Bøger af Armando Garcia-Davila

The Healdsburg Literary Guild is delighted to publish this new book, Healdsburg Alive!-Eight Sonoma County Writers Pay Homage to a Great Northern California Town. It follows a number of previous Guild publications, including Present at the Creation and three books entitled A Day in the Life of Healdsburg, in addition to several poetry chapbooks. This new book provided writers in the Healdsburg area with a four-session workshop in which to hone their writing skills along with an opportunity to publish their pieces. Armando Garcia-Dávila, Healdsburg's 2002-2003 Literary Laureate, led the workshop. The price of admission included marvelous meals prepared by Armando. The workshops met four times in 2010-once in each season. Armando opened sessions with a discussion of writing prompts, techniques, seeds, and subjects the participants might consider. Writers were then on their own for about three hours to wander Healdsburg and surrounding areas in Sonoma County, looking for inspiration for a story or a poem. Although the stated premise of the workshop was to write a piece that matched each season, writers followed whatever muse grabbed them and led their pens in preparation of a first draft. The group then reconvened and writers read their drafts. A lively discussion followed, offering each writer comments, ideas, and encouragement. Armando then selected and edited pieces for the book. And voila, we have Healdsburg Alive! We hope you enjoy it.

This book is a set of the author's poems and stories in English and Spanish offering revelations of his life and soul. He has no pretensions to seek your understanding or forgiveness. He only hopes you enjoy the pathos, sense of seeking, and humor in his work. The Catholic Church and his family's Mexican roots and modest means provided the foundation of his younger years. He remains indebted to his parents, older brother, twin brother, and four sisters for the core of his being. Without them, he would be but a shadow. However, the church confused him early in his life as he came to realize the fallibility of the institution. His intention in writing about it is not to offend but to simply offer its effects on him as an innocent and malleable child. The book would serve as an excellent teaching aid for Spanish-speaking students in ESL programs at high school and college levels.

In this collection of poems and stories, Armando Garcia-Dávila shows us why he is one of Sonoma County's best writers as he celebrates his Mexican heritage and grieves his church. Garcia-Dávila writes of his book, "What follows in this book are some revelations of my life and soul through a few poems and short stories. I have no pretensions to seek your understanding or forgiveness. I only hope you enjoy the pathos, sense of seeking, and humor in my work. The Catholic Church and our family's Mexican roots and modest means provided the foundation of my young years. I remain indebted to my parents, older brother, twin brother, and four sisters for the core of my being. Without them, I would be but a shadow. However, the church confused me early in life as I came to realize the fallibility of the institution. My intention in writing about it is not to offend but to simply offer its effects on me as an innocent and malleable child."

This story is based on a cross-country motorcycle trip the author made in 1968 with his older brother and two friends. The principal characters of The Trip, Tino, Sal, Gary, and Patrick, are based on the four young men who took a cross-country motorcycle trip in the summer of 1968-Tim (Patrick), Gerry (Gary), Tony (Sal), and Armando (Tino). The novel is a mix of fact and fiction. For example, The Trip's route is factual, but many of the events in the story are creations from the author's twisted mind.