Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
I’m an attorney, former journalist, and a die-hard fan of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. I’m also a founding member and president of the nonprofit Chicago Writers Association. I’m the first male recipient of the National Federation of Press Women’s Communicator of Achievement Award and was named to NewCity’s 2019 and 2022 ‘Lit 50: Who Really Books in Chicago’ list. My essays have been published in the anthologies ‘Chicken Soup for the Father and Son Soul’, ‘Humor for a Boomer’s Heart’, ‘The Big Book of Christmas Joy’, ‘Storytellers’ True Stories About Love’, and ‘Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year’, as well as in numerous literary journals including Hypertext and Memory House. I’m the author of three novels, ‘Havana Hangover’, ‘Cheeseland’ and ‘Lost in the Ivy’, and coauthor of ‘Cubsessions: Famous Fans of Chicago’s North Side Baseball Team’. To learn more about me, visit my website: randyrichardson.co.
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book ‘Havana Hangover’?
Perhaps the biggest challenge was writing during the pandemic. I started writing the novel in 2019, after my fourth November visit in as many years to Havana, Cuba. It’s a thriller/adventure inspired by events and people I encountered on that island nation. In many ways, it’s my love letter to the country and its people. There is so much beauty and history to be found there, but what kept bringing me back was the people I met.
When I started writing the novel, I had every intention of returning to Havana. But then COVID-19, the inspiration-killer, struck. The pandemic and the US embargo and political changes in Cuba all came together like a perfect storm to close the doors to Cuba yet again. My plans for traveling there in November 2020 were put on hold. At the time, I told myself, as well as my friends there: Next year.
Life became even more turbulent in Cuba, forcing some of my best friends there to move to other countries – in some cases, separating themselves from their loved ones just so they could make money to send back home.
Like many a writer, I had a tough time finding the inspiration to write during the pandemic. My home office used to be the place where I did the kind of writing that was an escape from the writing I did for my day job. But during the pandemic, it also became the office of my day job. It no longer seemed like an escape.
What I came to discover, however, was that it wasn’t the home office space that was the escape. It had nothing to do with the walls around me or the computer in front of me. The escape was all in my head.
While writing this novel, stuck at home, I was traveling to Cuba, this place that I love but could no longer visit. The inspiration was within me to go there whenever I wanted to.
When I wrote The End on the final draft, it came with a lot of joy. I’d crossed that finish line after a marathon like none I’d ever run before. But it also came with a little sadness. Because I was saying goodbye to the place that had helped me get through all of this.
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
Anyone who reads ‘Havana Hangover’ will see that Ernest Hemingway has been my biggest influence. I’m 100 percent a Hemingway fanboy. I’ve read just about anything he wrote, have all of his books and Life magazine covers, and followed his footsteps to just about anywhere he lived and wrote about. My favorite book of all-time is Hemingway’s ‘The Sun Also Rises’, which, to me, is literary perfection.
Other authors who have had a profound influence on me include: Larry McMurtry, Nicholson Baker, Jay McInerney and Scott Turow.
Q4. What’s your favorite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
That’s an easy one: Wrigley Field, the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. As I previously noted, I’m a die-hard Cubs fan and there’s no place like the bleachers of Wrigley Field on a hot summer day in Chicago. I love the history, the smell of the steamed hot dogs, the energy of the crowd. It’s my second home.
Q5. What inspired you to write the book ‘Havana Hangover’?
All of my writing is, to some extent, inspired by pieces of my life. For ‘Havana Hangover’, that piece begins in November 2016, the first time I traveled to Cuba. Two historic events collided during the time of my travels. On the same morning I left for Cuba, my favorite baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, won their first World Series in 108 years. On the same morning that I returned to the states, the U.S. presidential election results had just been decided. Those two events served as a springboard for the story that becomes a runaway adventure with many twists and turns where little is as it seems. The characters behind it were mostly inspired by real-life people, including me and my travel companion, a friend whom I’ve known since law school, and our tour operator and tour guide. But the real seed for the story was planted on our second trip to Cuba, the following November. It was on that trip that my friend and I had been out on the town and, at some point, we were separated. I went back to our casa particular, a Cuban bed-and-breakfast, and went to bed. The following morning, I woke to a string of text messages from my friend. The last of those messages said: “Help Me!” I won’t go into what actually happened – it’s a long story – but as you can imagine I sprung out of bed and fortunately found my friend asleep in the other room. But that little jolt became the starting point for my story of a disoriented narrator. From there, the story is all fiction, including the back story of the complicated history between the protagonist, Tanner, and his missing friend, Jackson, who, it turns out, might not be his friend at all.
Q6. How long did it take you to write your book ‘Havana Hangover’?
It took about three years to write. Most of that time was during the pandemic. After the first draft, I worked with a developmental editor, Katherine Don, who saw things that I couldn’t see and helped me fill in all of the plot holes and get the story back on course whenever it veered. There were, I think, four drafts in all before Katherine told me that she thought it was ready to be released into the world.
Q7. On what platforms can readers buy your books?
‘Havana Hangover’ is available on Amazon.com in Kindle and in Trade Paperback.
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘Havana Hangover’?
The credit for the book cover goes mostly to my publisher, Dan Davies at Renegade Press. I love the little details: the mojito on top of the classic car; the Cuban flag for the license plate; and the publisher for the bumper sticker. As for the title, it fit the story where the characters consume way too much rum.
Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?
My books are written organically. I don’t work from an outline, and I don’t think that I could. That’s not how my mind works. For me, that keeps the writing fresh. Like the reader, I don’t know where the story is going or even how it will end. That’s what makes writing fun for me. I plant a seed and watch it grow.
Most of the characters I write are inspired by real-life characters from my own world. I think that helps to make them feel authentic. But then of course, I put them into situations that ordinary people would not typically find themselves in. It’s fun to play with them, to see how they react.
Q10. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing?
Don’t think about publication. Just write. Write the best damned book you can write. Then start thinking about publication. If the book is good, really good, they will come.
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