Dr. Julio A. Varela: Alma Mutters
Julio A. Varela teaches undergraduate literature, humanities, and philosophy courses in South Florida, where he began teaching in 1993. Dr. Varela’s writing credits include Vortex to Virus, Myth to Meme: The Literary Evolution of Nihilism and Chaos in Modernism and Postmodernism, published in 2009 by VDM Verlag, as well as a number of book reviews for Bridges: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Theology, Philosophy, History, and Science.
He received his doctoral degree in humanities from Florida State University in 2004. Dr. Varela lives in Miami, Florida. Darkwater Syndicate will publish his first novel, Alma Mutters, in early 2019. The book is a satirical look at high school education, recreational drugs, contemporary memes, rock & roll, and the overall degeneracy of the human race from one generation to the next.
Buck Buchanan: The Secret Files of Hugo and Victoria
Judging by the characters in his book, you might think the author, J.E. “Buck” Buchanan, is out there around the third ring of Saturn. In reality, he’s firmly grounded, which is where the mystery side of his novel, The Secret Files of Hugo and Victoria, comes in. Buck conducted and supervised major criminal investigations (homicide, smuggling, official corruption, fraud, etc.) for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for a good chunk of his life. The secret files in his novel aren’t based on those experiences because according to him, they were much weirder than mutant vampires, werewolves, and witches.
He wasn’t born into a life of crime (writing). After he escaped high school with minimal scars from sports and young love, he studied and worked at engineering and business before settling into crime fighting. Since then, in addition to consulting, he has focused on writing, winning several short story contests and conducting a writers’ workshop for the Palm Beach County Library. He lives in South Florida with his wife Susan and every stray dog and cat she can drag in. He says he can’t complain about it because she dragged him in too.
The Secret Files of Hugo and Victoria blends laugh-out-loud comedy with noir mystery and paranormal action. Catch it February 28, 2019.