Book: Hard Love: A California Memoir
Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
I am second generation Cuban, Spanish, Mexican Indian, born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, New York. My father was a renowned electrical engineer, and my mother was an ER RN. I am the second of four children with an older sister and two younger brothers. Alcohol was abundant in the family home and I became an alcoholic by the age of 10. I was raised in a predominantly white community and faced fierce racism while attending school, first Catholic, then public school. I fell in with the wrong crowd as I approached adolescence and started smoking marijuana in junior high school, then abusing amphetamines in high school. My first arrest for possession of marijuana occurred when I was only 13. I became a gang member in high school and ended up in jail at 18, then a psychiatric hospital at 19. I was convicted of theft and placed on probation. Ironically, this is where I first thought about becoming a probation officer. I always loved reading and writing. I was an all-conference football player in high school, which is when I first set my eyes on my future wife, Paula, who I followed to California when I was 21. We were married on the beach. I stated working as a juvenile probation officer in Southern California. After several years we moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where Paula and I attended graduate school at U.C. Berkely. In 1987 I obtained my masters degree in English. I studied James Joyce with John Bishop and poetry with Robert Pinsky and Gary Soto. I became a federal probation officer in 1990. Our daughter Tebben was born in 1991. After Paula completer her PHd in School Psychology, we moved to Connecticut to be closer to family. I continued to work as a federal probation officer and Paula is still a professor at Fairfield University. I retired in 2016 and began working as a mitigation specialist in federal death penalty cases. I wrote my three memoirs during the Pandemic and I am excited about my first work of fiction, a novella titled The Painter, which is being released this summer.
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing ‘Hard Faith’ book?
Preparing an outline and deciding which stories to tell. Also obtaining input and perspective from my family and friends.
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
When I set out to write memoirs, I looked for authors who have written memoirs who had a similar background as myself. I discovered James Brown, author of The Los Angeles Diaries, This River, and Apology to a Young Addict. He became a friend and mentor and wrote endorsements for Hard Knocks and Hard Faith. I’ve been strongly influenced by the classics, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Moby Dick in particular. I wrote my masters thesis on Ulysses by James Joyce and was influence by Jack Kerouac. I’ve embraced a stream of consciousness style. One of my latest readers, Frederick Block, the author of Disrobed: Memoir of a Trial Court Judge and Race to Judgment, said my writing reminds him of Kerouac. Judge Block is writing an endorsement for The Painter.
Q4. What’s your favorite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
That would be Southern California, specifically San Clemente, where Paula and I were married in 1981 and lived near the beach until we moved to Berkeley in 1986.
Q5. Is there lots to do before you drive in and start writing a book?
Yes. The primary thing is putting together and outline for both non-fiction and fiction. In fiction, character development and vivid description of people, places and events is key. I loved writing The Painter. I came to know my characters but not always what they would do or say. This came through the writing.
Q6. How long did it take you to write ‘Hard Love’ book?
Hard Love was fast. I thing I wrote the first draft in a couple of weeks Again, I wrote all three memoirs during the Pandemic
Q7. On what all platforms readers can find ‘Hard Knocks’ book to buy?
All my books are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, other online sellers and through my publisher, Wipf and Stock.
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the cover and the title of your books?
My daughter, Tebben Gill Lopez, is a talented artist and designed the covers for my memoirs. She read the books and responded by what moved her. She is also one of my most important critical readers, as is my wife, Dr. Paula Gill Lopez, who wrote the forwards for all three memoirs.
Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?
Well first you just must write and not worry about your first draft. Writing The Painter was so different than the memoirs. Writing the memoirs was therapeutic, wherein writing The Painter was an adventure. I came to love and care about my characters and some of the emotional scenes that I wrote made me cry. The novella is based on true stories and characters. The main character, Giordano Bruno, the painter, is based on my close friend, Gaitano, who was a capo in the Patriarca Family who was convicted of murdering another mobster in the late 80s. I worked on his case when I was a federal probation officer. He now teaches art therapy at a residential drug treatment facility!
Q10. Are there any secrets from the book (that aren’t in the blurb), you can share with your readers?
Yes! The secrets of redemption and salvation.!
Book Is Available On Amazon
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