Hispanic Fanatic

Just in time for Halloween, my publisher sent a box of my latest book. 

Here’s what the publishing house says:

The Amityville Horror (1979) was a box-office smash that terrified audiences with its supposedly true depiction of a real-life haunting in Amityville, New York. In the decades since its release, the film has gone on to be one of the most profitable independent films of all time, casting a shadow over the haunted house subgenre and spawning an unwieldy franchise of official and unofficial sequels. 

But in spite of the film’s success, it was lambasted by critics, and the “true story” that inspired it was already being debunked as exaggeration or even outright fiction before the film was even released. 

So what made audiences’ belief in its implausible origin story so stubborn? And why does The Amityville Horror continue to wield such an outsized influence on contemporary haunted house stories? 

In this lively analysis of the movie that traumatized him as a child, Daniel Cubias draws on wide-ranging research into the film’s themes, factual basis, and legacy to explain what continues to draw audiences to this flawed but nevertheless alluring horror classic.

Maybe I’m biased, but that sounds like a pretty cool read.

So go ahead and grab one before they sell out.

Thanks

I’ve referred many times to the book I’m writing. Well, now I can reveal the specifics.

I am writing an analysis of the 1979 film The Amityville Horror for the publishing company DieDie Books. The book will come out later this year.

As part of the writing process, I’m collecting opinions about the movie and the concept of the supernatural. I would appreciate your thoughts. You can express your opinion by taking this short survey I created on Google Docs.

The survey will take about one minute, and your opinion will be part of the book.

Thanks for your help, and I will let you know when the book is published.

No new blog post this week. I have to devote my limited energy to my upcoming book. The deadline is approaching fast, and I won’t be using AI to write it for me. I know people are doing that, but it’s odd to have a machine create something for you and then proclaim, “I did this!” So I will be cranking out the manuscript the old-fashioned way, one word at a time.

I will, however, post AI-generated images here to keep you entertained in my absence. Check out this doodle:

Pretty cool, huh?

I will be back in a week or two.

Thanks

OK, here’s the good news:

I have signed a contract with a publishing house, and my next book should be coming out in early 2024.

Here’s the bad news:

I have just a few months to finish the manuscript, which thus far consists of one page and a truly killer sentence to start the second page.

So this is going to take some work.

As such, I may have to take periodic breaks from this site to devote more time to writing my book. This is one of those occasions.

I will be back in a couple of weeks with a full-fledged post (assuming that I can make it further into my manuscript — say, to page 3).

In the meantime, I will rely on my new good friend, artificial intelligence, to dazzle you with random images of bizarre providence, like this:

See you soon.

I’ve been remiss. For the last few months, I’ve been babbling away about my new novel, Barrio Imbroglio, a dark-comedy mystery. But I have neglected to tell all of you how you can snag a copy for free.

Well, I’m correcting the situation.

If you would like a free e-book version of my novel, all you have to do is be the first person to email me at hispanicf@gmail.com with the message “I want a free copy of your book.” And just like that, I will email you a download code. Don’t worry, I never share my readers’ email addresses with anyone.

Now, if you’re old school, and you’re not really down with this whole e-book trend, you can hold out for a genuine paperback version. That’s coming soon.

But you can hook a free copy of the paperback version, before it’s even published, by entering my giveaway at Goodreads (you can do that by clicking here).

So that’s two ways for you to get Barrio Imbroglio, both of them for free.

There are no strings attached, although I hope that if you win either contest, and you like the novel, you will be kind enough to spread the word via social media and/or post a positive review on Amazon (you can do that by clicking here).

In any case, let me know what you think of Barrio Imbroglio. And thanks.