Grim Talk - A Mortal Vengeance Podcast -

Ep 02 : "The Story About My Story"

Before the awards. Before the reviews. Before the Grim Cojuelo had a name. In Episode 02 of Grim Talk, Alejandro Torres De la Rocha goes all the way back — to 1999, to a bedroom stripped of every distraction, to a fifteen-year-old with too much anger and nowhere to put it except a page. The first line he wrote that year is still in the book, word for word, twenty-five years later. Twelve years of Jesuit school. A Cuban priest who reminded his students that Fidel Castro went to a Jesuit school. A rector who enforced haircut policy based on Ricky Martin. A character based on something that was never invented — only remembered. A diagnosis that explained, in adult language, what a fifteen-year-old had already put on the page without knowing what he was doing. The book knew before he did. Keep the lights on. mortalvengeance.com [Before the awards. Before the reviews. Before the Grim Cojuelo had a name. In Episode 02 of Grim Talk, Alejandro Torres De la Rocha goes all the way back — to 1999, to a bedroom stripped of every distraction, to a fifteen-year-old with too much anger and nowhere to put it except a page. The first line he wrote that year is still in the book, word for word, twenty-five years later. Twelve years of Jesuit school. A Cuban priest who reminded his students that Fidel Castro went to a Jesuit school. A rector who enforced haircut policy based on Ricky Martin. A character based on something that was never invented — only remembered. A diagnosis that explained, in adult language, what a fifteen-year-old had already put on the page without knowing what he was doing. The book knew before he did. Keep the lights on.] Author Page - Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Alejandro-Torres-De-la-Rocha/author/B0FFTHKYPC] Author Website [https://aletorr.es/series/mortal-vengeance]

Episode 01 - Silence Isn't Neutral

Every debut has a story. This one starts with a Literary Titan Gold Book Award, a Dante Rossetti shortlist, and three separate reviewers — independently, without coordinating — all landing on the same two words: fresh new voice. In Episode 01 of Grim Talk, Alejandro Torres De la Rocha sits down to respond. Where the Grim Cojuelo came from and why a carnival trickster became a hunter of the guilty. What René Girard's Mimetic Theory gets wrong about Alex. Why the metaphors in the first half compete with each other. What "silence isn't neutral" actually means — and the Tuesday afternoon phone call that turned a slasher novel into something with a moral center. 🌐 mortalvengeance.com [https://www.mortalvengeance.com] 📚 Buy the books on Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Alejandro-Torres-De-la-Rocha/author/B0FFTHKYPC] Keep the lights on.