybound and, they’re very intertwined. And a couple of the poems are even featured in Dutybound, because the main character, she is, you know, she writes hymns and she writes poems and songs and she’s a singer. And it’s I have two, there’s two poems that’s featured in the beginning. And they’re both on my website, but the songs, I call it my poetry playlist, because I would pull up a hosting these posts to my Twitter and I put use the hashtag poetry playlist and I, on each of my poems, I featured the song that inspired it.

Rachael Herron: [00:14:38] I love that!

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:14:39] So that way, if you listen to the song, while you also read the poem, you can see its influence and how it’s established, the tone, the pace and the rhythm and how the words sort of speak to or communicate what the song is trying to communicate, more or less from my interpretation. 

Rachael Herron: [00:14:54] I haven’t ever heard anybody do that and I think that that is absolutely fascinating. What is your Twitter handle? 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:15:00] It’s MA Alvarez, A-L-V-A-R-E-Z-I-I (@maalvarezii) 

Rachael Herron: [00:15:06] Perfect. I’m going to be checking that out. I’m newly back into poetry. I’m pretty excited about it after getting burned in grad school, but now I’m like dipping my toes into it again. And it’s just, I just read an amazing poem, like five minutes ago. So, that’s awesome. So what is your biggest challenge when it comes to writing? 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:15:26] So yeah, I don’t want to sound like super pretentious, but I don’t think I’ve ever really had a real problem or struggle with writing, mainly because writing has always been an escape from the struggles within my life. It’s so easy to just like escape into my head and hide. My journal has always been like, you know, I always write about it. It’s always been my sanctuary. It’s similar to how Lucia, when she writes, and my protagonist, that’s her escape. She writes in her sanctuary and she writes these hymns and they’re her escape from her reality. So, you know, it’s so easy to escape into your head and, you know, to hide. And my journal has always been my sanctuary, but because my biggest struggles I faced were always on the outside, didn’t have the easiest life growing up. I, you know, lived through a lot, including a gunshot. 

Rachael Herron: [00:16:30] Yeah. I, that was in your, that was in your publicist press material. Do you want to tell us about that gunshot that occurred when you were pretty young, right? 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:16:37] Yeah. I was four years old when it happened, happened in a gas station. My brother, younger brother was about to turn two the next month, he was only one at the time. That day was January 27th, 1997. And he found a gun in the gas station and we were from a bad part of Houston. There was a lot of crime in that area and they had a gun at the gas station to protect the store, essentially. But, my mother, at the time, she was, you know, she was seeing the man who was running the store and we were there and my brother was able to find the gun and he would shot me with it while I was asleep or in the back, behind the counter. Still remember it very vividly and everything afterwards, pretty vividly. But, you know, it’s not the worst thing that’s happened to me. I like to say sometimes that getting shot was the best thing that happened to me because it’s instilled within me this sort of this drive and sense of purpose, you know, I survived for a reason. I think that, you know, like there’s a duty to fulfill very much like how I write about duty and my book. It’s very much, and like, I like to say that within each of my characters, there’s a piece of myself and there’s a lot of anecdotal experiences that I draw on drawing from, what is it, inspiration from and put into the book. And if people just knew me and like just knew how unbelievable some of the stuff that I’ve gone through is then they were just, you know, like they would see it within the book, that book itself. But I think that makes for a more compelling story. 

Rachael Herron: [00:18:13] Absolutely. 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:18:15] But, you know, writing is my greatest joy because it is in those dark, the darkest moments of my life where writing saved it and it gave my life purpose and meaning and it always, it always has, and I don’t ever think it won’t. I think that being a writer is very much my identity because it’s always been the way I sort of communicated and had a voice, even when I didn’t have one.  

Rachael Herron: [00:18:44] I find that so inspiring. How long have you been journaling? 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:18:48] Since I was eight.

Rachael Herron: [00:18:50] Me too, me too. I have old, old journals and I’ve, I go in and out of it, but in the last year or so, I have really doubled down. And this morning, in fact, cause I had a doctor’s appointment, I had to skip it and I have been feeling like jangley ever since I just can’t calm down because I didn’t get my space on the page to process my own stuff. Do you do it in the morning? Do you do it all day long? When do you journal? 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:19:18] It needs to happen. And like it, like I said, if I don’t do it, I go crazy because it’s my escape, you know. And there’s always, and like I said, it developed a writing, that sort of developed for me. It’s like a coping mechanism, you know, like, 

Rachael Herron: [00:19:30] Yeah, definitely.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:19:32] You know, I was, you know, as a kid, I was like, you know, kind of like locked up a lot. And I was always, I didn’t really have much else other than my journal. So it was definitely a coping mechanism and it was a way for me to sort of escape and to get, to get away from what was, the things that were happening around me. And, you know, if we don’t write, we go crazy, you know, or at least for me, and they might feel the same way and I mean, people right for different reasons. But, for me, it’s really the nighttime; I’m really a night owl. And I usually do, right before bed, I’ll put on a song, a melody, and based on my mood and how I’m feeling that day. And then I would just write my feelings out and just write about my day and how things are going. And you know, sort of like interests, getting to the state of introspection, where I’m trying to analyze the things about my personality and about myself and how I’m changing because, there are things in my life that just, you know, affect me in different ways. And I really try to kinda try to come to a place of understanding that. And I think I tried to use that in my narratives, as well as you know, it’s good to understand your own character development. So that way, you can understand how to develop characters, too. 

Rachael Herron: [00:20:50] Oh, I love that. That is a really astute, profound statement. We have to understand how we change, so we understand how our characters change. Just because I love the nitty-gritty, how do you journal and how do you keep your past journals? Have you digitized them? Are they all in different notebooks? Do you have a particular favorite notebook? 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:21:08] I have stacks, and I mean stacks of journals.

Rachael Herron: [00:21:12] I do too. So like, I’ve mentioned we’re moving and I filled up box after box after box with these journals. I’m like, oh God, what if I lost them? You know?

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:21:20] I wanna leave them too, my, you know, like I wanted to leave them to my kids one day. Like I think that, you know, my journal, my journals provide tremendous insight. And it’s interesting to go back and read things when I was like 13 or 14 and just to see how insightful and how, and sometimes I was like, how did I as, that young, how did I think like that? Like, where did those words come from? 

Rachael Herron: [00:21:43] Maybe because you worked it all 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:21:46] You know, yeah, I don’t know. It’s just so weird looking back and seeing who your past self was. 

Rachael Herron: [00:21:53] How -Do you mind if I ask you how old you are now?

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:21:56] I am 28. 

Rachael Herron: [00:21:57] Okay. You could pass for younger if you want to do so.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:22:02] I get that a lot, I get that a lot. My friends make fun of me all the time because I look super young. 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:07] Do you have a particular favorite kind of journal that you like to write in? Comp book or? Oh, yes. Please show for the people.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:22:13] Leather bounds 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:15] I love it.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:22:16] I line lists usually. So I write in nothing but cursive and line lists. I’m more of a, mostly a, mostly a classical kind of guy when it comes to writing. I like leather bounds, you know, with the strap, very much, you know, old school. I just liked that classical element. 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:37] Yeah.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:22:38] So, this is my favorite. My first journal ago was shiny and blue. Just like my first book is, so, it’s kind of like, 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:47] How gorgeous.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:22:48] It was a similar parallel. And I just thought of that. I was like, that’s very funny. 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:53] I love that.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:22:54] My first book was shiny and blue and the cover, if you see the cover of Dutybound, 

Rachael Herron: [00:22:57] It’s a beautiful cover.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:22:58] Yeah. A lot of people say that. 

Rachael Herron: [00:23:01] Can you share a craft tip with our audience of any sort?

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:23:05] So my favorite craft tip. So this is something that I really think, and it resonates with me and based off like what I said so far, like, you know, and it’s a quote by Stephen King and I hope, you know it. It’s, you know, “A little talent is a good thing to have when it comes to being a writer, but the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar.” And he talks about how like art is, it consists of the persistence of memory. And that’s the thing, is that like, you know, understanding your own character development, the things that you’ve gone through, understanding how certain events affected you and how those same events might’ve affected somebody else in your life differently, like me and my brothers. We had pretty much the same upbringing, but we’re all so different. And we’ve all taken different paths in life because those events have changed us in different ways. And I really think that, you know, an understanding, like don’t be afraid to draw on aspects or to be vulnerable in your writing. And you know, it’s not about like, in terms of the craft, I think it’s really important to really understand that it’s okay to talk about things, to have conversations about things that, you know, make you vulnerable.

Rachael Herron: [00:24:26] Yes.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:24:27] You know, it’s, you know, embrace that authenticity because if you’re trying to hide behind, you know, flowery language and over complex sentences, and you’re trying to flaunt your stuff as a writer, but you’re not really trying to connect it to someone or tell someone a story or communicate your story or put that piece of yourself into the story, you’re going to lose that sense of authenticity that’s going to make your story more believable. And, I think that, you know, like, to me, I love, I, and to me, like I said, it’s a coping mechanism. I’m not afraid to be vulnerable in my writing. And my writing tends to be very dark, it’s very solemn. And you know, I think I read a review on Dutybound the other day, and they called it a stolen fantasy. And I don’t know if they meant it in a good or a bad way, but I was like, you know what, that’s what it is though. It’s because, you know, I, like, I want people to like, you know, I’m a very deep person and I lived through a lot, but there’s a sense of light at the end of the tunnel, you know. You know, like terrestrial is a very dark world, but the use of color is used throughout to illustrate light’s persistence, like, you know, lights consistent, what is it, presence, within the world that they live in. So it’s, you know, be vulnerable, you know, don’t be afraid to draw on those certain experiences that, you know, it’s okay to cry when you write, you know. Talk about things that really touch you, you know. When I wrote my ending, I drew on a particular memory that, so like, there’s a part of it when we were in the revision process, when we were, my editors back and forth, and we were already, the ending was already written, but I wrote the ending and there was this one scene and I wanted it to drive the emotional impact. But, there’s like a certain action that the protagonist takes that rarely happened, like in recently, like, my experience, I’m not going to try and do this as spoiler free as possible, but when experiencing this event, this thing happened and I thought it was like the most touching thing, to see happen. So I decided to write that in and I was crying when I was doing it, and I’m even getting emotional now. 

Rachael Herron: [00:26:51] I can hear that in your voice. Yeah. That’s beautiful. 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:26:54] Like, cause like, cause it was like the most touching thing I ever saw. And it was really, it was a really sound moment in my family’s life. And I just thought, it was like, you know, and that bond, to have that bond and to illustrate that bond is, in that particular little way, it felt real and genuine and, you know, and true to me. So I decided to write it in because it was, you know, like if people were there and they saw what I saw and they, you know, they would understand the feelings. They would understand where I was coming from and what the character would be really feeling when you know, that, they’re doing that certain action.

Rachael Herron: [00:27:37] And as a writer, you get to put that on the page, and I love seeing that vulnerability in you right now. And also you’re saying your book of solemn and, but there’s the moments of light and in the few moments that I’ve known you, I can see that your life has been that too solemn with that. I mean, you’re even wearing a yellow shirt, you know, you’re the color, the brightness is coming out of you. So speaking of books, what is the best book that you have read recently?

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:28:03] So the best book that I’ve read recently, I well, the last book I read was really good and I mean, so I couldn’t put it down. So the last book I read and it’s more recent, it’s The Silent Patient by Alex Michael- how do you spell it? I always feel like it mispronounced his name, but is it Michaelides?

Rachael Herron: [00:28:26] I think it must be that, that’s how I pronounce it in my head. 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:28:29] Yeah. So yeah, like The Silent Patient, by, what is it, Alex Michaelides

Rachael Herron: [00:28:36] I thought that was great. 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:28:38] I mean, I love that book, absolutely loved it. And the thing is, is that, and I don’t know, it just kind of, and it’s his debut novel and he’s a newbie writer too. And I mean, but it just blew me away because the type of precision his skill that he did and crafting the story. So, like, he knows how to tell a good story and he doesn’t like, over-complicate it, or pack it with like words you don’t understand. And then this, the thing is I, if you also like read up about him is that he uses a lot of anecdotal, you know, experiences like, you know, he worked in a hospital. He, you know, these stories, the story is of somewhat like its semi-autobiographical. And, he draws on that, but he doesn’t over-complicate the story, but he tells it in a very simple, elegant, and easy to imagine, in a way that’s easy to imagine. And he’s really good at doing something I know a lot of writers struggle with is giving away too much and he knows how to hold back. And that is something that, 

Rachael Herron: [00:29:42] Right. To pull you through.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:29:43] You know like, as a reader, you want them to give you everything you want. You want them to just hand it all to you, but it’s takes a certain amount of skill for an author. And like, you know, as a reader, as a literary enthusiast, as someone who reads, you know, and so as an author and you start writing, you think that’s what the readers want cause that’s what you want. But really, it’s the opposite. You want to hold as much back and he knows how to hold back. And I know a lot of writers struggle to do that because they want what they want and they want their cake and eat it too. But I think that’s what gave his twist and his turnaround like more impact and just made it all the more, I’m not giving away any spoilers.

Rachael Herron: [00:30:23] No, you’re not.

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:30:24] That’s what made it what it was because he knows how to hold back and how to really, you know, not give away too much. It keeps, it keeps you hooked, it keeps you invested in the story and it does, and it doesn’t dilute the climax. And if anything, it makes it and all the more compelling and compounded.

Rachael Herron: [00:30:44] It’s the payoff, you know, you’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for this payoff. Yeah. I found the exact same thing with that book. Speaking of books, can you, we’re almost out of time, but can you give us the quick overview, little quick elevator pitch for your new debut novel? 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:31:02] Okay. We’ll do, well, to sum it up, Dutybound is a dark coming of age fantasy, set in terrestria. It’s about a young girl who goes on a journey and she sees the world for the first time and it’s a world of darkness. So it’s about a girl’s journey through a world of darkness, looking to find light when there isn’t any, and basically the light she’s looking for, the characters are looking for are within themselves. And they have to find the way to manifest that light. So that way they can fight the darkness that is threatening to destroy, you know, everything that they hold dear. And it’s all tied to this covenant and this whole, there’s this whole generational tie where it’s, you know, it’s the past and the present and the generation to, you know, the sins of the former affect the, you know, affect the generation afterwards and it’s up to, you know, even, you know, even though like, you know, there’s a lot of like, you know, it’s sort of like. But like, there’s these sort of undertones in terms of like, how their political and social constructs are within terrestrial. But the illusion here is, is that, you know, like even as the generation of the former, even when the former generation makes mistakes and fails, the second generation of the next, the generation next should not lose hope. And that we can’t save that world because we can, and we can make, we can bring about the change that we want to see in the world. And that the world is not as hopeless as we, as you know the previous generations can make it seem, especially when we have some leaders that tell us. 

Rachael Herron: [00:32:47] That is, it’s a very timely book, I must say to you, very, very timely. Mark, thank you for your time, thank you for your writing. It has been a joy to talk to you and thank you for the light that you have shown to us, where can, quickly, where can people find you online, what’s your website? 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:33:02] So, I’m pretty much everywhere. I’m a digital marketer, of course. Everywhere you can think of, except for TikTok, I haven’t jumped on that train yet. But you can find me on Facebook (maalvarezii), Twitter (@maalvarezii), Instagram (maalvarezii), and LinkedIn (maalvarezii) and all of my handles are MA Alvarez, A-L-V-A-R-E-Z-I-I. You type that in on the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn, you’ll find me super easily.

Rachael Herron: [00:33:24] Thank you, thank you so much for being here. It was a joy to talk to you and I wish you very happy writing. 

Mark A. Alvarez II: [00:33:30] Oh, you too. Take care. 

Rachael Herron: [00:33:31] Take care. Bye. 

Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.