Speaker 1: Coming to you from the dining room table at East
Speaker 1: Barbary Lane. Welcome to another special episode of Full Circle
Speaker 1: the podcast. I am your host, Charles Tyson Junior, and
Speaker 1: I am so excited to be sitting with our guest today.
Speaker 1: Isaac Grahova, is a delightful author and medical professional and
Speaker 1: multi hyphen it and fierce eva and he is here
Speaker 1: today to talk about his new book, which is Six
Speaker 1: and a Half Days in the City, and we're going
Speaker 1: to get into it. So, Isaac Grahova, thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us at the Full Circle Table.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: So how are you today?
Speaker 2: I'm doing good so far. I actually just basically had
Speaker 2: was in a car accident, so I'm a little sore
Speaker 2: from that. Oh No, other than that, I'm recovering pretty well.
Speaker 1: Well, that's no good speedy recovery. Yeah, you get one
Speaker 1: of those bodies you need to take.
Speaker 2: Care absolutely.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: Then I'm extra glad that you're here with us today.
Speaker 1: So your book is called Six and a Half Days
Speaker 1: in the City, the city, of course being New York.
Speaker 1: Let's just jump off with it. Why don't you tell
Speaker 1: us what the book is about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the elevator pitch. I've been trying to get
Speaker 2: right from the very beginning, and I think I've been
Speaker 2: able to kind of get it. With one of the
Speaker 2: reviews that I got actually on Amazon. I love that
Speaker 2: they kind of makes us excinct. It's basically a sorry
Speaker 2: about a young by man who's who discovers what he's
Speaker 2: looking for in life while he's on vacation. There's elements
Speaker 2: of found family, there's friendship, their mental health awareness and
Speaker 2: kind of the story of trying to take care of
Speaker 2: yourself and how we can lose track of that when
Speaker 2: our lives are so busy and hectic and chaotic, and
Speaker 2: how those who have who we have chosen to be
Speaker 2: our family can be kind of a grounding force in
Speaker 2: that journey.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's that sounds accurate. Now. I noticed that the
Speaker 1: main character, Cameron and Uh and you share the same profession,
Speaker 1: the medical profession. So is it safe to say that
Speaker 1: this is an atobiographical work or is that the only
Speaker 1: thing you SHARE's kind.
Speaker 2: Of the only thing that we share in common. The
Speaker 2: very skeleton barre Bones kind of was me, but then
Speaker 2: I kind of had to go and shape it out
Speaker 2: and buffet and make it somebody else. We do have
Speaker 2: the same professional career and everything. And I did that
Speaker 2: just because it's easy to write about, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. It's very it's a very fast moving field
Speaker 2: and it's kind of a very attention grabbing. And I
Speaker 2: was told that the hook is really good, so I
Speaker 2: stuck with it and ran with it. So there's that
Speaker 2: aspect of it. In regards to like how he deals
Speaker 2: with his emotions and the relationship that he has with
Speaker 2: his family that's very different. Thankfully, I have a much
Speaker 2: better relationship with my parents than that. And yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean it was. It was fun to write just because
Speaker 2: it was what I knew, and it was I've always
Speaker 2: given characters of mine like different attributes my humor how
Speaker 2: a bad. Like my characters are filthy mouthed, and I, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm myself like curse like a sailor. Sometimes I try
Speaker 2: to clean it up, especially if the character is a
Speaker 2: little more shy or timid or like they just don't
Speaker 2: cuss right right right, But usually that even then, like
Speaker 2: those characters still have like a few slip ups just
Speaker 2: to kind of throw that still in there.
Speaker 1: Hey, I mean it there is I have not been
Speaker 1: able to find this quote this quote the source since
Speaker 1: I heard it years and years ago, but I always
Speaker 1: still use it. It was a French philosopher from like
Speaker 1: the fourteenth century or some shit like that who said
Speaker 1: cursing makes talking more fun. Yeah, you know, and and
Speaker 1: and Chris Rock even said, you know, you can say
Speaker 1: that you had a nice day, and that can mean anything.
Speaker 1: But if I say I had a great fucking day,
Speaker 1: that paints a picture. Damn it, you had a really
Speaker 1: good day exactly. So why, I mean, the real answer
Speaker 1: is why not? But why was it important to you
Speaker 1: that your main character be so open and expressive in
Speaker 1: his bisexuality.
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean, this book was supposed to be a
Speaker 2: celebration of queer identity and queer expression, and I've always
Speaker 2: loved writing stories that way. Even in my last couple
Speaker 2: of little short stories that I wrote, there wasn't a
Speaker 2: whole lot of room for queer expression per se, but
Speaker 2: there were a lot of drag queens, right, And in
Speaker 2: those moments with the drag queens, and in those moments
Speaker 2: of having like safe spaces and queer identity and queer expression,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of like connection. There's it's just a
Speaker 2: fun time. They do like performances in the summertime through
Speaker 2: it for like like themed, so like they would do
Speaker 2: like a night of certain celebrities and like the moment
Speaker 2: that someone realizes they're in love with somebody, it's like
Speaker 2: the night of like Taylor Swift. And then the next
Speaker 2: it's like you know, New Year's even the ball drops,
Speaker 2: there's a drag queen performance going on, and you know,
Speaker 2: there's the fireworks and all this, and it's it's supposed
Speaker 2: to be like a really fun time and a lot
Speaker 2: of like expression through core identity and queer spaces. And
Speaker 2: so that's why I wanted to write this story this way.
Speaker 2: And even even when there's not necessarily queer expression or
Speaker 2: core identity being celebrated, there's still groundingness within connection between
Speaker 2: men that is positive and very affirming and comfortable that
Speaker 2: a lot of queer men don't have with straight people unfortunately.
Speaker 2: That I did want to showcase because a lot of
Speaker 2: you know, they're not all bad. There are some good
Speaker 2: men out there, one or two, one or two not enough.
Speaker 1: Right, I Mean, that was one aspect of the book
Speaker 1: that I definitely appreciated was it is not often at
Speaker 1: all that you see a positive representation of bisexuality where
Speaker 1: you know, the main like in this case, the main character,
Speaker 1: he has moments and relationships and encounters pretty equally almost
Speaker 1: with with men and women, because a lot of times, uh,
Speaker 1: the perception and this is something that I have battled
Speaker 1: my entire adult queer life, that perception of you know,
Speaker 1: by men are gay who sometimes you know and you know,
Speaker 1: everyone is not the same. And so you know, I
Speaker 1: love I love any by visibility, but especially when it's positive.
Speaker 1: So like, how how important is that to you that
Speaker 1: that idea of like, you know, by visibility.
Speaker 2: I think it's very important. I think I've said this
Speaker 2: now at least two or four times in the last
Speaker 2: few podcasts I've done. I did not read a character.
Speaker 2: I did not read a story with a bisexual man
Speaker 2: who was a person of color until about two to
Speaker 2: three years ago. So never in my adolescence, never in
Speaker 2: my college life, did I see myself represented that way
Speaker 2: in a piece of literature. And it's not really something
Speaker 2: I ever thought about, because it almost never really crossed
Speaker 2: my mind as a possibility because it wasn't there, Like
Speaker 2: I just I didn't think about it. I wasn't like, oh, like,
Speaker 2: where's the byman like you know, a queer person like
Speaker 2: you know, personal color representation. It just did not cross
Speaker 2: my mind. And then I started seeing it more and
Speaker 2: I was like, oh shit, right, like I can actually
Speaker 2: right like people that there are spaces, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. And then so it was important for me
Speaker 2: to start writing in that way just because it's it
Speaker 2: can feel so isolating and lonely to feel like you're
Speaker 2: not out there as well, like people are not people.
Speaker 2: There are other people like you out there, and when
Speaker 2: you realize that is the case, it's easy for easier
Speaker 2: for you to us to build community and to feel
Speaker 2: like you belong, which is very true.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, but you you you mentioned you made
Speaker 1: a good point about not only representation of by men,
Speaker 1: but by men of color, because usually when you see
Speaker 1: that representation, it's in the context of, you know, the
Speaker 1: discovery is made that he's by on the way out
Speaker 1: the door because he's leaving his wife for another man,
Speaker 1: or his wife discovered that he had been lying to
Speaker 1: her this whole time. And that's a trope that has
Speaker 1: always pissed me off. The by man as a liar,
Speaker 1: a cheater, a sneak, you know, so it was good
Speaker 1: to just you know, see someone just out in the
Speaker 1: world getting their like, living their single life, and the
Speaker 1: options are just a little more plentiful, especially in New York.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Absolutely, yeah, so this book is also
Speaker 1: you're a self published author. Yes, so I imagine that has
Speaker 1: its own set of challenges.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. I think it's nice just because I'm in full control.
Speaker 2: I design. I didn't design it, but I have say
Speaker 2: over the cover design, I have say over when it
Speaker 2: gets released and how it's formatted. And oh, I have
Speaker 2: full creative expression, full rights to everything, the thing that
Speaker 2: sucks into the marketing. Like, I will say, that's probably
Speaker 2: the most the hardest thing to do. It's the most
Speaker 2: tiring thing to do trying to stay creative and relevant
Speaker 2: and not you know, have algorithms think you're just pushed
Speaker 2: in the same video over and over again, right right right.
Speaker 2: It's it's a little tricky. Fortunately I was able to
Speaker 2: I had a I have a steady income and steady job,
Speaker 2: so like I was able to you know, hire a
Speaker 2: publicist who originally reached out to you, I had the
Speaker 2: ability to actually hire people to help me edit and
Speaker 2: hire people to help me get the cover designed, et cetera.
Speaker 2: That was probably the biggest barrier that I had when
Speaker 2: I was younger, obviously, because I was in school and
Speaker 2: wasn't working and I was a little kid. And then
Speaker 2: the traditional publishing route just takes so long, and you know,
Speaker 2: you can try to try to query agents for years,
Speaker 2: and then even if you find an agent, there's just
Speaker 2: a that's just the first step of more waiting, right,
Speaker 2: because I have to pict your book to YEP, they
Speaker 2: have to pick pict your book to publishers, and then
Speaker 2: it goes on sub and even if the publisher wants
Speaker 2: to do your book, do you have somebody who wants
Speaker 2: to edit you, et cetera. So it's I'm like, I can't.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't want to wait that long. And
Speaker 2: I find myself in a very a nice little situation
Speaker 2: where I have enough free time to do stuff like
Speaker 2: right and be a little more expressive, because in the
Speaker 2: next in the coming year, I'll be applying to medical
Speaker 2: school in the next two starting and so that process
Speaker 2: is just going to speed by, and so I'm not
Speaker 2: going to have time to sit there and like query
Speaker 2: agents all my time off, like I'm going to be
Speaker 2: studying relaxing and like not trying to worry about making
Speaker 2: incomes some other way, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 2: it it was almost the perfect, the perfect time to
Speaker 2: get the book out there. And so I was like,
Speaker 2: fuck it, I might as well. I am twenty six
Speaker 2: and I'm still young, and I wanted to do this forever,
Speaker 2: and that's the perfect time. And this is a short
Speaker 2: book and it's not going to take that long to edit,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's space friendly. You know, it doesn't
Speaker 2: take up a whole lot of room, Printing costs isn't
Speaker 2: very high. So it was very ideal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when I got the book in my hand, I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, we're gonna get through this bad boy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like you could have had another half a day, seven
Speaker 1: days in the city now, But yeah, I can imagine
Speaker 1: doing anything yourself is going to be a pain in
Speaker 1: the ass. Like I know this as a fellow creative.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I from when I've spoken
Speaker 1: to other authors, like you're bypassing the whole headache of
Speaker 1: is the book too queer? Yeah, exactly why does he
Speaker 1: have to do this? Why does he have to do
Speaker 1: this so many times? Because you know, people can be
Speaker 1: as progressive as they want can say they're as progressive
Speaker 1: as they want to, but when it comes down to
Speaker 1: actually like the nitty gritty of you know, queerness and byness,
Speaker 1: and you have a couple you depict a couple of
Speaker 1: scenes in this book that are like, yes, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to go as far as to say grap well no,
Speaker 1: it is kind of graphic actually, but not gratuitous, but
Speaker 1: real is where I was going.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and.
Speaker 1: You know, despite the fact that we have things like
Speaker 1: fifty shades of gray when it's heterosexuals, not to mention
Speaker 1: white haterosexuals, certain things, you know.
Speaker 2: Are more okay, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So how how has the book been received thus far?
Speaker 2: Pretty well? Some people were I was surprised that a
Speaker 2: little people. Some people were disappointed that it wasn't me
Speaker 2: as the main character. I was like, that'd be a
Speaker 2: little interesting. But I've been well received. People are saying
Speaker 2: that it's really good. They think it's very sweet and
Speaker 2: like the My biggest concern was that the sex in
Speaker 2: it was going to detract from the plot and like
Speaker 2: seemed like it was unnecessary and I was originally not
Speaker 2: going to have it in there at all. But my
Speaker 2: radio readers are like, no, like it's good and had
Speaker 2: the place and people are just like, hey, like it's
Speaker 2: pretty good. Like I'm really proud of you for finally
Speaker 2: getting something out there. You know, I've been writing sintime
Speaker 2: I was ten years old, you know, for them, so
Speaker 2: for them to have something that they can finally like
Speaker 2: hold and show people that, like, hey, I know this
Speaker 2: person who's been writing forever and they finally have a
Speaker 2: book out there and it's available you know, pretty much
Speaker 2: wherever you can find the book online. It's been really
Speaker 2: it's been really cool.
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, And and like it almost got
Speaker 1: to a point for me where I started to say, wow,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of sex in this book, but then
Speaker 1: I realized you got twice as much of a population, right,
Speaker 1: and not to mention this is why it's important though,
Speaker 1: because in the book, we're seeing Cameron, the main character,
Speaker 1: enjoy his sexual encounters just as much with the women
Speaker 1: that he encounters as with the men. And that is
Speaker 1: important to see. You know, he's not faking the funk,
Speaker 1: he's not trying to get through it. He's you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Yeah, So that was definitely appreciate. MM hmm, absolutely,
Speaker 1: because you know, again it's there are so many Biirasure
Speaker 1: is real, and it has long been one of my
Speaker 1: personal campaigns fighting by erasure. So you know, if you can,
Speaker 1: if you can give any positive representation for the B
Speaker 1: in the L G B, T Q, et cetera, et cetera,
Speaker 1: I will always be happy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, okay, how much of you is in Cameron though?
Speaker 1: And vice versa, No, definitely not.
Speaker 2: I will definitely say the professional stuff like his critical
Speaker 2: recals the book was I used a lot of the
Speaker 2: navigation that I took on my own to kind of
Speaker 2: dip in and out of what's in the in the book.
Speaker 2: So like all the places they go to, like the
Speaker 2: Museum of the Moving Image, and like writing the subway,
Speaker 2: Coney Island, seeing movies together Broadway, we did all those things,
Speaker 2: me and my friends. However, how they advanced the plot
Speaker 2: is absolutely different, because like, I'm not here having an
Speaker 2: existential crisis on vacation. I'm having a really good time actually,
Speaker 2: and the sex scenes are fully made up. They might
Speaker 2: the bet that the friend gave Shamada, that was something
Speaker 2: that my friend actually told me as a little funny
Speaker 2: joke that she didn't think I was actually going to
Speaker 2: fall for but I did. I was like, I'll make
Speaker 2: my damn fifty dollars what you're talking about, bro? And
Speaker 2: so I was I was a good boy on the staycation,
Speaker 2: but like I still kind of wanted to incorporate that
Speaker 2: in some way to kind of introduce a potential conflict.
Speaker 2: And so it was very wired and weird and embellished
Speaker 2: for a narrative that pushes a story of self discovery
Speaker 2: and found family, et cetera. In the theater, It's Muto
Speaker 2: scene that was all also very embellished. That wasn't a
Speaker 2: part of a real life, but I wanted to include
Speaker 2: that just because it was the one chance that we
Speaker 2: could have to like fully embrace his his his ethnic arrative,
Speaker 2: et cetera.
Speaker 1: And I did love that too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's like my favorite scene, the whole thing where
Speaker 2: he's like kind of reflecting. That's very much real for myself.
Speaker 2: Like I I saw that in the faul in Our
Speaker 2: Stars and I when you're having like a pre funeral
Speaker 2: to Augustus's death, and I was like, that actually be
Speaker 2: kind of cool, and so I would like to have
Speaker 2: like a pre funeral if I'm dying from something chronic
Speaker 2: like cancer, and then just the way that he fully
Speaker 2: embraces those that he loves and the way that like
Speaker 2: he honors his loved ones and they're dead. That's very
Speaker 2: real and that's very personal, and that was really important
Speaker 2: for me to have in there, just because I know
Speaker 2: that death has really like affected my family and it
Speaker 2: is something that kind of just weighs on a lot
Speaker 2: of people that are still with us, Oh definitely, and
Speaker 2: I don't feel like a lot of them like it's
Speaker 2: part of a reason that like a lot of them
Speaker 2: haven't been able to like move on and fully healed
Speaker 2: because you know, somebody else's absence is still hanging over
Speaker 2: their heads. And so in a way, that was kind
Speaker 2: of my little outlet for that to kind of help
Speaker 2: people kind of like move through their grief in a
Speaker 2: positive way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love that, and I loved it because, well,
Speaker 3: for one thing, I really really enjoyed the strong friendship
Speaker 3: circle that Cameron had, and.
Speaker 1: I love how they were so supportive of his culture
Speaker 1: because his friends circle is made up of a bunch
Speaker 1: of different folks from different ethnicities, which I also enjoy
Speaker 1: because that's that mirror is my own, my own life,
Speaker 1: So that respect of each other's culture.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Is also it's also, like I'm sad to say, refreshingly
Speaker 1: unique because a lot of times people try to paint
Speaker 1: this whole like united color of Benetton's population, where like
Speaker 1: we have the white one and the black one and
Speaker 1: the Asian one, and you know, they're just there to
Speaker 1: say that they're there, but beyond that, we don't really
Speaker 1: get into what makes them them. So I definitely appreciated that.
Speaker 1: And uh and and going back to you know, his
Speaker 1: friends circle, that idea of found family is so important,
Speaker 1: especially among queer folks, especially especially among queer folks of color,
Speaker 1: because you know, sometimes your found family is all you
Speaker 1: got because we have so many people who you know,
Speaker 1: who's whose biological family have shunned them, kicked them out, whatever.
Speaker 1: So seeing this vibrant, this vibrant circle, both the friends
Speaker 1: that he's with and the friends that he communicates with
Speaker 1: back home, Uh, it just it gave me that nice
Speaker 1: warm feeling inside. Do you have Do you have that
Speaker 1: that that vibrant friend circle in real life?
Speaker 2: My closest friends are queer people and we've all found
Speaker 2: solace together. And thankfully I have a very supporting family
Speaker 2: and the family who embraces who I am and celebrates it.
Speaker 2: But a lot of my queer friends can't say that, right,
Speaker 2: And I always feel really bad when they talk about
Speaker 2: like all the issues they have with their mom or
Speaker 2: their dad, and how like their queer identity is a wedge,
Speaker 2: and how they're never really you know, fully accepted, like
Speaker 2: they tolerate them, but they they don't introduce them with
Speaker 2: the proper you know, pronouns. They don't them with you know,
Speaker 2: they they shy away and don't ever talk about their
Speaker 2: sexuality or how they express themselves. And I'm kind of like, damn,
Speaker 2: like I can't relate to that. And I'm like I'm glad,
Speaker 2: Like I'm so glad that I cannot relate to that,
Speaker 2: and they're glad. They're happy for me as well. I
Speaker 2: remember we were sitting in I think Daily City and
Speaker 2: they were talking about like the issues they have with
Speaker 2: their fathers, and I was like, damn, like I have
Speaker 2: a really good dad, Like you know, I can't. They're like,
Speaker 2: I'm glad, honey, like celebrate your father because he's a
Speaker 2: good man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so.
Speaker 2: It's very like grounding and like makes you realize kind
Speaker 2: of like what you have because it could very easily
Speaker 2: be taken away that.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, Like that's a conversation that is very in
Speaker 1: the now, especially since Duran Bernard won his Grammy and
Speaker 1: he's very openly queer, and his mother and father were
Speaker 1: on stage with him when he was accepting his Grammy,
Speaker 1: and like people were so like shocked and surprised that
Speaker 1: his father was there in supporting him. And it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, there are plenty of fathers who are supportive
Speaker 1: of their queer kids, believe it or not, you know,
Speaker 1: And that's an idea that we need to see more
Speaker 1: of that solid family of queer children, you know, because
Speaker 1: not to say that the opposite is not as true,
Speaker 1: because lord knows it is how many queer homeless youth
Speaker 1: are there out there, But you know, we need to
Speaker 1: see just as many positive examples as well. And another
Speaker 1: one of the characters in the book that I fell
Speaker 1: in love with, oh for me, fell in love with
Speaker 1: all over again is you know New York the like
Speaker 1: you made me miss New York so hot, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I want to go there. I've never been there, like
Speaker 1: the the the Museum of the Moving Image. Okay, gotcha
Speaker 1: I'm like, I, why have I never been there?
Speaker 2: Yeah? A lot of people miss it.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, there's a bunch there's a bunch of places
Speaker 1: that you mentioned, And I was like, there was no
Speaker 1: good reason why I haven't been there yet. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: is that Do you have a real life relationship with
Speaker 1: New York a love affair with me?
Speaker 2: Yeah? New York City was the first place that I
Speaker 2: ever went to traveled on my own two and it
Speaker 2: was very freeing. It gave me plenty of time to
Speaker 2: reflect on my life and what I want, and it
Speaker 2: was it was far enough away from home to make
Speaker 2: me feel like I was for at least momentarily because
Speaker 2: I was in the middle of undergrad free of responsibility
Speaker 2: and just able to be myself and I got to
Speaker 2: I got to go to different places and see beautiful sites,
Speaker 2: and it was very nice to know that I could
Speaker 2: do this, I can be self sufficient, and it was
Speaker 2: very kind of just eye opening. It was so surreal,
Speaker 2: Like I always wanted to go to New York City
Speaker 2: since I was a little kid, and so being being
Speaker 2: able to get there was like it was like I
Speaker 2: was asleep, Like the first it felt like I was
Speaker 2: asleep and dreaming for like the first two or three days,
Speaker 2: like it was. It was so crazy. And then when
Speaker 2: I left for the first time, like I was heartbroke
Speaker 2: and I wanted to go back like immediately, and I
Speaker 2: couldn't wait for the opportunity to go again. And then
Speaker 2: my friends actually moved to New York City from the
Speaker 2: area and they're getting their masters and working together, and
Speaker 2: so I was like whole perfect, Like this is the
Speaker 2: perfect time for me to be able to go, And
Speaker 2: so it was just even then when I went back
Speaker 2: last April, I was at a time where I was
Speaker 2: I don't know about soul searching, but kind of just
Speaker 2: moving past what I thought. I was in paramedic school
Speaker 2: and so that's how I have paramedic knowledge and knowledge
Speaker 2: of advanced life support. But I never went through that
Speaker 2: way because for me, it felt like a distraction from
Speaker 2: what I actually want to pursue. And so as I'm
Speaker 2: there and I was talking to her, and I was
Speaker 2: kind of having a lot of anxieties and just kind
Speaker 2: of hashing out everything, and right our friendship is still grounding,
Speaker 2: and that's part of what I wanted to reflect in
Speaker 2: this book. And so we had I mean, me and
Speaker 2: my friends just had a great time, and New York
Speaker 2: City became kind of like an anchor for us, a
Speaker 2: place we can go back to and just be free
Speaker 2: and have, you know, like a care free time.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's it's hard to like if you if
Speaker 1: you spend any time in New York be it a
Speaker 1: day or or a week or et cetera, and you
Speaker 1: don't have a story that you can like bring up
Speaker 1: every now and again, what is your doing? Right? Thank you?
Speaker 1: Like you don't have to try. It was like, just
Speaker 1: look around hard enough, something will happen. Yeah. I enjoyed,
Speaker 1: well enjoyed. I appreciated, uh, the element of acknowledging the
Speaker 1: the main characters mental health struggles as well, because again
Speaker 1: that's something else that is not explored enough amongst people
Speaker 1: of color in general, men of collar and then queer
Speaker 1: men of collar. So thank you for that, because the
Speaker 1: struggle is real out here, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I wanted to really I've struggled myself with
Speaker 2: some depression of anxiety, and thankfully it never got to
Speaker 2: this stage. However, the first the first time that I
Speaker 2: did go to New York City, I kind of had
Speaker 2: a little bit of like a menu spiral in my
Speaker 2: own head, just because my mother was at a time
Speaker 2: of her life where she was kind of just making
Speaker 2: excuses and not really trying to fully take her recovery,
Speaker 2: you know seriously. And I mean it just sent me
Speaker 2: into like a whole headspin. I was in Prospect Park
Speaker 2: and like I had like a little like anxiety attack
Speaker 2: and it was not a great time. But I recovered
Speaker 2: from that, and after that, I was like, I should
Speaker 2: probably see a therapist, and I did, and I've been
Speaker 2: seeing a therapist ever since pretty regularly. But it's you know,
Speaker 2: when you start going through things like that, you don't
Speaker 2: want to there's a lot of things that are going
Speaker 2: through your head and you don't want to be a
Speaker 2: burden on anybody, and you don't want to reach out.
Speaker 2: And so especially when you've been hyper like hyper independent
Speaker 2: your whole life out of survival, right, and so having
Speaker 2: all that going on, it can again be very isolating
Speaker 2: and you feel like a freak and you feel like
Speaker 2: you're a weirdo and like nobody can relate to you,
Speaker 2: et cetera. But then you start voicing these things and
Speaker 2: you start talking to your therapists and they're like, no,
Speaker 2: like that's more people feel like that than you think,
Speaker 2: you know, And it's another one of those things where
Speaker 2: it's like we have to see ourselves out there and
Speaker 2: we have to know that the a pass to recovery
Speaker 2: is possible. Hopefully it doesn't, you know, hopefully your life
Speaker 2: is not put into danger in the process. But sometimes
Speaker 2: that's kind of what it takes as kind of a
Speaker 2: wake up call to be like, hey, you know, we
Speaker 2: need help and we have to you know, we can't
Speaker 2: do this anymore.
Speaker 1: Pay attention to you girl.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So part of me couldn't help but envision watching this
Speaker 1: story play out in terms of either a movie or
Speaker 1: a series, Like is that something that you might have
Speaker 1: had in the back of your mind.
Speaker 2: I always have that in the back of my mind.
Speaker 2: I get very excited, and I, you know, have the
Speaker 2: author dream of something you know, getting picked up or
Speaker 2: you know, made into a film a series, you know,
Speaker 2: even if it's a limited series on you know, Netflix
Speaker 2: or something you know, a couple episodes long. But yeah, like,
Speaker 2: if that ever becomes a thing, I would love to go,
Speaker 2: you know, I would love to get that done, just
Speaker 2: to be able to see that come alive and be
Speaker 2: able to express, you know, have that queer expression, celebration
Speaker 2: of greer identity, and show that you know, you know,
Speaker 2: there's found family in places even where you would least
Speaker 2: expect them. And when we have, you know, problems with
Speaker 2: family and problems with everything else going on, there is
Speaker 2: still things that can root you and ground you and
Speaker 2: you know, kind of show you the way. I think
Speaker 2: that'd be a very a very great story to tell
Speaker 2: on a on a big screen.
Speaker 1: So who would you cast? I know you've thought about it.
Speaker 2: I honestly don't know. I all the ones that like
Speaker 2: I'm thinking of that come to mind first are very tall,
Speaker 2: and you know, Cameron is not very tall. Camera is
Speaker 2: probably about five seven, five eight stocky because he has
Speaker 2: to be for his job. But I can't really imagine
Speaker 2: who would be that person. I can't even think of
Speaker 2: like Redheaded Eye. I mean, maybe Cameron Lannigan for like
Speaker 2: red And there's unfortunately not a whole lot of like
Speaker 2: Asian Vietnamese actresses who are younger, like the first Asian
Speaker 2: actress that I can think of, but she's like fifteen
Speaker 2: hours Lucy Lou, Right, you know, isn't.
Speaker 1: That fucked up?
Speaker 2: That?
Speaker 1: Like if you if you want to cast of a
Speaker 1: film or a series about your work because of the
Speaker 1: fact that there's so many people of color that you
Speaker 1: don't have that many people to pull from that would
Speaker 1: isn't that fucked up? Oh my god? In twenty twenty six?
Speaker 1: What the hell? Yeah, my god? So do you have
Speaker 1: this is one of my favorite question to ask authors.
Speaker 1: What music do you play when you write?
Speaker 2: If you do, yeah, so I kind of just go
Speaker 2: through my own like playlist, like like like songs, but
Speaker 2: for this particular book, this is the first one where
Speaker 2: I actually like crafted a playlist for And it's very
Speaker 2: it's very moody, it's very angsty, it's very like longing
Speaker 2: and kind of just sad. And I remember I was
Speaker 2: talking my therapist. I was like I tried to get
Speaker 2: into the headspace to write for it, and then like
Speaker 2: once I'm out of it, I'm like, damn, my life
Speaker 2: really isn't that bad? Like shit could be a lot
Speaker 2: worse of this right, And it made her laugh. But
Speaker 2: there's songs that are like, you know, Iris by the
Speaker 2: Go Gou Dolls and Solo Talk by Zay like there's
Speaker 2: fun ones. Naked in Manhattan by Choppl Roan and there's
Speaker 2: some tailor swift in there. So yeah, like it's very
Speaker 2: I feel like it was very catered towards that some
Speaker 2: of them. Like I remember I was playing it on
Speaker 2: the way home from Santa Cruis and my friend was like,
Speaker 2: what how does this song relate? Like, you know, because
Speaker 2: she's read it, and then she was like, how does
Speaker 2: this song relate? How does that song relate? And I
Speaker 2: had to like sit there and kind of be like,
Speaker 2: not the whole song per se, but maybe just the
Speaker 2: vibe or certain lyrics that reminds me of maybe certain scenes,
Speaker 2: et cetera, or just the name of the song, right,
Speaker 2: you know, Like there's one song called like next Time
Speaker 2: in New York by Van Cyras, so like that one's obvious,
Speaker 2: you know. So yeah, just kind of tried to have
Speaker 2: fun with it.
Speaker 1: I love that because, yeah, it can be on the
Speaker 1: nose or it could be something that might be playing
Speaker 1: in the background of like one of the coffee shops
Speaker 1: they go to exactly. I like it. I like it,
Speaker 1: I like it. I like it. So yeah. So the
Speaker 1: book is six and a half Days in the City.
Speaker 1: It is a delightful read. It's a quick read. It
Speaker 1: gives you it gives you a little window into the
Speaker 1: mind of this person and his life. So I definitely
Speaker 1: suggest that all of our listeners take the time to
Speaker 1: get a copy. Where is Where would your favorite place
Speaker 1: be for folks to purchase your book?
Speaker 2: If people want to help me get the money the fastest,
Speaker 2: that's my personal bookshop. It's Isaac or Books dot buy
Speaker 2: slash Isaac Rahova. Unfortunately, the shipping is not free. Amazon
Speaker 2: is also there. If you have like a Prime membership,
Speaker 2: the shipping is free. It's also on Kindle Unlimited, so
Speaker 2: if you subscribe to that, it's free.
Speaker 1: But please all support a small business.
Speaker 2: Please supports I need some my money back. I found
Speaker 2: it on Barnes and Noble dot com. I found it
Speaker 2: on Walmart books dot com if you're buying from an
Speaker 2: online retailer. Unfortunately, because of how it got like analyzed
Speaker 2: by ingram Spark, it says large text edition. It's not
Speaker 2: large text. I'm still trying to work that bug out.
Speaker 2: But you can also get it off of TikTok shop
Speaker 2: as a Gaba Books. I signed those copies personally and
Speaker 2: I try to get them out the same day that
Speaker 2: I receive the order, and I live like down the
Speaker 2: street from the post office. So it's not work hard
Speaker 2: to do it all.
Speaker 1: I love it. So is it exclusively online sales for
Speaker 1: the book at this point?
Speaker 2: At this point, yes, I'm trying to get it into
Speaker 2: libraries and I'm trying to get into like physical copies
Speaker 2: of bookstores. I know Barnes and Noble probably won't buy
Speaker 2: in bulk, but if you ask them to order it,
Speaker 2: or if enough people at a specific location ask, they'll
Speaker 2: start stalking it.
Speaker 1: Yes, And you know there's all kinds of independent bookstores
Speaker 1: that cater to queer voices and voices of collar. So
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, everyone out there, be a nudge, ask
Speaker 1: your local book detail.
Speaker 2: That's the biggest way to get it out there. Really,
Speaker 2: Like it's one thing for me to ask, and they're
Speaker 2: like whatever, like you know, shoeshoo what. But if people
Speaker 2: actually start asking that, then they're like, oh shit, Like
Speaker 2: there's a market out there for it, you know.
Speaker 1: Right, So I'm gonna put that information into the notes
Speaker 1: of this episode. Isaac Grialva, you have been a delight.
Speaker 1: I am so glad we finally got to sit and
Speaker 1: talk yes about your your lovely book.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me It's been fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I have a feeling this will not be
Speaker 1: the last time we sit chat together. I hope not.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Now you take care you too. Full Circle is a
Speaker 1: Never Scured Productions podcast hosted by Charles Tyson Junior and
Speaker 1: Martha Madrigal, Produced and edited by Never Scured Executive Produced
Speaker 1: by Charles Tyson Junior and Martha Madrigal. Our theme in
Speaker 1: music is by the jingle Berries. All names, pictures, music, audio,
Speaker 1: and video clips are registered trademarks and or copyrights of
Speaker 1: their respective copyright holders.