Alex and Amber: Seeing Ourselves

Rachael: Welcome to Season 7 of Formative, the show where today's leaders are interviewed by the leaders of tomorrow.

To start this season off, we're speaking with Alex Segura. Alex is an author, comic book artist and editor. He has written numerous comics and novels including Secret Identity, which won the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery.

Rachael: Hello and welcome. I'm Rachael Gazdick, CEO of New York Edge, and my co-host today is Amber from M.S. 375X.

Hi, Amber. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, hun? 

Amber: Hello. I am from Bronx Math Preparatory School. I do a lot of activities like dancing, writing, singing. I also do football, basketball. I do a lot of things. I've been on around five flag football teams so far, and this year has been the first time I've been on a basketball team.

Rachael: That's so cool. You're so active. 

Amber: I really am. 

Rachael: So who are we interviewing today? 

Amber: His name is Alex Segura. And I'm very excited because I've met him before in person. 

Rachael: Well then, let's welcome Alex in. Alex, we're so happy to have you on today's show. 

Alex: Hi, thanks for having me. Great to see you, Amber. 

Amber: Good to see you, too.

Rachael: All right, now I'm going to hand over the mic to you, Amber. What's your first question for Alex? 

Amber: What advice would you give if, someone like me that wants to write or do anything in the arts, what advice or inspiring things would you like to tell them? 

Alex: Finish something. For a long time, even while I was in college, I just couldn't finish a piece of fiction. It wasn't until I took a creative writing class and my teacher was like, you just need to finish. Just finish one thing and then that'll be done and then you can do the next thing and maybe make it longer. I think sometimes we get caught up in the big picture. Like, I'm going to write a novel. I'm going to start writing this novel and that's, like, people forget novels are like 90,000 words. Like, that's a lot. 

I think there's a lot of gatekeeping that goes on in the writing community in that, oh, you have to write a thousand words a day. Or you're not a writer if you don't do this. I think you're a writer the second you think you're a writer. The second you're putting pen to paper and trying to write, you're a writer. But it's on you to be disciplined and finish and do the work. There's a difference between a writer who says they're a writer and then a writer who's done the stuff and been published and things like that. So you want to get there, but it doesn't mean you're not a writer when you start.

Amber: So like, how do you think a writer would start? 

Alex: I mean, sometimes people start before they even know what they're doing. Like you read stories and then you want to create your own, and that's how it started for me. Like, I'd be reading comics or I'd be reading books and I'd want to add to those stories, so I'd write my own, even though I didn't understand the structure or format or how it should be. Like I didn't know, oh, this is my first short story and I'm writing it now. It was more like, what if Spider Man did this and then I'm going to write it or draw it. So I think just giving yourself the space to be creative and tell the stories you want to tell without any idea of where it's going to end up.

A lot of people get frozen when they think about where am I going to sell it? Or who's going to publish it? Or how is it going to exist anywhere? The real fun of writing is the creating. The rest is really out of your hands. Like the publishing and the editing and the managing, that's all stuff that you can't really control.

So yeah, find ways to express yourself that don't feel like work and then you'll love it. And so, when it becomes work, it's not work. 

Amber: I love that, I love that, I love that. What would you be doing right now if you didn't take the career of writing or being an author? 

Alex: I don't know. I was in journalism when I got out of school. So I was a reporter and an editor and a designer. I did a bunch of stuff and I worked at newspapers and I worked at different places, like a magazine. And then I also did publicity and marketing, which is instead of being unbiased and writing what happens, you're trying to convince someone to read the books you're promoting or what have you.

I would probably be doing something like that, something editorial or something in publishing, if not writing, but writing is by far my favorite thing to do. 

Amber: So quick question. Why did you leave journalism? 

Alex: I was passionate about journalism and I felt like it was a really interesting space to be in at the time, like early 2000s. I was working as a, kind of like an online editor for the website at the Miami Herald. You're basically managing copy and editing it, packaging it for the website in the early days. Like, now it's a whole different animal, I bet. 

But, um, I wanted to do something that was more on the path towards being creative. You know, I was trying to be creative on the side, but I wanted my career to be in a creative space, not that journalism is not creative, but it's really about this is what's happening, this is the context and this is the truth. So when the opportunity came up to do publicity in the comic book industry, I was excited because also the hours were better. Like, I was working late nights and my weekend was Wednesday, Thursday, so, it was almost like being a vampire. Like you, you were just not connected to the world. Um, so I was feeling that and I wanted to have a little bit more regular hours. I wanted to be in a more creative space in terms of storytelling. And I knew long term that I wanted to be writing. 

Rachael: So once you left journalism and started writing, what are some of the challenges you faced? 

Alex: The big challenge for me, the safety net is gone. When I had a day job, there was never a worry like, oh, is this going to be enough to pay the bills or what have you. As opposed to getting paid every two weeks, the payment structure is different when you're a freelancer. It's based on contracts and book deals and things like that. Um, it was exciting because I was finally doing it. Literally my job is now to write. And um, a little scary because I'd always had a day job, even while writing. But it's been okay. It's been good. I'm happy. I'm glad I took the leap and I think the results have been good. 

Rachael: Yeah, and for students who are thinking of going into any of the arts, and they're nervous because someone may have told them it's not a stable career. Is there anything that you did beforehand to give yourself a little safety net before taking the leap? 

Alex: In terms of, like, finances? 

Rachael: Yeah, in terms of finances, but also in terms of the support system you had.

Alex: Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's important to really be a part of the community you're in, as a creative person. I've met so many new writers who are like my new book is coming out next week and I don't know what to do, and they haven't made the effort to engage with other authors or with other people. I'm a member of a lot of different organizations like Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, places where you can network and make friends because you don't know everything. Especially when I was starting out, I didn't understand, like, how things worked. And so, it was great to have a resource to reach out to, especially people with more experience. And now the time has changed and now I'm the one saying, you should try this or look out for this. So you pay it forward hopefully.

Amber: A little weird question, but did you have any, like, dreams about your books? 

Alex: Do I ever have dreams about my books? I have a lot of anxiety dreams. Like sometimes I'll have an anxiety dream about a book event or forgetting something, but I do think about my characters a lot. I don't listen to music when I'm writing, cause I find it really distracting, but I do listen to music when I go on walks and I make soundtracks for my books, like songs that I think could fit into the movie version of the book, not the literal movie version, but the movie in my mind. You almost enter a dream state while listening to music and walking and thinking about your book and kind of editing and managing the idea, but not like sleeping and dreaming. 

Amber: Okay. What would your typical draft look like?

Alex: I'm a big outliner, which means I just try to figure out what the story is going to be before I write the whole thing. You break it out in the plot. I know some writers who write, they'll start page one without any idea where the story is going. They know the character and they know the world and then they just go, which is terrifying to me because you're just making it up as you go along.

And I like having a little roadmap and that way my outlines are pretty, pretty detailed. Like, my outline for Alter Ego, which is my next crime novel, was about 30,000 words, which is like half a novel. I want to have the framework of the house built and then later on I can tinker with the decorations and the color paint and the furniture. Like, all the details I can focus on because that I think is something I try to spend more time on just because it comes harder to me. Like, some people are great with language out of the gate. They'll write a sentence and it's beautiful. For me, it takes a little more, I guess, chipping at the stone to make it sound great.

Amber: How do you come up with, like, most of your ideas for your novels or stories? 

Alex: My rule of thumb, for me, when it comes to a novel that isn't, we call it work for hire and all that means is, like, Marvel says, hey, write this novel. Um, when you're not writing somebody else's characters, when it's purely my idea, it has to be something that I'm completely obsessed about, like something that I could really spend forever working on.

And the idea, like, I do just have to be open to it. There's no singular way where ideas come to me, but I just have to let myself be open to it. And by that, I mean working my brain. You can't be a writer if you're not a reader, just like you can't play in a band if you're not practicing the music. So for me, I'm just constantly reading stuff and I'm constantly watching stuff with an eye toward, is this something I could use? Which sounds really opportunistic, but it's the way it goes. Like, I'm reading a lot of stuff on organized crime and conspiracy theories, not wild conspiracy theories. I mean, government conspiracies and things like that. That's been really fascinating. And then you start thinking about these things that you're reading that are based in reality and you start pulling the thread a little bit and you're like, what if this happened? And that's, to me, how the ideas come up. Like, for Secret Identity, which was a murder mystery set in comics. I was reading a lot of books about comic book history and I read one sequence about a woman who worked in comics but had been forgotten because of this big crackdown that happened involving horror comics and their content. And I just was really fascinated by the idea of this forgotten person. And that really spurred what became Secret Identity. Sometimes that spark is completely different from what you end up with, but all you need is a spark to get you going. 

Rachael: You know, it sounds like you believe that someone can sharpen their imagination and it doesn't just come naturally.

Alex: Yeah, it's not like, I don't think it's this magical thing that will happen no matter what. It sounds a little New Agey, but you really have to open your mind to it and be ready to receive it when it shows up. 

Amber: If you would suggest what a good topic would be about, what do you think one would be? 

Alex: Like a topic to research or a topic…?

Amber: To write. 

Alex: Oh, I always tell writers, there's the cliche which is write what you know but obviously writers don't know everything that they write about. I write about superheroes, I write about crime, I write about science fiction. I've not lived those things or experienced those things, so I wouldn't take that too literally. Write what you know and write the things you know about because you've read about them. If you've read a lot of comic books and fantasy novels and science fiction novels, you know that space. That's your area now. You are an expert. So, I think that's what ‘write what you know’ means. It's very different from you can only write about things you've literally experienced, which I think some people assume.

I would also say when you're thinking about what topics to write about things that aren't as common, your personal experience, your cultural background, things that are not already out there. I feel like diversity in publishing is really important. It's important to read other people's experiences and see through their eyes.

I'm a Cuban American kid from Miami and not a lot of people know what it was like to grow up bilingual or separated from the country your parents came from. I think there's a lot of stuff that we can share with the world. 

Amber: Yeah. You’re the child of immigrants, right? 

Alex: Yeah. 

Amber: Do you think about that part of you that you want to maybe represent?

Alex: Yeah, I think about it all the time. There's things you can't control when you're writing characters you don't own, you can't change who they are. But everytime I'm creating a story from whole cloth, there's an element of my background. Like, I wrote five novels about this private investigator, Pete Fernandez, who was Cuban American, lived in Miami. We had very similar backgrounds. Carmen Valdez from Secret Identity is Cuban American. I've created superheroes that are Cuban American. And I think it's important to share your experiences with other people. I hate to use the word normalize, but it's also to connect people to other backgrounds and other worlds that maybe they haven't experienced or thought of. We all live in our silos and echo chambers, but I love reading books about, you know, cultures and backgrounds that I don't have, that I've never experienced because I want to know more about the world. 

And it's also really important, I think identification is super important. When I was a kid in middle school, I picked up a comic called Spider-Man 2099 #1, which was about a Mexican American Spider Man in the future. And I was like, oh, that's wild. There's a Latino Spider Man. How is that even possible? But I felt a great sense of identification and I felt like I was being seen. And that was much less common than it is today. And I think it's really great that it is more common. And so, to get to write Miguel O'Hara and Spider-Man 2099 today and Anya and all these characters that are really so important. 

Like for me, a lot of times the Cuban character was the criminal or the sidekick, the comic relief, or a very exaggerated version of what Cuban culture is. And so, you want to course-correct that. You want the perception to not always be that. You want it to be a little bit more nuanced and you also want to open the door to people identifying with your characters

Amber: So, currently, I'm in middle school and I just want to ask, how's your middle school experience? 

Alex: Yeah, it was hard. I mean, academically it was fine. I think there's just, everyone's growing up. In elementary school, you're all kids. You're all still experiencing the wonder of school and being with your friends. And I think, obviously in middle school, everyone's literally becoming bigger adults going through these intense changes. And I think there was a lot of picking on people and just a lot of like the social hierarchy that I think is really challenging for anybody. I had some good memories, definitely. And I made some really great friends, but I think I would say, what helped me through it was books and having the safety of reading. 

Amber: Yeah. Middle school is very chaotic. I'm telling you this now, it's very chaotic, But I'm very excited to go to high school because I got accepted into a high school that has a lot of different things. 

Alex: Oh, congratulations. That's great. 

Amber: A main thing I've been wanting to do was theater and stuff like that with art. 

Alex: Yeah, I think it goes back to, like, finding your friends, finding the people that, not are like you, but are welcoming to you, that do the things you like to do and you have stuff in common. In middle school I had friends that also read comic books and had the superhero trading cards. It's not like I was a complete outsider, but it felt a little bit harder than high school.

Amber: When you were growing up, what did you read?

Alex: I read a lot of comic books, Archie comics. When I was really young, superhero comics. As I got older, a lot of the classics. I read a lot of, I bought these for my son recently just cause I saw them on eBay and I had them as a kid, those classic illustrated that are like classic novels, but they have spot illustrations. So it almost feels like not a comic book, but you have these little illustrations that get you through the book and it's simplified text. So it was really great for me in elementary school to read stuff like Sherlock Holmes that I probably wasn't ready to read the final version yet, or the language might've seemed a little archaic to an elementary school student. I read a lot of sci fi, like Star Trek ooks. Is there a book for you, I have an answer to this question, so I can give you my answer, but is there a book for you when you first started reading or an early book that had a big influence on you as a reader or as a writer? 

Amber: There's this one book I used to read. It was called The Angels Game.

Alex: Yeah. Oh, cool. 

Amber: Or Twilight. I love Twilight. 

Alex: Yeah, for me it was, I think it was Bridge to Terabithia. I read it in elementary school. I remember it was the first time that you experienced a character death. And it was really impactful and very intense. I read The Godfather really early. I probably should not have read it when I read it, like at eight or nine. I got it from my grandfather to shelf and I thought, oh, The Godfather, it's probably a nice little book about family. It was definitely not that, but it's definitely influenced my work, for better or worse. 

Amber: That's nice. If you followed your childhood dream, what would you be currently?

Alex: This is it. I mean, it's so weird to say that. I don't say that in like an egotistical way, like I, when I was a kid, I wanted to like… I mean, I also wanted to be president and that has not worked out, but I think I really wanted to tell stories. I wanted to write stories of my own, but also tell stories with some of my favorite characters, and I've gotten the chance to do that. I try to remind myself to be grateful and be aware of the blessing and be thankful and appreciate the moments as they happen because who knows? Like, trends change. People change, the things they work on, so, I'm trying to enjoy this. And this is definitely like the kind of stuff I wanted to be doing when I was a kid, so… 

Rachael: That's really inspiring. So, the last question I have for you, Alex, is the one we ask everybody on our show. 

Alex: Yeah. 

Rachael: If you could go back and speak to your 13 year old self, what would you say? 

Alex: Yeah, that's intense. I think about it a lot, actually. I think he would be pretty excited, but I would also just say, keep doing what you're doing. Don't lose your resolve. Keep reading, keep writing and everything's going to be fine. Oh, that's awesome. 

Rachael: Oh, that's awesome. 

Amber: I love that.

Rachael: This is just a great interview. 

Alex: Oh yeah, this was fun. Thanks for the question. 

Rachael: Thank you both so very much. 

Alex: Bye, everybody. Thanks again.

CREDITS

Thanks for listening to Formative, a production of New York Edge. I’m your host, Rachael Gazdick. Our production partner for this series is CitizenRacecar. This episode was produced by Hager Eldaas, post-production by Alex Brouwer, production management by Gabriela Montequin, original music by Garrett Tiedemann. Thanks to the whole team at New York Edge for making this series possible. Never miss an episode by subscribing to the series at newyorkedge.org/formative or wherever you get your podcasts.