From the Booking Desk:
Although I have yet to meet him in person, I have long been a fan of Angel Luis Colón’s social media presence. His constant support of other writers – especially those in under-represented communities – is inspiring and unceasing. Angel is not one to shy away from the more controversial conversations happening in our genre, but I have found that he is always respectful, honest, and willing to listen. His own writing has a loyal and devoted fanbase and yet I cannot ever recall a moment when Angel crossed over into blatant self-promotion mode. He is a stand-up guy and I am happy to welcome him to BOLO Books as part of our composite sketch series.
Name: Angel Luis Colón
Location: Bergen County, New Jersey
This person from my personal life is such an inspiration:
As a creative, my late uncle Marcelo. Outside of his dayjob, he was a musician, primarily a percussionist, but the dude could play almost anything if you gave him an hour with it. Fricking brilliant mind for seeing rhythmic patterns.
His sheer joy at creating and participating in music wasn’t an immediate inspiration, more of a little bug that dug its way into my brain. I didn’t “get” it until I got serious about writing and this was way after he passed away. I finally learned that not only could I devote passion to a creative pursuit, but that I could do it on my terms and never at the expense of the other important pieces of my life.
One of the people I admire most in the crime fiction community is:
Hands down: Kellye Garrett. Her passion for writing and for boosting marginalized and fledgling writers is utterly stupefying and immensely inspiring.
It’s easy to be performative these days in our endeavors in demanding more equal ground, but Kellye walks the walk. She has a hand in multiple groups like Crime Writers of Color and Pitch Wars and is always willing to extend a hand to fellow writers.
I wish I had a quarter of her work ethic – really do.
STALKER ALERT! If this fictional character were real, they would likely need to get a restraining order against me:
Clive Barker’s occult detective, Harry D’Amour. He’s the kind of character I aspire to create, and I’d probably trail behind him at every case taking a ludicrous amount of notes.
Then some kind of evil beast from another dimension would eat my face, but hey, thems the breaks.
People are always surprised that I am a fan of this individual (singer, actor, or artist):
Absolutely nothing beats the look I get when I cite An American In Paris as one of my favorite movies of all time.
My personal catch phrase is (or should be):
“Not for nothing…”
An occult detective and An American in Paris. Quite the duo.