BY THE EDITORS OF LUNA LUNA
We here at Luna Luna love our contributors. We know how busy they are—running their own magazines, writing books, resisting the darkness in the world, and making all sorts of magic. That they come back to Luna Luna again and again to write and share and create is an honor, and there are no words to express our thanks. They are family to us, so we thought we'd spotlight them so you could learn more about who they are and what they do. Please support them! Read their articles, buy their books, subscribe to their blogs, and send kisses.
Leza Cantoral
Tell us a little bit about what inspires you as a writer.
I am inspired by dreams, love, sex, tragedy, textures, feelings, and ideas. Art, books, and movies, people I know, famous people, cats, music, the clouds, winter, the night, the moon, Tarot cards, conspiracy theories, music videos. Sometimes the title for something will drop into my head, like the title and titular story of my short story collection Cartoons in the Suicide Forest. Then I had to figure out what story would match such a crazy title. I was inspired by the Vice documentary about Aokigahara aka the Suicide Forest in Japan. I was fascinated with the fence sitters: the people who are undecided. They bring a tent and camp out. Some leave and others end their lives there. That idea haunted me. So I wrote a story about a character who goes to the forest, hoping to decide whether to live or die while she is there. Turns out that if you do not decide, then there is always someone else who is happy to make that choice for you and you might not like the results.
What projects/pieces are you working on (especially if it's not LL-related, so we can promote you).
I am working on two novellas and a poetry collection. One novella is called The Ice Cream Girl Gospels. It is a trippy adventure story about friendship and drug addiction. It is also about the environment. These two college freshmen get teleported to a magical world while they are partying at an Alice in Wonderland themed rave and they have to rescue Ice Cream Land from The Queen in Yellow who has gone mad and wants to melt Ice Cream Land so she can turn it into a giant poppy field. It’s basically Mean Girls in Candyland. The other novella is called Dear Diary, I Think I’m Haunted. It is a meta ghost story about being haunted, going mad, and fighting malevolent interdimensional beings. The poetry collection is called Trash Panda. It is a collection of emo poetry that goes into my darkness but also has a sense of humor and I will be making fun of social media and pop culture. I already wrote one about Justin Bieber called ‘selena was 2 good 4 u’.
Which one of your LL pieces do you recommend people read right now?
I would recommend reading my review of Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola since her new movie, The Beguiled, is coming out. Shout out Kirsten Dunst and Sofia Coppola!
Vampires, witches, or ghosts—and why?
Witches, because I am a Bruja in everything I do.
Leza Cantoral is a writer, editor, and podcaster from Mexico. She runs CLASH Books and yesclash.com. She is the author of Cartoons in the Suicide Forest and the editor of Tragedy Queens: Stories Inspired by Lana Del Rey and Sylvia Plath, which will be coming out in December 2017 via CLASH Books. She talks to cool ass writers on her podcast getlitwithleza.podbean.com. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr @lezacantoral