Catching Up With Johnny Diaz

JOHNNY DIAZ

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SCORE

It’s not just a name—it’s a frame of mind.

Nestled amid peach and candy-pink Art Deco buildings, Score is the hottest gay bar in Miami’s South Beach. And for friends Ray Martinez, Ted Williams, and Brian Anderson, there’s no better way to start the weekend than by checking out the steady stream of beautiful Latin men coursing in and out of Score’s doors…

While Miami is home to the most gorgeous males ever created by God or a lifetime gym membership, Ray, resident movie critic at The Miami News, would give the dating scene a one-star review. Tired of hooking up with sculpted, shallow hunks who use books as towel weights, Ray is thrilled to finally meet a guy he wants to take home to mami and papi…

Ted, host of a popular Miami version of Entertainment Tonight, has enjoyed all the perks of his celebrity status. But being overexposed has its downside. Ted’s longing for a deeper connection spurs a reckless move that could cost him everything…

Brian has a life of leisure with his fabulously wealthy older boyfriend. The key rule to their open relationship: no sleeping with the same guy twice. But ever since Brian met a Puerto Rican love god named Eros, it’s a rule he keeps breaking…

A sexy, smart, and irresistibly witty new novel, Miami Manhunt explores one wild year when love gets crazy, hearts get broken and mended, and the only thing to count on is the fact that life will never be the same again…

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Praise for Johnny Diaz and Boston Boys Club

“Racy, funny, and smart. You’re going to love this book.” —Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin and We Disappear

“Fun, well-written, and a great page-turner.” --Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, New York Times bestselling author

"The excellent Johnny Díaz has produced another hilarious arresting novel about that most impossible of all quests: finding love, true love, in Miami." Junot Diaz, author of New York Times bestseller The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Bio

Johnny Diaz is a Living/Arts writer for The Boston Globe, where he writes about pop culture, style trends and Hispanic-related arts stories. Before that he worked at The Miami Herald. As a reporter there, he shared in the 2000 Pulitzer award coverage of the federal seizure of Elian Gonzalez and the chaos that erupted in Miami afterwards. He also covered some of the biggest breaking stories in South Florida, such as the Gianni Versace murder. He was also a featured contributor in the first Chicken Soup for the Latino Soul. Johnny lives in Boston and readers can visit his website at www.beantowncuban.com.

We caught up with Johnny just as his new book was ready to launch. For our first conversation with Johnny, just take a peek here.

1. Describe what your life has been life personally and creatively since the launch of Boston Boys Club?

It's been a non-stop rollercoaster. I find myself much busier than I was before BBC came out. I receive a lot of emails from readers and I answer each one. (I also print them out and save them in a journal.) As I promoted BBC through book readings and interviews last year, I had to
finish Miami Manhunt so I juggled both books in different ways. I felt I was caught between the two. And I also have my day job to do as a full-time reporter at The Boston Globe.

So it's been busy but a good busy. Now I find myself in the same scenario as last year: I am promoting Miami Manhunt as I finish the last leg of my third book.

The emails from readers and comments make it all worthwhile. I feel my stories have connected me with others. Hopefully, I won't go completely gray by this time next year.

2. What's been the response regarding BBC from the queer community, the Latino community, and the literary community at large? Do you feel it'sbeen liberating to tell that story and carve out chico lit as a genre?

A lot of different readers connected with each f the characters from BBC. But I did receive a large amount of feedback from fellow younger Latino gay men who felt they finally saw someone like themselves or someone they knew through the Tommy Perez character (Cuban-American writer from Miami where he has a tight-knit overprotective family.) That was one of the reasons I wrote BBC and Miami Manhunt - to add to the small gay Latino presence in American literature where central gay Latino characters are few.

In that aspect, I feel it has been liberating for me and for readers as well because we should be able to see ourselves reflected in the books we read. We need more gay Hispanic representation, gente! Come out and share your stories.

3. How are you able to juggle journalism and fiction writing?

At times, it's hard, a non-stop juggling act. I can't put them down! I try to write the fiction on the weekends, Friday nights or Sunday mornings or when I go to Miami on vacation to visit my parents. I find that being there completely disconnects me from Boston and work. I can truly focus on the fiction.

The journalism is automatic for me. It's in my blood and flows out of me. I think it's harder to capture emotions and feelings in first-person as I do for fiction than it is to write about other people in third-person for my articles which I find easier.

In a way, both styles of writing complement one another. Whatever I am working on for The Globe has a way of inspiring a scene for a chapter in the books. When I go running or cycling to think of scenes or dialogue for the book, I often stumble upon a story idea. I don't think I would be able to do one without the other. They go hand in hand. The key is to stay organized. If I can write a chapter a week or every other week, then I'm on schedule.

Sometimes it's hard to do this because if I had a heavy week of newspaper writing, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of the computer and write away. But I still do it because each style of writing serves as an outlet for the other. One begats the other.

4. Are there emerging themes that you see yourself being drawn to? What are they and how would you like to address them?

I enjoy writing about family and the dynamics of sibling relationships when one is gay or of a different gender. That has been a running theme in both books and in my third book (which I am currently writing.) Family is a universal theme that anyone can relate to and I plan to keep using it as a backbone for my novels because it resonates with my readers but most of all, with myself. I come from a large Cuban family where my aunts and uncles are second-parents and where my cousins are second-siblings. The ever-evolving structure of family, what does it mean today versus 20 years ago, continues to inspire me. But I also enjoy writing about love - finding it and keeping it. I believe most people can relate to that as well.

5. Who are the writers you enjoy for pleasure's sake ? Why?

I'm a big Nicholas Sparks fan. He writes simple stories in a clean writing style yet the stories pack an emotional punch. I'm a big Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez fan, who inspired me to write Boston Boys Club, because she writes in a fluid, tongue-and-cheek style that is entertaining and
educational. Dean Koontz is another favorite. I enjoy how he weaves a suspense/mystery with witty rat-tat-tat dialogue and descriptive prose.

6. Who are the writers that raise the bar for you? Why?

Scott Heim, who wrote "Mysterious Skin " and the recent "We Disappear,'' is another favorite writer. His writing radiates a quiet power, a mix of suspense and poetry that gently pulls the reader along in his Kansas-inspired mysteries.

Junot Diaz is another one that has set the bar high for this Diaz He is a perfectionist when it comes to his writing, often taking years to write one book. I wish I can be like that. His writing is like a whole other language, a fast-paced Spanglish pocked with new and old pop culture and
scifi references yet tinged with the duality of being a Latino and American.


7. Do you think chico lit as a niche market will become problematic for you as you move forward. If so, how?

Eventually, it will if I decide to change things up a bit for a fourth novel. Supposed I want to write a novel about a straight married couple, will my readers follow me after reading my novels about gay Hispanic men? I don't know. That's a risk. I have been encouraged by my publisher to keep doing what I am doing but eventually, I am going to want to strike out and do something else. I don't want to be boxed into one genre, even though I put myself there. Readers like consistency and so do publishers. Stay tuned.

8. What do you think will help take your writing to the next level?

Pushing myself harder to challenge myself in the way I write will help me get to the next level. I have become comfortable writing in first-person for fiction. I'm curious to see how I would write in third-person, as I do in my news articles. Would I be a stronger writer that way? I also believe
working with different editors also help writers grow because you are exposed to another sensibility. To grow as a person, you need to change and the same goes for writers. I think by trying to come up with different storylines and characters, I may just grow into the writer I aspire to be one day.

Lisa Alvarado

Chica Lit, Meet Johnny Diaz

A staff writer for The Boston Globe, Johnny Diaz covers Boston’s colorful neighborhoods and Hispanic issues. Previously, Diaz was a reporter for The Miami Herald where he shared in the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the federal seizure of Elian Gonzales and its aftermath. MTV Real World fans will remember him as the “gay guy’s boyfriend” from the Miami season. In Boston Boys Club, his first novel, Johnny Diaz follows a trio of friends as they search for that perfect guy at the most happening bar in Boston, the Café Club.

I caught up with Johnny as he continues to juggle being a successful journalist and preparing for the national debut of his novel. Come back next week for a review of Boston Boys Club, summer read season is just around the corner.

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Talk about chico lit and its place alongside chica lit...
What connection do you feel with writers like Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, and the chica lit movement? Who are the writers that influenced you, and what about them/their work clicked for you?

I believe chico lit is the guy's chica lit. Just as Latinas look for themselves and their stories in contemporary fiction, so are their gay brothers, cousins, and amigos. We want to see ourselves reflected accurately and positively. Latino readers of gay fiction want something that goes beyond what we've read countless times before: the gangbangers, the big and strong old-school macho guys, the sexy hot Latino gardeners to have sex with, and the stereotypical flamboyant drag queens. We're more than that just as Latinas are more than housekeepers and Spanish-accented sexy bombshells. What about our stories that speak of friendship and the struggles with being accepted not just in your own family and culture but in your own social group? What about our stories that show how we're constantly swaying and thriving in a bicultural bubble? We often speak two languages because of our parents and we travel back and forth in between cultures, 24-7 and I haven't seen many recent novels by a gay Latino writer that speaks to all that, especially from an American and Hispanic point of view.

I feel a strong kinship with Alisa Valdes Rodriguez and her chica lit movement. For one, I was a college intern in Living/Arts at The Boston Globe when she was a writer here. (She was my unofficial mentor and she would often read my copy and give me advice before I filed my stories to my editor. I sat next to her and I think I used to her annoy with questions about where to eat and dance.) I feel what she does now as an author is what she was did as a journalist, telling our stories, informing and enlightening readers about our culture and backgrounds and how diverse and rich we are. She broke a lot of new ground in Boston and in Los Angeles and in mainstream journalism. She always inspired me to do the same. (I actually have her old job here at The Globe.) When I read The Dirty Girls Social Club, I wanted to do a guy's version of that, hence Boston Boys Club but with not so many main characters, just three guys and how a gay Cuban-American adapts to a sometimes staid town like Boston.

So Alisa has been a big influence on me as well as authors such as Nicholas Sparks and William J. Mann. Some fellow writers frown on Nicholas Sparks because they say his writing is hokey and full of cliches with his simplistic stories, but they ring true and bring a romantic escapism for the reader. William J. Mann is a fellow gay writer from Cape Cod and he has written books about the gay party circuit. His novels have been the closest thing I've read to good gay fiction that speak to the everyday struggles of dating and relationships. But again, none of his characters are Latinos, hence another reason for writing BBC. I wanted to write something fun and positive about being gay and Hispanic today. I want people to read my novel and walk away with a good feeling about gays and Latinos in general, like they know understand us a little better.

Boston Boys Club will no doubt be popular as queer fiction in the LGBT community, but it also has the appeal of Bushnell and Sex and the City. Not to give anything away, but BBC has a strong thread of friendship as well as romance and sexuality. What do you that says about where we are in the culture wars, i.e. gay reality not a "subculture" anymore, but popular culture.

I find that if you write about universal themes (strong friendships, sweet romances, and the longing for intimacy) that they will transcend labels and be part of popular culture as opposed to a subculture or a specific niche. I know my characters are gay and one of them is Hispanic but their stories will resonate with anyone who has had issues with committing to a relationship, helping someone with has his own addiction issues or chronicling the challenges of being a newcomer in a new home and job. I describe the book as a Same-Sex in the City because men and women of various backgrounds related to that show, even though it was about four straight women and their search for Mr. Right. I hope that readers who pick up Boston Boys Club will relate to one of the characters, even if they are gay or Hispanic. My guys are all looking for love, and themselves and aren't we all in our own way?

On a related note, in your opinion, what do you think Latin culture has to offer the LGBT community and vise versa, and ultimately what do those communities bring to the "larger" body politic?

The Latin culture has offered us a rich tradition of storytelling. Our tradition is about sharing, being passionate and proud about who you are and what you do. We're all storytellers, from our abuelos y padres. I remember growing up in Miami, listening to my dad tell my sister and I stories about Cuba or he would pretend to be the voice of one of my sister's dolls to keep us entertained on long drives to Disney World. There is a long tradition of this among many famous gay Latin writers, from Reinaldo Arenas and Elias Miguel Munoz to Cuban poet Richard Blanco. You read their books and poems and you can hear, taste, smell, and see the results of those passed-on traditions of storytelling.

And by sharing their stories, they also contribute another layer of the Latin experience - the gay experience, which has often been something you know but don't talk about. They've written about their tight-knit upbringing and struggles of being gay in a machismo mundo to being ostracized at times from a culture that is so often warm and embracing yet so cold and shunning with it comes to homosexuality.

As a journalist and novelist, do you experience one kind of writing as different than the other? For me, writing poetry feels very intuitive, very much a right brain activity, where fiction writing seems almost exclusively left brain. Does this resonate for you, and if not, how would you describe how your work develops, how it's linked?

That's a great question. I find that my writing for The Boston Globe is very left-brain and somewhat serious. I am writing with a pair of handcuffs on because the story is not about me, but about the person, the topic or the issue. I funnel the facts and the information from my notepad and do my best to write them into a clear and concise article that flows. I feel I have to keep my personality - my voice - at bay to tell the story for the newspaper. Sometimes, I struggle to keep my first-person observations out so that the article is completely third-person but sometimes, a personal insight or observation surfaces and I get away with it.

Writing fiction is pure pleasure for me. It's my creativity unleashed and it doesn't feel like work at all. It's feels more like art, something you do because your spirit guides you - calls you - to do it. When I write fiction, I feel I can take those proverbial handcuffs off (the ones from above at the newspaper) and let my voice run free and wild. When I write fiction, I feel like someone running in a boundless field of sawgrass or someone swimming in the middle of the sea. I don't where I'm running or swimming to but I am having fun exploring, seeing where the journey takes me. So yes, fiction is very "write" brain for me. :)

Where do you see yourself as a writer ten years from now?

I see myself smiling and writing, sharing my stories with others as a writer and telling other people's stories as well as journalist. And hopefully, I'll still be bopping around New England and South Florida in my little white Jeep Wrangler to find those stories.

Tell us something about yourself not in the official bio.

I'm addicted to the six-inch Veggie Delite sub (no mayo, honey mustard por favor) from Subways sandwich shops. I eat one daily for lunch, plus two chocolate chip cookies.


Written by Lisa Alvarado