Francisco X. Stork was born in Mexico. He moved to El Paso, Tex., with his adoptive father and mother when he was nine. Stork attended Spring Hill College, Harvard University, and Columbia Law School, then worked as an attorney for an affordable housing agency until his retirement in 2015. He is married with two grown children and four beautiful grandchildren. Stork loves to read books where the author's soul touches his own, and those are the kind of books he also tries to write. I Am Not Alone (Scholastic Press, available now) is his 10th novel.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
When Alberto is accused of a crime, Grace must decide whether to risk her brilliant future for the love blossoming in her heart.
On your nightstand now:
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace; Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour; and A Path with Heart by Jack Kornfield.
Favorite book when you were a child:
I grew up in Mexico reading these comic books called Vidas Ilustres. They were biographies of "illustrious lives"--writers, scientists, explorers, military, and political leaders. I think the first full book that I read (in Spanish) was The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss quickly became one of my favorites, and I devoured all the books by Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas.
Your top five authors:
Miguel de Cervantes
Annie Dillard
Jorge Luis Borges
James Baldwin
Flannery O'Connor
Book you've faked reading:
Ulysses by James Joyce. Also, Finnegans Wake. (I feel very guilty about this.)
Book you're an evangelist for:
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard. This is the book I re-read every couple of years, and the book I recommend to young people aspiring to be writers. It's a book about the life-long commitment that writing requires, and the connection between the author's spiritual and moral life and the work of writing.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. And the writing was even better than the cover.
Book you hid from your parents:
My mother was a single mother who was an avid reader of romance novels written by Spanish and Latin American writers. Often, when finishing a book, she'd say, "Now I need to go to confession." I never felt I needed to hide anything I was reading from her. No book was without some kind of merit in her eyes.
Book that changed your life:
When I was a teenager, reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez filled me with pride that a Latin American writer could write so beautifully. It inspired me to dedicate my life to the work of writing with truth and beauty. The book and its amazing Spanish rhythms also work as a wonderful spark for me, which ignites creativity when words and images are not flowing.
Favorite line from a book:
"Sometimes like the Barbie doll, you need to give people something that is for them, not just something that makes you feel good giving it."
Jesse Aarons contemplating a gift for his little sister. From Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.
Five books you'll never part with:
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Bhagavad Gita translated by Eknath Easwaran
Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Living by Annie Dillard
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I'd like to read this carefully to see how he seamlessly weaves fragments of reality and thoughts together.
The most important thing you learned from a book:
Courage. Books have given me strength to go on and do what needs to be done when it did not seem possible to do so. The most important thing I've learned from a book is not a concept or an idea or a belief--it is the strength that comes from the bond with author and characters.