Americans would not recognize a South American adolescent as a reader. We cling to our precious stereotypes. Even if those stereotypes have no relationhip to the real world. Lately, I have been stunned to discover South American readers who have have found my books. And they read them. Many speak Engish. But Spanish editions have traveled to South America via Barcelona. I am finding a rich mix of languages. A reader in Rio will speak Portuguese, but they might also speak Spanish. American publishing has never really reached out to this market. Reps will fly to book fairs to grab deals on books they think will sell in translation. But South Americans are far more sophisticated than American publishing wants to admit. Spanish publishers take advantage of this, and they don’t have to make foreign language rights because readers speak (almost) the same Spanish spoken in Argentina.

Just attending a book fair is so lame, I can’t even go there.

The Church has banned most of my books (especially GENOCIDE) which simply makes them all that much more mysterious to the adolescent reader. Unlike American readers, the South American reader is less apt to ask me what my first wife’s birthdate was versus did I know the world would go through a viral pandemic just like the one in the book.

I tell them, yes. “It was only a matter of time.”

I tell them to prepare. “There will be many pandemics as global warming reaches temperatures where the jungles of Brazil will burn for unleashed periods of decades, not seasons. Enfermedad tras enfermedad se convertirá en toda nuestra vida.

They nod. They know.