This week’s podcast: What is the connection between fashion and terrorism?
Alex Gilvarry, whose novel From the Memoirs of A Non-Enemy Combatant is about a Filipino fashion designer who’s set to take New York by storm…until he gets thrown into Guantanamo as a terror suspect.
Listen to the podcast here. You can also download it or subscribe to the weekly podcast via iTunes.
We’re giving away three hardcover copies of From the Memoirs of A Non-Enemy Combatant, signed by the author. To get a copy, answer these questions in Comments.
1. Where did Alex write his novel?
2. Is the character Boyet based on a real person?
3. What is his next novel about?
Thanks to National Bookstore for the signed copies! From the Memoirs of A Non-Enemy Combatant is available at National Bookstores.
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The winner of last week’s podcast quiz is top51. Congratulations! Please post your full name in Comments (It won’t be published) and we’ll alert you when your books have been delivered to NBS Rockwell.
Update: top51, we’ll send your prizes to the Rockwell branch next week when we get back from the Ubud Writers Festival. (Yes it sounds like lumpia.)
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
October 1st, 2012 at 10:35
1) He started the novel in 2006 at Scholastic in SoHo.
2) Yes
3) About a war correspondent who loses his confidence, so he places himself in a war zone.
October 1st, 2012 at 12:59
1. New York
2. No, but the author mentioned he became aware of Bryanboy while he was in the process of finishing the book, and so he eventually mentioned him in the story as well.
3. His next novel will be about a war correspondent in Vietnam during World War II.
October 1st, 2012 at 14:31
Answering as I’m listening…
1. New York
2. No. (I read both the Sauers story and the Rogue article; this interview supports Gilvarry’s assertion that Boyet was not based on Bryanboy.)
3. War correspondent with a crisis of confidence who sends himself to Vietnam.
October 1st, 2012 at 16:55
1. Where did Alex write his novel?
2. Is the character Boyet based on a real person?
3. What is his next novel about?
1. For this novel, coffee shops.
2. Boyet Hernandez, is a heterosexual fashion designer, so presumably he’s not based on a real person
3. The next novel is about a war correspondent who suffers a crisis of confidence, and covers the Vietnam War
October 1st, 2012 at 17:02
1. Where did Alex write his novel? In a coffee shop! At the same table, with the same set of breakfast.
2. Is the character Boyet based on a real person? Boyet is a work of fiction but he (the author) ended up assimilating some of blogger Bryanboy’s characteristics, but is otherwise his own creation.
3. What is his next novel about? A war correspondent with a crisis of confidence who sends himself to Vietnam.
October 1st, 2012 at 17:50
1> New York
2> No, AFAIK, it’s not.
3> He is working on a book about a war correspondent who’s having a crisis of confidence.
@podcast, I LOL’d at the 13:00 mark :D
October 1st, 2012 at 20:04
Wow, I was the only one who joined. Everyone was put off by 50 Shades, I guess.
Thanks, Jessica, Carlo and NBS!
October 1st, 2012 at 22:55
1. He started on the concept when he was in SoHo. He mentions that he would sometimes work in coffee shops and rented offices — whatever works for him.
2. No, though people think it’s based on BryanBoy!
3. A war correspondent who has a crisis of confidence, which propels him to send himself to Vietnam to cover the war – to get that confidence back. Takes place partly in PH, New York & Boston.
October 1st, 2012 at 23:07
1. In New York, where he lives.
2. No.
3. His second novel is about war correspondent with a crisis of confidence who sends himself to Vietnam to cover the Vietnam War.
October 2nd, 2012 at 08:20
1. He wrote his novel in a coffee shop in New York.
2. No, it isn’t based on a real person.
3. It’s about a war correspondent with a crisis of confidence.
October 2nd, 2012 at 10:53
1. He wrote the book in New York
2. It is presumed to be loosely based on Bryanboy and his flight to international fashion superstardom but nevertheless, Boyet is and will remain a work of Mr. Gilvarry’s cultivated mind.
3. His next novel is about a war correspondnet in the Vietnam War.
October 2nd, 2012 at 11:09
1. NY. He also mentioned a lot of of this novel [From the Memoirs of A Non-Enemy Combatant] was written in coffee shops.
2. No
3. A war correspondent who has a confidence crisis and sends himself to Vietnam to cover the Vietnam war.
October 2nd, 2012 at 15:51
1. coffee shops in NY
2. No, but similarities to Bryan Boy are just coincidence.
3. About a correspondent who will cover the Vietnam War.
October 2nd, 2012 at 16:04
1. Where did Alex write his novel?
alex wrote his novel on his laptop. he often had to use his right knee to steady his usual small, creaky, wooden table at a coffee shop on the lower east side – it wobbled whenever he hit the save key. he consumes only two cups of the house brew even if the refills were free, and would emerge four hours later, bleary eyed and blinking into the sunlight, rushing to his next appointment with crumbs of bagel and bits of cream cheese stuck at the lap of his flat front khakis.
2. Is the character Boyet based on a real person?
no matter what he thinks, bryanboy is NOT the center of the universe.
3. What is his next novel about?
a war correspondent who goes to vietnam. or the scheming people in a small town in britain. or an insider’s account of the power plays of the Philippine elite spanning six presidents. multiple choice.
October 2nd, 2012 at 18:09
1. In New York
2. No, though there are people who think it’s based on bryanboy
3. It’s about a war correspondent in the Vietnam War era who’s undergoing a crisis of confidence and sends himself to the war zone.
October 2nd, 2012 at 21:53
wiz ko feel may pagka TH ang aura di natural
October 3rd, 2012 at 08:20
1. Most of the novel was written in a coffeeshop
2. Partly (Alex).
3. What is his next novel about? According to Alex, the next book is about a war correspondent who sends himself to Vietnam because of a crisis in confidence.
October 3rd, 2012 at 16:42
1. He wrote a lot of it in coffee shops. He’d go to the same table at the same time and have the same thing for breakfast. When that stopped working he would find a new place.
2. No, Boyet Hernandez is not based on a real person.
The author didn’t know about the blogger Bryanboy, who resembles Boyet, until halfway through the novel.
He didn’t know about Tim Garcia, Marc Jacobs’ publicist who was put under house arrest, until pretty recently.
3. His next novel is about a war correspondent who has a crisis of confidence. To get his mojo back, he goes to Vietnam to cover the Vietnam War.
October 3rd, 2012 at 21:51
1. New York (coffeshops, rented offices/spaces)
2. No.
3. A war correspondent who experiences a crisis of confidence so he sends himself to Vietnam to cover the war.
October 9th, 2012 at 10:42
Hey Jessica. Good job interviewing this guy! You did well even if Gilvarry sounded kinda guarded. Maybe he needs to learn to loosen up a bit. Next time, can the prize be a date with the author especially if the author is cute, 6’3″ and publicly swears by his heterosexuality? :P
October 9th, 2012 at 12:53
PinayTG: Pareho yata tayo ng iniisip hahahaha!