FOMO– New Novel Kickstarter

FOMO.  Miss this Kickstarter and you will kick yourself in the ass.

Its me again, Mitch Hyman.  You probably know me for my comic book work and the popular film I produced based on that book, Bubba the Redneck Werewolf. Now, you’re probably asking how does a guy who writes about a beer swilling cigar chomping goofy ass werewolf go to writing an adventure tale based on a world-famous LGBT icon? Hell, if I were you that’s what I’d ask.

Actually, both are about something important to me and all of us these days… Acceptance. Bubba was just a dog catcher who caught the wrong dog and turned into this big hairy monster with a good heart who even the folks in his town still treated the same because at his core, Bubba was who he was. Chavela is the same.

She was not born in Mexico but she fell in love with the place and its people the same as I did. To quote her, “A Mexican is born wherever the F-ck she wants to be born.” Like I said, it’s all about acceptance and heart.

How I found Chavela goes back to my days in FM radio. I was in charge of a world music program that aired on weekends and so one day during my search for cool vocals and style I found a song called “La llarona”. So, I’m sitting there in the dark studio around 2 am and this voice comes over my headphones that chills me to my bones. It’s sweet but hard. It’s like someone vocally exposing their soul to the heavens above and a threat to the demons below. It was strength and afterward I went to find more of her music, and all had the same beauty and depth. I asked some Latin friends about her and found out she was like a lot of people who had depth and a social conscience. She was lost and found at the same time. She was an influencer before there were such things. The worlds of art, music and even politics were influenced by her. Frida Kahlo, the famous painter, was her lover and confidant. Politicians respected and feared her. The world of music changed in ways because of what her style brought to it. But best of all, she was a fighter. A fighter for rights for all people. An icon to the gay community and an ally to all oppressed folks.

She was also hilarious, dangerous and adventurous. Learning all this made her to me seem like someone who no matter what the odds were or how crazy a situation got, she could power through it. Nowa few years ago during the pandemic I was like all of you and locked down and so was Skyping and Zooming with friends I couldn’t visit with my buddy Adalisa Zarate was one of those. Ada and I had been going to San Diego Comic Con and doing panels on film making and story telling across our countries borders. What a lot of people don’t realize is that during the great depression bit these countries saved each other from starvation and fascist invasion.

In 1940, where this story takes place, the Vice President of the US had a secret plan and took a road trip driving his family to Mexico to be at the inauguration of Mexico’s new president. Along the way his niece and artist met Chavela and they both wound up on an adventure involving mysticism, ancient gods, nazis spies, romance and hilarious misadventure.

Simply put, I gave Chavela the adventure she was not only qualified for but deserved. I gotta say during my years long research I learned more about Mexican culture than I think I even knew of my own. And I even discovered I had family who left Europe in the early 1930’s to seek a new life and freedom in Mexico. So, here I am talking to you about an amazing woman who carried a pistol and a guitar and could use both to great effect when needed. So, Adalisa and I promise you an adventure that with keep you turning pages and a woman who was and still is the role model for so many millions of people. We are also proud to offer the book initially in Latin Spanish because Chavela would want it that way to honor the ones she loved most. The people of Mexico and Latin America. Yes, her life was tragic and she had struggles for many years, but still she survived and always got a standing ovation when she spoke or performed. You’ll do the same when you finish the last page and see just how sweet revenge can be and how bittersweet love between two people can turn out to be as well.

One last thing, this book is the only project that has been officially approved by Chavela’s family and loved ones and so it is highly collectible and does honor to those she left behind and loved. Adalisa was one of those as she was like a daughter to Chavela. That’s all I have for now. To see the stretch goals and how many wonderful and mainstream artists and others have committed to be on this project, just read the full proposal here on this page.

Now, to close this, let’s do this the way Chavela would want and this … ok you people, Let’s fund this F’in g project and go have a drink!

Viva Chavela!

Viva Chavela!

Every country has their iconic voice in music and social awareness.

Singers and musicians have always been flag carriers for causes or for changes in society; marching under a banner as it were is just human nature. Chavela Vargas was all this and more to not only Mexico but quite a bit of Latin America.

She was a strong believer in human rights for all and the inspiration for many other musicians, artists, actors and even athletes. A famous player, Jonathan Gonzales, who left USA Soccer to play in Mexico quoted her famously to the press by saying: “Un mexicano nace donde se le da la gana!”  Translated – “A Mexican is born where he wants!”

Simply put, Chavela felt that your heart is where your love, loyalty and identity dwell.

I have a branch of my family that emigrated to Mexico from Europe during the 1920s.  As they had been involved in agriculture, they saw that Mexico was becoming a very progressive country with innovations to feeding their people and the world. But, that’s not where my love of Chavela started.

My love for Chavela began when I was working in FM radio in the USA. I had worked in Rock and Pop, but I saw that Jazz was a place where diversity and so many styles and voices were trending and so like my relatives, I went to find new venues and pastures to cultivate.  I was lucky enough to get a job at a progressive station that wanted to feature world music as part of its programming. I worked my way up to being music director and host for a special show that became a major force. The show was “Landscapes” and featured Jazz and global music.

One day, a shipment of recordings came in and one of these was a CD of Ranchera music. The music truly spoke of the soul of Mexico and one voice on this collection was amazing and chilling. It was Chavela Vargas who had reignited her career after many years of being silent. The song was “Paloma Negra” and it was haunting and beautiful. I sat in the studio just transfixed and I featured her for several shows over the months after. The response was as magical as she was. My listeners would call and ask for her and they even said that proudly they were now learning Latin Spanish so they could appreciate her further. I thought that was wonderful, but I knew somewhere in my DJ soul that it didn’t matter because they fell in love with her before wanting to understand her completely. The point was that they felt her and embraced her like a warm hug hello and a sad good bye at the same time.

Today, Chavela has become a force of nature once more as she has begun to entwine her way into all cultures again. If you watched the Netflix series “Wednesday” based on the Addams Family, you heard her music. She was playing in the background of several scenes, and you could not miss her soulful lilting voice taking over the atmosphere of the scene.

Now, as to the book I’ve written, I wrote this a year before that show premiered. When I watched and heard her, I knew that there was still a magic that came from her that was unfaded. From there, the book began when a dear friend of mine and the person who illustrated the novel with quite a few cool one-page images to accent the story came into help. That person was Adalisa Zarate, a well-known comic strip artist from Mexico City that I met at San Diego’s comic con.

Ada, my wife, and I hit it off like we had always known one another, and we knew eventually we’d do a project together. You’d expected it to be a comic as we are both comic folks but when we were discussing Mexico/USA history, Chavela’s name came up and I found out that she had been like an aunt to Ada. Ada’s mother was close with Chavela. Ada told me how Chavela and Ada’s family had been LGBT allies and Chavela was the banner carrier for that along with other important social change. I respected that as I had sought to help friends over the years to find their identity or defend the one, they had always known. It’s what humans should do, and love is important and knows no gender or caste. Love is a pure force and is powerful.

So, that was when I decided that Chavela was more than she appeared.  Her sense of adventure and the risks she took and the defiance of her beliefs inspired me to see her as an action hero.

A hero of mythical proportions. She struck me as Jane Goodall, Lara Croft, and lady Gaga all rolled into one.  She was cagey, resilient, horribly flawed but filled with light and passion. If you want to know what the novel is about, I was able to boil it down to what I put on the book’s back cover.

But, a warning!

Adalisa and I packed so much into his book that a few spare paragraphs don’t do it or our hero justice. You’ll just have to be satisfied with this basic description until you can geta copy which will be first published in Latin Spanish in honor of the people she loved the most and that being the Mexican public. I thank them and all who believe that we are our own destiny and joining with others all around the world can make it truly the global village we all so truly want.

The book will be available to the public soon. Keep coming back here and when it is mass market available, I’ll give out all details. One last thing, no one has rights to her character or story besides Adalisa and me, so if you want the real deal, this is the place to come.

Be well and keep faith!

Mitch

 

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Chavela, Chocolate and Cthulhu” back cover synopsis:

One thing about Chavela thought Diana Hutchinson (who was Chavela’s latest romantic interest), was that the hard drinking and boisterous Ranchera singer had no filter when dealing with people. If she thought something, it was out of her brain and on her tongue with no delay. Her candor was refreshing and assured you that you always knew where you stood with her, but Diana now understood why Diego Rivera (Frida Kahlo’s husband and a great artist too) had said that Chavela’s greatest weapon was her mouth and not her pistol or the half dozen razor edged knives she had stashed under her red jorongo.

In 1940’s Mexico, Nazi spies with their SS troopers discover a way to mix the old-world magic of ancient indigenous gods and vicious were creatures with new world science. Their plan was to try and end the newly formed partnership between the United States and Mexico. All this was for the glory of the deadly dangerous third Reich and global fascism.

With the help of Chavela Vargas, a rising star of Mexican music and social change, a young academic student who was the niece of the current Vice president of the US under Franklin Roosevelt who are about to form a passionate and powerful team that will take them on thrilling journey not only through Mexico but to regions beyond our universe. Fate is throws them into the very jaws or power mad nihilists and the dark entities they have vowed to serve.

 

 

Hello March, the Month of Expectations

 

Spring is almost here and with it brings (besides cleaning up the garage and finding all that stuff you lost in the yard before the snows came) what to most pop culture fans is one of the best times of the year..Convention season!

From local cons to the big shows, it’s time to attend our favorite shows, to bring out our costumes, our rare items to be signed or just the chance to hang out people who enjoy fantasy and fiction.

The great thing I’ve noticed over the last few years is that there is a more international flavor to the crowds at conventions. My favorite convention is of course SDCC.

With the global pandemic in the rear-view mirror, it seems that more people from across the planet are coming to the biggest show of all. If you’ve never been to SDCC, it’s so worth the attendance lottery or trying to audition for a professional badge if you’re in the business or wanting to take your concept further.

Now, this next thing I want to communicate is for the writers out there. What you’re about to read is really important and is especially for the USA writers.

Open your minds! Trying to break into the US writing market is as tough as finding a white dog in a blizzard. The market in the US is saturated and getting noticed can be done, but you’d better be one incredibly talented self-promoter. I admit to being one these rare souls and even with this talent I spent many years getting my work out there by using the usual channels.

But then, I met some wonderful people from Mexico and everything I knew was put on its head.  I started learning about markets way beyond my country’s borders and the new audiences for my work were looking for something different and something unique, but unlike the more jaded domestic crowds, the Latin American and the European crowd had been mostly ignored by the USA creatives. Sometime it was the language barrier (which is easily overcome these days thanks to apps like Babbel etc.) or sometimes it was fear of the unknown. Well, if you’re going be a writer, you can’t be afraid of anything.  Well, besides the damn oxford comma but outside of that, get over your fear!

My film Bubba has now been dubbed in German and was played on the largest streaming service there plus in other parts of Europe. Add to this that my other writing is now being translated into Latin Spanish and it’s been so fun! I have new friends and fans who give me a greater perspective on the world and the global village we all now live in and also fresh ideas which to a writer are the blood of our existence.

So, as we now enter the time of year where we venture forth to embrace new experiences, look into the international markets for fans and professionals alike. You will discover not only new things to embrace and become part of your pop culture world, but new things about yourself and where your work will be welcomed with open arms and not with the usual dismissive wave from the who you know crew.

Now go and next month I’ll be posting places that you can go to try these theories out and get your passports in order to do it.

Yours unruly,

Mitch