Charlie Hernández & the Golden Dooms, with an interview by author Ryan Calejo

No MG sci fi/fantasy round-up today, as I am on vacation.  But I'm thrilled to have author Ryan Calejo visiting me here today!

Charlie Hernández & the Golden Dooms, by Ryan Calejo (September 13, Aladdin), is the third installment of the adventures of an ordinary kid who finds that all the many magical stories from the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries his grandmother told him are true.  Not only that, but he has a starring role in an epic clash between order and malevolent chaos, he has the power to morph into animals, and he has no clue how to control his power or even, really, what he's supposed to be doing.  Happily, he has his friend Violet, a keen young journalist who more than pulls her weight figuring things out.  He also has the powerful witch Queen, Joanna of Castile (who you might know as Joanna the Mad), leader of the League of Shadows who try to keep the world from being overrun with monsters, on his side. 

If you enjoyed the wild ride of the first two books, full of mythical monsters that sent Charlie and Violet bouncing on perilous adventures, this one will not disappoint.   Its small, relatively mundane beginning in which Charlie is trapped by a skeletal girl begging for his help in the girl's bathroom of his middle school moves steadily on to its full blown mythologically murderous monster chaos of an ending, when Charlie and Violet must defeat a truly formidable foe in order to keep the border between life and death secure.  And all the while, in a rather endearingly clumsy middle school way, Charlie and Violet are falling for each other, Charlie's mother is going ballistic, and the reader gets a trip to Florida like no other!

Highly recommended to kids who enjoy mythological adventures, particularly because the myths and stories that come to life here I haven't seen in anywhere near so much detail and diversity in any other book series!

Not recommended to those traumatized by crocodilians....

And now it is my pleasure to welcome Ryan Calejo to my blog!

1. How did the idea for Charlie and his adventures first come to you?  Did you have any idea that this would be the start of a series, and if yes, how far into it could you see?

Folklore and legends have always fascinated me. I like to think of them as the original Latinx superheroes/supervillains. So that was where the inspiration came from. My idea for the series was basically to create a big superhero royal rumble—something like the Avengers movies. I wanted to bring together all the coolest legendary beings/creatures, and just let them run wild down here in South Florida, because I was really excited to see how a story like that would play out. And one of the main reasons the idea appealed so much to me is because most of these characters originated in different countries and at different periods in time, and almost all of them only appear in their own stories, meaning there’s hardly any crossover. So that crossover potential, the idea of these legendary characters running into other legendary characters and trying to one-up and outsmart one another, I thought would be a lot of fun. When the idea first came to me, I was very hopeful that it would be the start of a series. I knew there was just no way I could cram all these wonderful characters into a single book! I always had a loose outline in my mind of what the overall series might look like. But the more books I’ve written, the more concrete the ideas for the future books have become.

2. Did you yourself grow up, like Charlie, with stories of the folklore and legends of South and Central America and the Iberian peninsula? If yes, did you have a childhood favorite? Or one that terrified young you the most?

 As a matter of fact, I did! Growing up, my abuelitas (my grandmothers) taught me all the same stories that Charlie’s abuelita taught him. It was my grandmothers who helped cultivate in me a love of legends and folklore—and even of reading. See, back then I wasn’t exactly the most well-behaved kid on the planet. (I’m being generous here.) And the only way they could keep me from running wild was to entertain me by telling me stories—all these wonderful legends and folktales they’d heard as children. There were definitely some terrifying ones, like El Coco and La Llorona. But if I had to pick my absolute favorite, it would probably have to be El Cadejo. It’s a sort of guardian angel that takes the form of a huge dog. When I was little, one of my neighbors had this ginormous German Shepherd that my grandmothers managed to convince me was the actual legendary Cadejo. And the funniest part was that whenever I rode my bike around the neighborhood that dog would always follow after me like it was protecting me, which made it pretty difficult to argue against my grandmothers’ claim. 

3. Your descriptions are incredibly vivid, and I’m curious about how this ties in to your writing process--do you see it all in your mind's eye in advance?

Thank you so much! Yes, I do usually see the story playing out in my mind’s eye. I’ve always had a pretty vivid imagination. I was most definitely a day dreamer growing up! I can’t even begin to count how many times someone had to snap me out of a daydream in the middle of math class (math and me don’t really get along). But that’s always been a big part of the fun for me—seeing the characters and story in my imagination. 

4. Places that are the foci of legends and myths are immensely important in Charlie’s adventures.  I just paid an online visit to the ancient monastery where Charlie first meets up with the League of Shadows.  Was that near to where you grew up? Have you visited any other real world places that appear in your books?

 The monastery was kind of close to where I grew up. Maybe half an hour away. In fact, almost all the south Florida locations in the books are places I loved to visit or hang out at when I was about Charlie and Violet’s age. For example, in the latest book, Charlie, Violet, and a friend sneak into the Venetian pool, which is one of the coolest public pools on the entire planet, and one of my favorite local spots. I love it when I get a chance to include little bits of my childhood in my books. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to visit all the Latin American countries that appear in the series, but I definitely hope to!

 5. What are you working on now?  And will there be more stories about Charlie and Violet?

 I’m thrilled to say that there will be more stories! Simon Schuster’s Aladdin imprint has always been one of my favorite imprints, and my editor is absolutely WONDERFUL! I love working with her. So get ready for new adventures!

 I’m also working on ChupaCarter, which is a super fun series I’m co-authoring with the one and only George Lopez. The story follows the adventures of a spunky 12-year-old boy named Jorge who discovers a chupacabra living on his grandparent’s farm. I hope readers will enjoy that series as well!

Thank you so much, Ryan!  I will look forward to your next books!