Francisco's Journal an author discusses the art of writing

I am honored and proud to present to you my tenth novel, I Am Not Alone (Scholastic, July 18, 2023). This thriller and love story about a young man struggling with the onset of mental illness and a young woman searching for her purpose in life – is one one that is both personally meaningful to me and the culmination of all I have learned about writing for young adults.

Alberto is a seventeen-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico who recently began hearing a voice that is insistently critical of his thoughts and actions. Alberto calls the voice Captain America in the hope that giving the voice a name will make it less terrifying. When Alberto is accused of a violent crime he does not remember committing, he sets out to discover his innocence . . . or guilt.

Grace is the soon-to-be valedictorian of her private high school. She is headed to Princeton and then on to medical school when her parents’ unexpected divorce fills her with paralyzing doubts and questions about her future. She does not know how her life will be forever transformed by the young man who shows up one Sunday morning to clean the windows of her Brooklyn apartment.

One of the reasons the book is so close to my heart is because Alberto’s mental struggles are based on my own experience with auditory hallucinations during intense manic episodes of bipolar disorder. During those times I, like Alberto, fought, sometimes unsuccessfully against false images of myself presented by the voice. I was fortunate enough to be supported by a caring community and the right medical help, something that is not always available to many who are living with mental illness. My hope is that this story of faith, courage and love will help us see the unique and precious human being behind the symptoms of mental illnesses and to respond to the call for our involvement when it comes.

I wonder if there are other old writers out there

Who some days want to stop.

Although there is still joy and giving in the effort.

Maybe they feel their words are like a soundless bell.

That no one likes to hear that we are all one, for example,

Or that a life of conscious kindness and humility is worth living?

Is it so bad to think now and then our time is passing?

Although months go by without writing on this website journal, I do write every morning in a journal. These entries are more personal and private than what I post here. I wanted to share one of these with you. Here’s one I wrote this morning.

My editor tells me that the publication date for my next novel will be March of 2023. Right now I feel as if that will be my last novel. I will be seventy in March 2023. I know the stories of authors that keep writing until the end and I’m sure I will keep on writing, at least here in these pages, because this daily writing is part of me now. But my mental abilities are diminishing, my stamina is a lot less then when when I wrote Marcelo – waking up at 4:00 A.M. before catching the train to MassHousing. I don’t know if I have it in me to work at the craft of creating for the long periods of time required to write a good novel. I know that if the inner call for another novel comes, I will answer it. But, I’ll be okay if the call doesn’t come. Maybe there are other tasks assigned to me. But if the stirring comes like a faint whispering that is followed with images and characters and questions and mysteries and all that constitutes the enthusiasm, the urging, of creating – I hope that I find the way to do it differently. I hope I can do it the way an old man goes to his basement to work on the bird house he is building for his grandson. Unhurriedly, with love for the detail and the solitude, for the quiet joy of giving without expectation of reward. I’ll be here, after the next book, writing for you and it matters only that you know it is for you.