Three Questions for Rudy Ch. Garcia Regarding His Debut Novel, “The Closet of Discarded Dreams”

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Most La Bloga readers know Rudy Ch. Garcia as a founding memberof this blog and through his weekly posts. He is also a quasi-ex-member of the Northern Colorado WritersWorkshop, holds a B.A. in writing from the University of Colorado-Denver, andworks as a Denver-area bilingual elementary teacher.
But he has been toiling in the fields of literature for a whilenow. For example, before I knew much about Rudy, I had the pleasure ofaccepting his detective-fantasy story “LAXConfidential” for Latinos inLotusland (2008). That piece displayed great wit and a wickedly cockeyedview of reality. Rudy’s next publications clearly follow this path. HisSouthwest fantasy “Memorabilia” won anhonorable mention in a Writers Digest contest and then appeared inthe anthologies Needles & Bones (2011),and Crossing the Path of Tellers (2012).He has also published other stories that blurred several genres of literarytraditions: SF-fantasy, humor-fantasy-horror, and just plain fantasy (thoughnothing is “just plain” with Rudy).
And nowreaders are being treated to Rudy’s debut novel, TheCloset of Discarded Dreams (Damnation Books). The publisher describesthis book as follows:
A young Chicano battles insanity in asurreal world where everyone endlessly belives humankind's abandoned dreams.Except for him. Will VN vet fraggers, Lenny Bruce, a Midget Godzilla, vampires,Neanderthals, a Black leper, Marilyn Monroe, Che, and Chrisie the Bruiser provefoes or allies? When the rebellious captive discovers special powers, hisdesire to escape contends with empathy for the Dreampeople. But can he createhis own identity and rally them to overcome the Closet's mysterious secret?ShowMore ShowLess
Sounds likea trip, doesn’t it? Well, I can attest that it is. I wanted to pose a fewquestions to Rudy about his novel as well as the writing process, and he kindlyobliged.

DO: How did youcome upon the idea for your novel, The Closet of Discarded Dreams?
RCG: The answerto that question is a mini-epic. I've usually skipped dream sequences innovels, rarely finding them satisfying, so when I was a member of the NorthernColorado Writers Workshop, I wondered about a world filled with people'sdreams. What would it be like, how could the dreams coexist, would there beconflict or would it be a Heaven? And what if you found yourself there but youhad no dream? How could you escape? Would you even want to and why? And if youwere a Chicano, how would your experience be distinctive?ThenI wrote the short story that is similar to the first chapter of the novel, andNCWW mentor Ed Bryant said it was written in the vein of Borges, which inspiredthe chingaus out of me. Shortly thereafter, the group did awrite-a-novel-in-a-month exercise, and I managed to complete the novel's firstdraft in 45 days. After years of polishing, it finally got published.
DO: What wasthe hardest part about writing it?
RCG: Thisfantasy novel is about the most surreal world imaginable. It's not anotherplanet, it's another dimension where Dreampeople live in a planet-size worldthat's contained within a rectangular prism, like a long box. So I had towrestle with: how oppressive would it feel to live where the horizon stretchedfor thousands of miles, but there was only about twenty feet of space fromfloor to a flat ceiling above you. And how could I convey not just thephysicality but also the psychological experience to readers?
Manytimes while working on it, I would almost get flashbacks of barrios I lived inTexas and Colorado. How we had open skies, but not much space, and I keptconnecting the low ceiling in the novel to how it felt living in the projectsor in small homes not meant to hold big families. I wasn't writing a parody ofa barrio, but if readers take it that way, then maybe I succeeded in conveyingto them at least the oppressiveness that the Chicano in the novel suffers. Workingso much on that aspect of the novel finally led to The Closet itself taking ona personality. That was a surprise to me.
DO: You've nowbeen interviewed and done book readings for your novel. What has been thereaction to it?
RCG: I've got several reviewers, both Latino and not, whoreally love the book and are some of my biggest fans, already asking about asequel. Reviewers seem consistently surprised not only about how different andloco The Closet world is, but also that the character is Chicano and has noname. I sometimes think of him as being prototypical Raza; we call ourselves somany things, are given so many labels, and historically had our Spanish orindio names taken away from us or had them Anglicized. I'm not surprised thatmy Chicano hero's struggle is intertwined with his search for identity, a name,and a meaning to his life in The Closet. In that sense, he's like all ofnosotros.
As forreadings, over fifty people turned out for the Denver debut and were moreattentive than any primary class I ever taught. I'm pleased so far that myreading performance hasn't run anyone out of the room.
What I'm mostinterested in learning from the readings and readers is how the Anglo readerwill empathize with the Chicano protagonist. And for the Latino reader, whetherthat character will hook them to enter The Closet and read the kind of fantasynovel that mostly only Anglos have enjoyed in fiction. In either case, I'm notdone, and I don't just mean with sequels. It's long past time that Chicanowriters avoided genres where Anglo writers have benefitted from largeaudiences. Vamos a ver, y gracias, Daniel.
[Rudy Ch.Garcia will tour So. Califas from October 10 through 15, and So. Central Texas from October 25 through 31.  He is available for readings, signings, interviews and tamaladas,he says. To learn more about the novel and how to contact Rudy, go to the book’swebsite.]