Author Spotlight: Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia

 


It’s National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) and also spooky October, so what better time to tell you about my new favorite author, Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Silvia is a Mexican-Canadian author who crafts books and stories that have a macabre and dark shadow to them. When she’s not writing her own books she is an editor at a company that is a purveyor of weird fiction.

Her first publication, “This Strange Way of Dying”, was a collection of short stories that were previously published in various magazines.

Her work is steeped in Mexican folklore and tradition. She has almost created a new reality by combining modern day Mexico City with the fantastic creatures of old tales and dark stories from the past. 

Her first published novel was “Signal to Noise” about a young girl going back to Mexico City for her father’s funeral. While there she remembers the origins of her spell casting abilities that she derives from listening to songs. 

 This was followed up by “Certain Dark Things”. “Certain Dark Things” is a modern (or post-modern) vampire story that takes a fresh look at the genre. Personally I thoroughly enjoyed the take on vampires having been a fan of the folklore for my whole life. Veering away from the notion that vampires are cursed humans, Silvia instead treats them as another species that has lived alongside humans since the dawn of time. They have their own families and politics and traditions. Unfortunately, they also survive by drinking human blood. 

Set in an alternate reality of Mexico City, “Certain Dark Things” doesn’t go through the motions of having someone discovered to be a vampire through hackneyed circumstance. Instead vampires are common knowledge. However, they are barred from living in the city-state and therefore reside in the countryside where the drug gangs roam free. 

The city is under lockdown and authorities are always on the lookout for signs that someone might be a vampire. So far Atl, a descendent of Aztec vampires, has eluded the cops. One night on a subway train Atl meets Domingo, a young scavenger of trash. Domingo is enamored by her beauty – and her genetically modified dog. 

Atl asks Domingo to go home with her, and he thinks she is propositioning him for sex. She assures him that is not the case, and he comes home with her. Only after entering her apartment does it begin to dawn on Domingo that she is a vampire and has brought him home to feed. Atl is on the run. She must evade the local authorities, the vampire clans, and the crime bosses. 

But where does Domingo fit in her life? As the events unfold in the city, Domingo and Atl find themselves coming closer together just as they are trying their hardest to get Atl as far south - and away from the life she was born into - as possible. 

Other works by Moreno-Garcia include “Gods of Jade and Shadow”, “Mexican Gothic”, “The Return of the Sorceress”, and “The Daughter of Doctor Moreau”.

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