Author Carlos Hernandez visited our Digital Publishing class at Stevenson University on February 27th. Hernandez is a fiction and poetry author who will soon release his book Sal and Gabi Break the Universe through a contract with Disney. Throughout the discussion, Hernandez focused on both his poetry and fiction writing, how he gets his ideas, and his writing preferences. He was very engaged with the class and excited to answer our questions.
I enjoyed listening to Hernandez speak on how he writes his books. He spoke about how he used to prefer writing in one place but needed to learn how to be productive elsewhere. I also struggle with this problem and find it hard to be productive in new locations. He talked about how people in New York City will often write on their cellphones. I actually related to this! I always write down notes in my phone when I think of something and then will translate it to my laptop later. I found it very cool that Hernandez does this as well.
Extra credit: I also had the opportunity to listen to Hernandez speak and read from his book at an event the night before. Although Sal and Gabi Break the Universe is young adults’ book, I found it to be extremely interesting and enjoyable. Hernandez did a great job of developing personalities for the characters as he read aloud. I thought it was very cool to hear an author read aloud his own book, since books are always interpreted differently by the reader. We got to see exactly what Hernandez had planned the characters to look and sound like when he wrote this book.