Ask the Author: Sergio Tinoco
Answered Questions (7)
Sergio Tinoco
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Sergio Tinoco
Dealing with writers’ block has been an “on the job training” sort of experience for me. I remember staring at my laptop’s screen trying to write my next sentence or piece together my next chapter and getting frustrated or even discouraged at time. I’ve learned to simply walk away and let the writing “just come back” to me on its own. It’s an amazing feeling to realize how something so simple around you can trigger the writing process. A commercial, a song on the radio, a news story, a person’s question, or even just a picture in a store can have the power to trigger your mind and have a story flow out of you with such ease.
Sergio Tinoco
The best thing for me was that writing Proud American became a form of therapy. I was more at ease writing than I have ever been actually talking about things I’ve been through in life. Talking to people has never been an easy thing for me. Somehow, some way, writing seems more natural to me. Maybe because I can actually collect my thoughts before blurting them out on paper. I do tend to get somewhat emotional and thus end up saying things the wrong way. Writing not only allows me to actually outline my thoughts, it helps me actually acknowledge the fact that I need to be more open with others.
Sergio Tinoco
Advice? Don’t force anything to come out onto the screen or the paper. Something around you will trigger an idea or a memory that can lead to an amazing chapter for your book. You may have an idea in mind and then something around you will trigger a thought that ends up taking you into an entirely different direction with your writing. Learn to slow down and truly understand what is going on around you. Time flies, but life doesn’t have to be fast.
Sergio Tinoco
With Immigration being such a huge topic in the media lately, I’m currently working on some more Border Patrol stories. So many people and different organizations have such a negative view of the organization without truly knowing anything about us. They don’t realize that we are human beings just as they are. They don’t know anything about the many different backgrounds that make up the Border Patrol and how our own duties affect our lives. Especially working in the southern border.
Sergio Tinoco
Since my book covers various moments of my own life, so many different things affected my writing or inspired my writing. Being a Veteran and having had a very poor and humble childhood, everything around me seems to remind me of where I started and what it has taken to get me to my current situation. The actions of my own kids and the many people that I have to now arrest on a daily basis always tend to remind me of instances in my own life. The loss of my Grandfather and my mother always have me recalling my childhood and the many things I always wished for.
Sergio Tinoco
I got the idea from my wife, Estela. About seven years ago when we had first starting dating, my wife had asked me how it was that I had ended up joining the Army. She had asked me because she herself had done four years in the Army and wanted to know my reasons. The first chapter of my book, “My road to Arms” is the actual email I had typed up for her at that time. After reading the email, she told me that I should consider writing. As time went by, she would periodically tell me that I should write about my life. I didn’t actually take her serious at the time, but then six years after that initial email—I followed her advice and wrote the book.
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