For the sake of length, I won\u2019t include everything in the transcript, but imagine laughter, long pauses, and random words uttered in between every question\u2014exactly the way two friends who communicate through sarcasm and internet references would speak. <\/p>\n\n\n
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FLOREZ: Hi Liz!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GOMEZ: Hello!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cue immediate laughter. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: This is\u2026 the worst two people to do this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: I can\u2019t interview. I\u2019m so nervous, I just gotta do it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A collective deep breath. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Okay, okay\u2026 How would you summarize Breath of Death?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Hm, that\u2019s a good question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Summarizing the book you wrote? GOMEZ: The book I wrote! I would summarize it as basically, this girl named Dolores learns about this figure called The Sister, and Father Sanchez persuades her to meet with The Sister to see if she can swap places with her [dead] mother, but things aren\u2019t what they seem. And, yeah, it doesn\u2019t end well. Sorry! That was\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: It\u2019s okay! Love it. I\u2019m intrigued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Gracias. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: If you could describe the book in three words, what would they be? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: I would say, I was trying to go for Southern Gothic\u2014well I guess that\u2019s two words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: I\u2019ll count it as one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: I wanted it also to take place in the Pacific West, but yeah, Southern Gothic for one. Spoopy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Awesome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Yeah, spooky, and, I guess grief-filled? I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s a word. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: I think that\u2019s a word. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Griefy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: This is very intellectual of you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Thank you, I try my best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Tell me about the writing process for Breath of Death.<\/em> How did it come about? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: What? Come? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Laughter from Liz. A deadpan look from me. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: I swear to God\u2026 I hope you know this is going in the fucking transcript! <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Dude, I literally cannot take anything seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: It\u2019s okay, just answer the question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Fine, last fall semester, I took an intro to creative writing class with Erin Jones. I was at my cousin\u2019s place, and Erin had given us this project to write a short story for our final, and I could not think of anything to write\u2026 so I started smoking weed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: So true bestie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: So basically, I was smoking some weed\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Are you okay with this going in the\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: I\u2019m twenty-one! <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Oh, that\u2019s right! Okay, sorry, continue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: When I was smoking, I felt the smoke going down my esophagus, and I was like, \u201cthis would be such a cool metaphor.\u201d Talking about the smoke and how it\u2019s like a snake coiling in your lungs, so I wrote down the line, \u201csmoke coiled in her lungs,\u201d and that\u2019s the first line of Breath of Death. <\/em>And I just wrote it from there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: That\u2019s so cool!<\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Yeah, so then I just came up with other ideas about The Sister and someone being able to communicate with Death. Because this was originally a short story, and in it, Dolores does meet Death, and Death resurrects her mother, but obviously it\u2019s not actually her mother because\u2026 Okay, I\u2019m gonna go on a side tangent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Please do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: This was a story about me exploring survivor\u2019s guilt, especially with my mom. After the first year she passed away, I always thought to myself, \u201cwhat if it was me, what if it was me,\u201d and I wanted to explore that because with my writing, I\u2019m always exploring my grief. So in the short story, I wrote about the idea of trading places, and it doesn\u2019t turn out well, because Death is final. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: That\u2019s powerful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Thank you, I try my best. Originally, when Dolores meets Death, she dies at the end because each time, that\u2019s the lesson. You can\u2019t trade places with someone, and even if you could, it wouldn\u2019t work out the way you want it to, it would just cause more pain for your family in the end. So I wrote the short story, and a lot of the comments I got from my class were people telling me it should be longer so there can be more worldbuilding. With that in the back of my mind, I went to Ireland this past summer, so I couldn\u2019t really have a job. Instead, I volunteered at a dog shelter and I had a lot of time in the afternoon, and I\u2019m the type of person that needs to keep doing things, if you get that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Oh, you know I do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Yeah, you get it dude, the ADHD. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Like, what am I gonna do, just sit? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Fuck that. I had to do something. What I did was I walked dogs in the morning, and while I was walking dogs, I would plan my story, because in the afternoon, what I would do is write the novella. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: As one does. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: And people would look at me like I was crazy because I was muttering and telling the story to the dogs! <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: I do the exact same thing, but my planning space is the shower. I\u2019ll be in there like\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Mind-mapping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Exactly! And then I go outside, and half of those times I\u2019ll write something down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Yeah, it took a lot of\u2026 what\u2019s the word? <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Discipline? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: That! So that’s how I would map out the story. I wanted to include Cain, the biblical figure, and have him be a villain in a story. I wrote that, finished the first draft, edited it again, edited it again, and edited it again. I was never taken seriously as a writer when I was in highschool. I\u2019ve loved writing for my whole life, but I always thought there was no way I would ever make it. But then I decided, might as well, for shits and giggles. Shits and gigs. I just figured, why don\u2019t I submit to Pub Club and see what happens? And I was not expecting this! But that\u2019s what happened! That was a very long answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: It\u2019s a great answer! It\u2019s exactly the type of answer I want. Love a long answer. Were there any other works that inspired this one? TV, books, media, anything? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Mhm, catholic guilt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Ope!<\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Catholic trauma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Yeah\u2026 that does it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: The Year of the Witching <\/em>by Alexis Henderson. I read it after I wrote Breath of Death, <\/em>but her Lilith character is really similar to Cain. I really didn\u2019t mean to copy it, but I just love her writing. I love how she explores religious trauma. It is a great book. And What Moves the Dead <\/em>by T. Kingfisher. It\u2019s a short book, about 125 pages. I just love the aesthetic of the story. There\u2019s nature, and a forest, and isolation, and mushrooms\u2014I really like mushrooms, they\u2019re so pretty. I wanted to include that vibe in my story, so that influenced it. And I guess the Bible. I was raised Catholic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Why do you feel connected to this genre, horror, for exploring those types of things? Because you do a lot with horror, what about it is something you feel so connected to? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: I recently did a project on Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, <\/em>which I was obsessed with as a kid because I have anxiety. Even before my mom passed away, I liked horror because I could project my fears onto that clown in the movie, or that serial killer, and I could put a face to unnamable things. By the end of the movie, there\u2019s an end, and there\u2019s closure. I\u2019m projecting my anxieties onto the movie and then it\u2019s done. And that just made me feel so much better. It also kept me present. But after my mom passed away, I realized that horror is such a good place to explore grief because Cain is the personification of survivor\u2019s guilt. And I find monsters and scary things and scary people, they\u2019re all such good allegories for grief and they\u2019re all metaphors. Horror has always been connected to me, both with my anxiety and understanding complex trauma and the loss of my mom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Liz ended this enlightening statement with a fart noise. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Thank you. Wow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: I got you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: But, like, I get what you said so much. I was also a big horror kid growing up, reading stuff and watching stuff on YouTube. Horror is a crazy way to explore things, because if you actually look into horror movies and books, they have some of the deepest metaphors, but you don\u2019t think about it because you\u2019re focused on the scary survival aspect of it. It\u2019s a great way to do a metaphor that\u2019s not in your face, because what it\u2019s comparing itself to is exactly that; it\u2019s something that you don\u2019t overtly notice when you\u2019re so focused on survival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Exactly! And I think fear\u2026 People think it\u2019s bad, especially with anxiety, it\u2019s not necessarily good. But it\u2019s such a good way to explore complex issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: It\u2019s such a huge part of us as humans. Most big issues in the world are driven by love or fear, sometimes both, sometimes one disguised as the other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Fear is one of the most powerful things in the world, especially in this economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: In this economy\u2026 It’s true! <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: The Babadook <\/em>was another movie\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Such a good movie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: I love the idea of the monster not being killed at the end. Grief is not seen as something monstrous, just something you have to\u2026 I don\u2019t know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Exist with? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Yes, God, I would do anything for that director. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Transition\u2026 you know how professors love to find the message in a book, is there a message in yours? What do you feel like the main message is? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: I don\u2019t know if it seems obvious, but the message is that there\u2019s always someone out there who loves you. Even if you think that you\u2019re undeserving, you\u2019ll always have someone. Whether that\u2019s friends, family, partners, teachers, something, someone cares about you. You can\u2019t forget that, otherwise you\u2019re gonna get lost, like Dolores. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: That\u2019s beautiful. What has been the most difficult part of the publishing process? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Hm, when I say difficult, I want to say that Maggie and Sam from substantive editing literally are queens and I hope they have a cold pillow every time they go to sleep. I hope they have so much fun. I owe so much to them. But that substantive editing was really hard. It was difficult. Just because I question myself so much. Immediately if I see a mistake, especially if it\u2019s with my storyline, I feel like everything else is shit. So when I saw their suggestions\u2014which were really helpful\u2014I was like, \u201cShit. I have to rewrite the whole thing.\u201d But then I was able to calm myself down and make the changes to these few little sections, I\u2019m going to trust Maggie and Sam, and if they wanted me to change the whole thing, they would have just told me. That was the most difficult part. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: That\u2019s really interesting. I think I have that issue too, if I find a plot hole, I want to rewrite the whole thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Yeah, I had to stop myself from rewriting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: That\u2019s actually so true, I\u2019m realizing this right now. I have a book I\u2019ve rewritten, like, twice already\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Which one? <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: That gay one from freshman year. But yeah, I don\u2019t need to start from scratch just because there\u2019s plot holes. That was actually so helpful for me, thank you Liz. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Absolutely! I\u2019m so glad to hear that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: What has been your favorite part of the publishing process? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: The cover. Oh my God, Sydney popped off. I was so excited for the cover because I like to think I\u2019m kind of a visual person, like I\u2019m not an artist, but I really pride myself on my descriptions, and I hope that they\u2019re okay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: I\u2019ve been looking at your writing for years at this point and one of my favorite things about your writing is your imagery. When I\u2019m reading it, I\u2019m there. I can see<\/em> it. That\u2019s why I had so many specifics when I was helping with the cover. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: You were so helpful, dude. Thank you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: No problem, Liz. But yeah, the cover was your favorite part? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Yeah! You know how when people write they can imagine scenes? Like when you get in the zone? With me, I imagine still images. So when I do scenes, I try to keep this one image in my mind and go from there. I was really excited to see what the artist would come out with from the images I came up with, and Sydney just slayed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: It\u2019s fire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Ate. Lunch, dinner, and desert. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Next question, how, if at all, has Emerson helped you in the writing or publishing process of this book? Is there anything you\u2019ve learned here that was helpful? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Like Pub Club? Or just Emerson in general. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Anything from being at Emerson. It doesn\u2019t have to be \u201cI learned this in this class,\u201d it can be something from a person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: In general, Emerson has made me a lot more confident in my writing. I remember when I shared this short story, I was so nervous. I didn\u2019t sleep the night before, I thought everything was terrible, that it didn\u2019t make sense. Then the next day, everyone was really kind. They gave me good criticism, but they also helped my self-conscious ass. They helped me realize that I was being too hard on myself and that I\u2019m allowed to be proud of my writing. So Emerson has just let me know that I can write. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Yes! You can write! And you\u2019re great at it. You\u2019re literally getting published. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: I still can\u2019t believe that. I remember when I got the news, I genuinely did not think I was going to get picked. I did this for fun, just to put myself out there, because you know me a year ago would have never done this. So I\u2019m very lucky and I\u2019m very happy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Very exciting! Do you have any advice for the writers of the world? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Yeah, just write. I think writing can be so freeing, but there\u2019s also this pressure to please other people, and what I\u2019ve learned is to write for yourself. If people don\u2019t like it, then whatever. If you\u2019re proud of it, that\u2019s what matters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Absolutely. Okay, rapid fire fun question time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: I\u2019m ready. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Song for the book? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: It\u2019s the Ethel Cain one, I can\u2019t pronounce it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Bye. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Ptolemaea. My pronunciation is off the record. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Color, what color is this book? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Mushy brown. Like leaves in fall after rain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: What fruit is this book? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: An apple? <\/p>\n\n\n\n FLOREZ: Give me a no-context spoiler. Like, you know when it\u2019s a TV show and they show you a banana and it\u2019s because someone eats a banana? <\/p>\n\n\n\n GOMEZ: Got it. Beetle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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