Podcast Transcription: Gerardo Sámano Córdova
We started a podcast, remember? Our first episode with Gerardo Sámano Córdova is such a treat! Below is the transcription of the interview. You can stream that episode on Spotify here!
This episode, bookseller Bex interviewed Gerardo Sámano Córdova, author of Monstrilio: a novel about a mother, who upon the loss of her child, cuts out a piece of his lung and feeds it to create a new being entirely. A raw, touching story about family, grief and love told from multiple character perspectives. Bex and Gerardo talk about their writing routines, monsters, and what it means to depict queerness in literature.
Bex
Welcome to the podcast episode, Gerardo. We're so excited to have you here today.
Gerardo
Thank you so much.
Bex
We are doing– yeah, just thrilled to have you, author of Monstrillo, recent Brooklynite. Is that correct? Did I see that?
Gerardo
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I've been here just since August. So yeah, I'm a recent Brooklynite.
Bex
Amazing. How do you like it?
Gerardo
I love it. I used to live here. I lived here from 2004 to 2009-ish. So I do know Brooklyn a little bit, but it's changed.
Bex
Yeah.
Gerardo
Yeah, but I love Brooklyn. It's in my heart.
Bex
Amazing. My first actual question is an easy one. I mean, about as easy as that one just was. But, what are you reading right now?
Gerardo
Um, I just finished– well, right now, actually, I'm starting a short story collection called Uranians. Well, I had read part of it, but I'm retaking it because short story collections, I kind of like, take– like, put it down, take it up, back up again. It's called Uranians by Theodore McCombs.
Bex
I'm picturing the cover.
Gerardo
And it's absolutely wonderful. I love it.
Bex
Yeah, do you read a lot of short stories?
Gerardo
Yeah, like I have a mix of like novels and short stories. I feel like when I'm writing a novel, short story, if I'm like, if I'm already like in the groove or something, I feel like short stories kind of like, help keep me there. ‘Cause if I write a novel, like especially if it's good, I kind of just, like, go off the rails because I want to do that novel and not my own. So yeah, so short stories help. And yeah, and I'm loving these short stories.
Bex
Amazing. Yeah, I was looking up other interviews with you and I saw you did an interview with Short Story Extraordinaire Kelly Link a while ago when Monstrillo came out. She's also an owner of a bookstore.
Gerardo
Yes, she is.
Bex
Yeah, she's amazing.
Gerardo
She is amazing. And I was so honored to be speaking with her about my book. It was just like a dream come true.
Bex
Yeah. Great. So as I said to you, I am obsessed with this book. I love the story. I also love the cover. There is a gremlin on the cover.
Gerardo
Yes.
Bex
I mean, I'm calling him a gremlin, but he's just– he's part of my shelf talker for the book at the store. Did you have any say in the cover design? Were you a part of that or was he, like, always kind of, was he- someone else brought him in and was like “this is Monstrillio”?
Gerardo
So someone else brought him in. So before I saw any covers, my publisher Zando, they were like, “oh, so just let us know what type of covers you like and which covers are like a big no-no” just so that they kind of had an idea of what like the aesthetic that I was thinking of. And so I, like, made a little PowerPoint presentation and just chose a bunch of covers that I liked and some that I really didn't like. And then, just for inspiration, I was like, “oh, there's these three designers that I really love, check their work out, because they do amazing things.” And one of them is Alex Merto, who actually was the one that did the cover. So I was just ecstatic that he did that. And so, yeah, so he chose the Gremlin, which is actually a painting from 1700, a Dutch painting called The Nightmare. And it's, I don't know if you've seen the whole painting, but it's like this monster, like the gremlin, sitting on, like, a woman sleeping.
Bex
Oh God!
Gerardo
Yes, so he just took, like, the part where he– like, his face of the monster or The Nightmare Guy, and it just works perfectly, because it's kind of like a cheeky monster, so.
Bex
That sounds… Yeah, that sounds really accurate for a Dutch painting from the 1700s.
Gerardo
Yeah.
Bex
Yeah, we have a few writers at the store and one of them is currently going through, like, a “cover hell,” so to speak, of what her publishers want her cover to be. And so I'm always like, especially when the cover is so good, I'm like, “did you get a say in this? Is this something I get to look forward to?”
Gerardo
Yeah, right. I mean, I did in the sense that they actually used the designer that I talked about, which was amazing, but I would never in a million years have come up with something like that.
Bex
Yeah.
Gerardo
But when I saw it, I was like, “this is perfect.” I don't know why, but it's perfect. It has like all the elements that should be there.
Bex
Yeah, it's also got a lot of geometric shapes on it, the colors of the rainbow.
Gerardo
Yes.
Bex
Which feeds into how rainbow, how queer this book is.
Gerardo
Yeah.
Bex
And I feel like we don't get to see this type of queerness often in literature.
Gerardo
Mm-hmm.
Bex
There's no sense of almost like oddity to that queerness. There is no tokenism. There is no exceptionalism. It’s understood it's there. I don't even think Monstrillo, like, comes out at any point (or M comes out at any point) and I loved that so much because it was unexpected for me and it was so wonderful to see.
Gerardo
Yeah, I mean, that was, like, definitely a conscious choice. I just wanted to create a book in which, like, other things are extraordinary, but not queerness.
Bex
Mm-hmm.
Gerardo
And that, like, queerness is just not commented upon, it's not- there's no need to accept it, to like reject it, to anything. It just is. And I kind of wanted to see if that world could exist.
I remember when I was younger and I read or watched something in which there was a queer character and it was such a a nice surprise to see that. There weren't like a lot of queer characters when I grew up but whenever I saw one that was like treated like a human, that was great, even though, like, usually it was like very commented upon or like it was a coming out story or like it was something but I think the next step for me or in my imagination was just existing in queerness without it having to be commented upon.
Bex
Yeah. And I think I remember talking about queerness in books and what makes something queer a lot with some of my cohort when I was in an MFA program.
Gerardo
Mm-hmm.
Bex
And sometimes people would come in and be like, “no, you need to– like, there's not enough queerness in this book. Like you should talk about it more”. And other people being like, “no, the very act of you being a queer person is what's making this work queer.
Gerardo
Mm-hmm.
Bex
And I think it was just so lovely to kind of feel both in this book where we are seeing queerness and not only in terms of sexuality or gender, but also in just queering interactions. I mean, the scene with Lena hiring sex workers essentially to not have sex, but to have other forms of intimacy-
Gerardo
Right.
Bex
-Was such a beautiful moment of queerness that I would not label anything else.
Gerardo
Yeah, yeah, I think that was important for me to see like, other queer acts, I guess, or like what queerness can be because queerness is not just like, same sex heteronormativity, you know what I mean?
Bex
Right.
Gerardo
It's so much more and it's like, it's identity, it's gender, it's how you interact with the world. And it's also challenging the world's norms.
Bex
Mm-hmm.
Gerardo
So, yeah, like, it's definitely something I keep thinking about on how can you writea queer book that's not only queer in its characters, but also in, like, its form in a way?”
Bex
Yeah, like queering form and queering structure and what that means to traditional novels.
Gerardo
Right. Yeah. I don't know if you've read Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson?
Bex
I love her, I have not read that, though.
Gerardo
Yeah, that's, I mean, like, for me, that's such a queer book. I mean, there are queer characters in it, but like the book itself is just so queer to me. So, like, whenever I think of, like, a queer book, justin its essence, I think of Sexing the Cherry.
Bex
Mm-hmm.
Gerardo
I just love that book. It's so weird and bananas and queer. And I love it.
Bex
That's such a good title, also.
Gerardo
Yeah!
Bex
My God, she's so good at her job.
Gerardo
Yes, she is. She really is.
Bex
Yeah, if there's anyone who really knows what she's doing, it's Jeanette Winterson.
I'm curious also that kind of brings me to another thing I was thinking about a lot, which I feel like, I don't know if this is just I'm attracted to these books and I'm reading them more, but I feel like lately I've been coming across books that have a sort of– I hate and don't hate to use this word, but a Kafka-esque approach to grief and kind of verging more rather than a surrealist thing of like, “Oh, here is this boy who dies and the mother cuts out an organ and feeds it and creates another boy”, that’s not a surrealist take so much as it is almost expressionism. And I know theory gets bogged down and can get in the way of just the actual art sometimes, but I was thinking a lot about how much this is grief incarnate in a way that is so particular and singular that I haven't really had the privilege to read before. And I'm wondering how you got the idea to approach grief in this way in the creation of another being that perpetuates grief himself. And also what different things were at play in your mind as you were creating M and these other characters.
Gerardo
Yeah, so I really wanted, like, a monster to be in the book. And in the very first drafts of the book, there wasn't like a monster monster, but say, like, a supernatural monster, but a very, just like a very monsterly teenager, like young man.
Bex
Mm-hmm.
Gerardo
But I do actually love the idea of monsters monsters monsters, you know, like, just like a real monster. And so like when he actually became, a monster and I started writing how that happened, which is like the Magos part. And I was like, oh, this is the book, you know, like after drafts and like talking with my agent and things like that. But we were like, “oh, well, the book is here, right? You're, like, starting way too late in the book.–
Bex
Yeah.
Gerardo
–So let's go back a little bit and see what happens”. And so when I wrote the Magos part, that first part, it was obviously, like, a monster born out of grief. And, like you said, “grief incarnate.” And that was in my mind a lot, “okay, so this monster is grief incarnate.” But then I was thinking, “what would the monster think of that? Like, who, monster or not, would want to actually be grief incarnate,” you know?
Bex
Mmm, mm-hmm.
Gerardo
Like, that's a heavy load to bear, you know? And so I was thinking about the monster himself and how I wanted him to have consciousness. So, from where I started to where M becomes like a– resembling a human, like, part-human-part-monster, there was a progression. And I was very interested in subverting my own premise of having grief incarnate be a monster, but having that incarnation be like, like, rejected somehow and be like, “no, I'm not just grief. I'm also, like, a being who has their own, you know-
Bex
Right.
Gerardo
-like feelings and desires and love and all of that.”
So, I was very interested in subverting my own metaphor, my own...
Bex
Yeah.
Gerardo
Yeah.
Bex
Almost like a check on yourself of how-
Gerardo
Yeah, exactly.
Bex
Yeah, that's so interesting. That's so wonderful, especially because it's split into four– it's almost technically split into five different points of view because at the very beginning we get this little almost third person prologue.
Gerardo
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Bex
But by the end we get M and I remember also feeling how distinct his voice was as compared to everyone else's. Because obviously they all have distinct voices, like, you are a good writer. They wouldn't feel like that if you weren't. But they also– one thing I always remember in undergrad professors telling us is like, “oh, like, how would this person say, like, ‘I have a wish’ versus someone else would say, ‘I wish for this’?”
Gerardo
Mm-hmm.
Bex
And I'm like, “but when you're friends, when you're in community with people, you talk like each other.” Like–
Gerardo
Yeah, that's so true.
Bex
Yeah, and I really felt that with each of these characters, especially as time progresses in the book, is like, well, they all talk individually, but they also talk and think not as one hive mind, but they're echoing each other and reflecting off each other in this way that M doesn't do as much because he is- has this very different conception.
Gerardo
Right.
Bex
And has almost this, like, “does M have a soul?”
Gerardo
Yeah, yeah.
Bex
You know?
Gerardo
Yeah.
Bex
Um, there isn't really a question in that. I just really-
Gerardo
Yeah, but yeah, I mean, I'm like– how you said, like that “hive mind” or that kind of, like, overlapping of, like, language. I think it also comes from being a family.
Bex
Mmm.
Gerardo
I was thinking a lot about how there are words that I use with my family that we– like, that we use, but they're kind of odd outside our family or, like, certain intonations or ways to use certain words that make sense to us, but they don't make sense outside of us. And so you become a unit that way.
Bex
Mm-hmm.
Gerardo
So you have, like, a close family connection. You create, like, a being that's the family.
But also there are individuals within that family and so that's why I was also interested in each person's perspective, because I was like, “even though you're a unit and you're a family, you still have your own personal drives and wishes and desires. And your own personal language.”
And then there's M, who M, if he was just Santiago, he would have a more similar language or diction as his family, I would think.
Bex
Mm-hmm.
Gerardo
But he's not Santiago. He's part Santiago, or he has his memories. But he's also just, like, his own monster, and language for him is new, and he's not sure exactly how to use it or how to appropriate it.
Bex
Yeah, it's reminding me of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein.
Gerardo
Mmm, yeah.
Bex
I really loved that book, but in high school I was really upset because we finally meet Frankenstein's monster when he can speak and he just speaks so eloquently.
Gerardo
He does!
Bex
I'm like, where did you learn this from, sir?
Gerardo
Yeah.
Bex
From small children, apparently, that drown near the lake. But, you know.
Gerardo
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Or like, yeah, his language comes from that family, but that family must have been, like, really eloquent because...
Bex
Yeah, somehow.
Gerardo
Yeah!
Tiffany
Tiff jumping in here to tell you all the reasons why you should be reading Monstrilio.
This book absolutely has my whole heart. It is undeniably queer. It is about grief, loss, acceptance, unconditional love.
There are so many amazing reasons why you should absolutely be reading this book but I’m going to give you my favorite one: it’s undeniably gross, but beautiful. If you want to feel all the things: cry, laugh, and just have appreciation for your entire family, you need to pick this up.
Kicking it back over to Bex and Gerardo, enjoy!
Bex
This is- throwing something else way out there. But did you ever read Amanda Montel's nonfiction book, Cultish?
Gerardo
No, I haven't.
Bex
It's about the language of cults and what cults use– and I'm not trying to say that communities are cults.
Gerardo
Mm-hmm.
Bex
Cults are communities, but it's the square and rectangle.
Gerardo
Mm-hmm.
Bex
But it's about how that type of language creates its own power over people.
Gerardo
Mm-hmm!
Bex
And… now I'm just thinking about especially in this family, in this community, like how the language of books, it's– well not in this family, this community– but now I'm thinking about how the language of books themselves create a community within readers, which is just something that's been on my mind lately as the solitude of reading versus the community of having read.
Gerardo
Yeah, that's interesting. I hadn't thought about that a lot, but that's a really interesting thing to think about. And the act of– because also, like when you read, there's a communion with someone, like with the story that's being told to you.
Bex
Mm-hmm.
Gerardo
Because as a reader, you're also, like, putting a lot of yourself in the work to fill in the gaps. Because even if it's the most explanatory of texts, there are still gaps that you have to fill in, right?
Bex
Right.
Gerardo
And so there's always, a communion. And also, like, a communion with, like if it's fiction, like with characters that you kind of start relating to an you develop empathy for these people. And that's a very interesting effect, right? Like, I don't know if psychologically it's the same process of with a real human being, but that's a very interesting process that as readers you go through.
Bex
Yeah.
Gerardo
Or you know we just engage and we put something of ourselves in it. Yeah, that's very interesting.
Bex
Yeah. And then I'm also like, “okay, well, how much do I just feel a parasocial bond now with this author who has indeed put themselves in it, but who is still not–” I don't know, I'm not trying to get into the art-versus-the-artist conversation because that's just boring to me.
Gerardo
Right.
Bex
But in terms of feeling, like I don't think it's false to feel a connection with an author because of the work they made, but I– there is that boundary between, “well, you still don't know them.”
Gerardo
Right. Right, exactly. So, like, you're bonding maybe with like a part of them or that specific part that they put out. But you're not really– you're bonding with, like, a mixture of author and other things–
Bex
Mm-hmm
Gerardo
that they're like thinking about or they're encountering or, but you're not really bonding with the author fully…
Bex
Yeah, you're bonding with, like, almost a translation of it.
Gerardo
Right.
Bex
Even if, you know, you're reading in the original language, like that's not that kind of translation, but a translation of what the author is feeling and writing about and then how you are perceiving that and hopefully growing with it.
Gerardo
Yeah. It's like– you're like you're actually like bonding with the work.
Bex
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Gerardo
It's just that the work happened because an author put it out there and even though there's parts of the author in it, the object that you're actually – like the text, the thing, the being that you're actually engaging with is the art itself, the book.
Bex
Right. Wow, I just– this is great. I love this book. I love this.
So we mentioned briefly earlier that there's, in a sense, there's five narrators to the story because it starts off with a third person.
Gerardo
Mm-hmm.
Bex
And I'm interested in changing up characters for POV, changing between third and first person. I'm always so intrigued by those conversations because so many– just everyone has an opinion on it.
Gerardo
Yes.
Bex
And I always wanna know how did you decide? I guess not so much switching between person to person. I mean, I was thrilled to see, to hear other people's voices and opinions. But I'm really, really curious about that, quote unquote, prologue that I don't even think is labeled as a prologue, but I'm calling it that–
Gerardo
Right.
Bex
–To start with third person and then move into these four interconnected– this family.
Gerardo
Yeah, so it's actually, like, a more accidental decision in a way because– so that prologue or that first little bit, that actually I wrote– So when I was writing my novel and it was, like, way into the future and it was like a different type of thing, but I mean, it has some of the same characters, but it was like a different type of story. But I was like, “why is Magos the way she is?” And I wrote it like a kind of exercise for me to kind of get to know Magos a little bit better. And when I wrote it, I loved it.
Bex
Mm hmm.
Gerardo
And it was like, “I should continue!” But then I was, like, in my other novel, I had kind of like that scene where, like, Monstrillo is attacking the family in the first part, like Lucia, the Magos' mother. And I have written in Magos' perspective, and I had, like, a little bit of like, Ferguson, like the place upstate in Magos' perspective. So I had, like, bits and pieces already written in first-person Magos. And so, like I just started putting pieces together, and when it came, together, I was like, “this little prologue thing is, it just– like, I love how it reads and I have no intention of changing it to Magos' perspective–
Bex
Yeah.
Gerardo
–Because I don't think, like, it should be.” And so, like, that was accidental. And I also, when Magos starts speaking, it's, like, a little bit after that happens: the lung.
Bex
Right.
Gerardo
So I liked that little spatial and temporal break to just kind of have a breath after. Because that, like, first chapter or prologue or whatever it is, it's kind of, like, intense and a lot.
Bex
Yes.
Gerardo
So I just kind of, like, wanted a little breath.
Bex
I made a coworker read it recently where, I don't know, we– there was a pause in work, I don't know. But she was looking for a new book and I was like, “oh, read Monstrilio, here, here, here!” And I, like, handed it to her and she read the first part and she was like, “is it all like this?” And I was like, “no no no no, you just gotta keep going!”
Gerardo
Yeah, imagine, like, a book like I mean, which is– be too much at least for me. Yeah, it's just too much. But I like the intensity of that.
Bex
Mm-hmm.
Gerardo
And for a first chapter, it kind of worked for me.
Bex
Absolutely.
Gerardo
Just because in that very traditional way of thinking of like, “you got to hook your readers”!
Bex
Yup!
Gerardo
I feel like it does that.
Bex
Yeah. I also find a lot of comfort in the fact that you said this was originally just an exercise–
Gerardo
Yeah.
Bex
–And then it made the book. And I'm thinking, I'm like, “oh, writing students out there, your exercises could do well!”
Gerardo
Yes! Also because I think if I had tried to do that voice, like, that third person narrator voice that somehow came out in a way that I'm really pleased by, if I had tried to do it consciously or thinking that was going to be the first part or– if I had consciously gone into it thinking that it had to be that way I wouldn't have been able to do it. But because I had the freedom of thinking like, “oh, this is just an exercise for me”, magic happened because I didn't have the pressure of thinking like, “oh, this has to be good”. It just had to be.
Bex
Right. I always remember having assignments in undergrad, which I keep referring to undergrad like it was yesterday, it was so long ago now. But assignments in undergrad where they're like– I did playwriting and they just kept saying, “write a bad play. Like, just write the worst play you could imagine.” And I remember being– occasionally I would write a bad play and be like, “oh, this was so fun. This was so bad”. And occasionally just, like, that 20 Year Old Ego would come in and I'd be like, “this was actually pretty good guys”. Like, I don't know, this isn't a bad play.
Gerardo
Mm-hmm.
Bex
Um, they were, they were all bad. And even the stuff I wrote that was good was probably bad.But I think, I mean, clearly they were trying to teach that importance of like, “you got to let go this idea that you're going to write something perfect.”
Gerardo
Yes.
Bex
And I like– look at this glorious thing that came from just not trying and just doing what was instinctual, and trusting yourself.
Gerardo
Yeah, yeah, and I wish I could always access that place, but it's really hard.
Bex
Yes.
Do you have a practice, like a routine practice in writing?
Gerardo
Well, right now I'm writing my second novel…
Bex
Ooooooh!
Gerardo
So, but, because I moved here and, like, I'm teaching now at Fordham.
Bex
Mmm.
Gerardo
And so I had to adjust to a new routine, to a new place and everything. I stopped writing. But I have started to write again.
At Fordham, I'm, like, conducting these, like, “writing sprints”–
Bex
Ooh!
Gerardo
–Which have actually helped a lot, which is just, like, writing. And because I tell everybody that comes to these to just write and not think about it too much I feel like I must do the same. Otherwise, I feel very hypocritical.
Bex
Yeah, wait, sorry, what's a “writing sprint”? Can you explain that a little bit?
Gerardo
So, it’s just like– In this case, it's just, like, 25 minutes. I set a timer. We all get together in a room and we just write in silence for 25 minutes.
Bex
Mmm.
Gerardo
But, so I tell people that they should come in with a goal for those– so it's three 25 minute intervals, so it ends up being, like, an hour and a half, which is also not like a whole lot of time which is great because it also like kind of, like, eases your mind in that you're not committing your whole day to something or whatever.
But yeah, so I tell people that you should come in with a goal for that session for that hour and a half, or at least for each 25 minutes. So my goal is 1200 words for those 25 minutes, for those hour and a half, I mean. And so– and there are different goals for people like some people might be like, “I need to finish the scene during this, during this time, or I need to move on” or whatever it is, right? Or it could also be a word count or, you know or just not stop writing. And because writing 400 words for me in, like, the span of 25 minutes means that I can't think too much about things.
Bex
Mm-hmm.
Gerardo
I just have to keep going and so like if I have the– so if I just wanna go over one sentence over and over again until it's, like, nice or perfect or whatever I can't because I won't meet my goal. And so I've been trying to do that every day. Because I committed to doing that, it actually helps because it's, like, doing this hour and a half to just writing and you're not judging, and you're just, like, getting words down on the paper.
And also I don't look back at what I've written. So I just go off memory of what I wrote the previous day.
Bex
Ohhh.
Gerardo
So I don't have the temptation to go back and rewrite things. And I'm like, “did I even write that before?” So I'm just moving on.
Bex
Yeah.
Gerardo
God knows what will happen when I reread everything, but at least things are happening.
Bex
Yeah, I remember when Tracy Letts and I think Sarah Ruhl were both doing translations of Chekhov, like, they're own translations, and they interviewed each other.
Gerardo
Mm-hmm.
Bex
And Tracy Letts said that he'll write a first draft and then he'll delete it and start again.
Gerardo
Oh, my God, I think I've heard of this.
Bex
Oh, I– it horrified me.
Gerardo
It's almost like a like… an urban myth.
Bex
Yeah, it's - I want to say I will find the interview because like, it's his own urban legend that he is self perpetuating– which we love– we love Tracy. He loves to order from the store. We love supplying him with books.
Gerardo
That is awesome, but I love that idea–
Bex
Yeah.
Gerardo
Because then you rewrite the book from memory, right? Isn't that like the full idea? Like, then after you finish that, you delete it and then you rewrite it from memory.
Bex
Yeah, and only what you really remember gets it back in. And I've tried doing that practice of writing a first draft of something, or at least a first few scenes, and then not looking at it and starting again and seeing what's different, but fully deleting it and deleting it off the memory card. There's no way he can re-access this. I was like, Tracy, is this part of being a genius?
Gerardo
Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't do that with a novel. I don't think I have the stomach for it.
Bex
Mm-mm. No.
Gerardo
I did it once with, like, a short story and it actually worked–
Bex
Oh, okay. Alright.
Gerardo
I think I mean I can't I can't go back and look at it.
Bex
Right.
Gerardo
It's what I deleted, but I think it worked! But I know I don't have the stomach to do it with it novel…
Bex
No, it's so much work!
Gerardo
Yeah.
Bex
Maybe that's the trick is that Tracy's writing plays, which are– also take a lot out of you. But the word count is less. I think he would agree with that.
Gerardo
Yeah. Yeah. But also, for me, it helps to just have a million files on my computer, like–
Bex
Mm-hmm.
Gerardo
–Because everything's there. And so I feel like I'm not losing anything, but it makes it easier to delete stuff.
Bex
Yeah, that's true. I use this program Scrivener. I don't know if–
Gerardo
Oh, I know. Yeah, yeah.
Bex
Yeah, yeah. So, like, I love– it'll just take snapshots of what I wrote, you know, on October 30th at 10:11 in the morning…
Gerardo
Mm-hmm.
Bex
And then I can just delete it all. And it's still there, but I don't have to look at it. But if I really want to…
Gerardo
Right.
Bex
Yeah.
Gerardo
That's a great feature.
Bex
And it warns me if I'm going to delete something, it's like, “you can't do this again”. And there is a thrill in deleting it, knowing that I can never see it again.
I have one final question before thanking you again so much for being on the show today–
Gerardo
Thank you for having me.
Bex
It's such a treat. I'm so– I'm so jazzed that you got to be here and I gotta talk to you.
Do you have anything you wanna plug of yourself or of anyone else's art you're enjoying right now?
Gerardo
Um, not really. Well, I mean, I'm going to plug the book I'm reading, which is Uranians by Theodore McCombs.
Bex
Mm-hmm.
Gerardo
And I'm also going to plug my friend, Pemi Aguda's upcoming short story collection called Ghostroots available next year.
Bex
Ooh! Ooooh! Thrilling. I love to know that there's a galley I can be on the lookout for.
Gerardo
Yes! Oh I think you would love it.
Bex
Amazing. Ghostroots?
Gerardo
Ghostroots, Pemi Aguda.
Bex
Great, we'll put a link in the transcription!
Gerardo
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Bex
Amazing. Great. Thank you so much for being here. This was such a pleasure. I can't wait for book number two.
Gerardo
Yeah, me too.
Bex
On Monstrillo: The Second Coming.
Bex
Ha ha ha! Let's see what happens!
Sources Mentioned:
Uranians by Theodore McCombs
Monstrilio’s publisher Zando
Monstrilio’s cover artist Alex Merto
Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
Henry Fuseli’s painting The Nightmare
Cultish by Amanda Montell
An American Theatre interview with Tracy Letts and Sarah Ruhl
Ghostroots by Pemi Aguda (available May 7, 2024)
The writing program Scrivener
Interviewer: Bex - they/them, Events Coordinator
Interviewee: Gerardo Sámano Córdova - he/him author of Monstrilio
Producers: Aatia Davison & Jules Rivera
Music: Bex Frankeberger
Editor: Jules Rivera
Voiceover: Jules Rivera
