Welcome to ElliotTorres.com
Hello and welcome. If you are here well, that means you are aware that I have a new book, Game Over, being released next week and that my website has been updated. One major update to my website, besides the design, is the addition/launch of my blog. Yes, I am finally launching my own blog after several years of planning to do so. I have been so focused on working and wrapping up Game Over as well as working on new writing projects that writing for my own website hasn’t been a priority. This is an exciting time for me and I am looking forward to sharing many things with you here. My blog will contain a variety of content, from sharing news on my new novel, to appearances I may be doing, readings, lifestyle articles, sharing my favorite things, places, thoughts, opinions, travel, you name it, it will be here.
Some of you may be familiar with me because you have followed my work since I published my first book Five Years of Solitary, a collection of poetry, back in 2002. If you have been reading my work since then, and my three poetry books that followed, thank you for joining me on the ride and I hope you enjoy my novel. Back then, my promotion strategy involved promoting my work like one would an album or gay party, pre-social media. I would have flyers printed and leave them in bars, clubs, I mean everywhere. I had to think of creative ways to get people to pay attention to poetry, specifically gay men. I wasn’t writing poems about the trees, the birds etc. My poetry was raw and personal and people quickly noticed and embraced it. Readers who became aware of my work did so through word of mouth or because they came across one of my postcards. I was even surprised to learn along the way that straight readers were enjoying it and could relate to the topics as well. I began reading and performing my spoken word in gay nightclubs, colleges, universities and visiting a variety organizations nationwide and was featured and interviewed in gay publications both domestically and internationally.
In New York, at the time, I would sometimes be stopped, often in bars or clubs and guys would say would say, oh, you’re “the poet.” Although I was flattered that people began to associate me to my writing, I didn’t like the fact that I was labeled “the poet” because I felt boxed in. I always saw myself as a writer. Being a writer, I felt that it encompassed all of the types of writing that I had done, was focused on and wanted to do. I’ve also been on the receiving end of comments such as, “Oh, you’ve published four books, oh but they’re poetry.” Almost as if poetry was the black sheep of the craft of writing. It didn’t bother me because I always knew this had nothing to do with me and simply the opinions that others had and anyone that knows me knows I don’t care what people think about me at all. If anything, comments like that simply fuel me. I love proving people wrong and I love being right. Many times to a fault but one thing I know, as a I write these words, is that I am beginning a dialogue with you, the reader. I love that I can finally share Game Over, which is a project that has been weighing on me for a long time. With all of my projects, they weigh on me until they are published because then, I can move on to the next one.
I will discuss the process in greater detail in the blog posts to follow. On Tuesday October 19th, I can finally introduce you to Game Over and the interesting characters that make up the fictional story that dives in the world of of a unique office culture in the video game industry where the main character, Joaquin Otero, a struggling actor is catapulted into the role of personal assistant when he has his sights set on making it in Hollywood. Los Angeles is the setting and a character itself.
Game Over will be available on Amazon in paperback and ebook formats on Tuesday, October 19th. If you prefer to read the ebook version, the ebook is currently available for pre-order. I hope you enjoy my new book and stay tuned. There’s a lot more to come. The game isn’t over, it’s only beginning.