Tomas Moniz: It’s Getting the Writing Done That Counts
In this interview, author Tomas Moniz discusses exploring youth and middle age in his new novel, The King of Aloe Vera.
Tomas Moniz is a Latinx writer living in Oakland, Calif. His debut novel, Big Familia, was a finalist for the 2020 PEN/Hemingway, the LAMBDA, and the Foreward Indies Awards. He edited the popular Rad Dad and Rad Families anthologies. He is the recipient of the prestigious SF Literary Arts Foundation’s 2016 Award and the 2020 Artist Affiliate for Headlands Center for Arts. He currently teaches at Berkeley City College and the Antioch MFA program. Follow him on Instagram.
In this interview, Tomas discusses exploring youth and middle age in his new novel, The King of Aloe Vera, his hope for readers, and more.
Name: Tomas Moniz
Literary agent: Eleanor Jackson
Book title: The King of Aloe Vera
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Release date: September 29, 2026
Genre/category: Literary Fiction and Latinx Literature
Previous titles: All Friends Are Necessary, Big Familia, Rad Families, Rad Dad
Elevator pitch: Widower Reyes (Rey) Calderón, 75 years old, emotionally stuck after the death of his wife Juliet a decade ago, must decide by month’s end if he’ll just end his own life rather than begin again in a suburban retirement community. The novel follows his last days in the Mission, embarking on a quest to return an indigenous artifact left to him by his father, getting swept up in a housing rights protest and striking up a surprising friendship with a young queer woman named Q.
What prompted you to write this book?
I wanted to explore how we survive? What that looks like? To get through all the drama and ennui of youth and middle age and discover, what do we leave behind, what we regret, what unexpected things might we discover? I also was losing my elders, all their stories and history, while simultaneously becoming an abuelo, my granddaughter's little voice naming me “grandpa.” Ugh, life!
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
Normally, my novels tend to be very nebulous and evolving as I write them; however, with The King of Aloe Vera, once I realized it would take place over the course of one month, I was able to write it quickly. But then I put it aside and came back to it over and over again for a few years, editing, tweaking, trying to decide endings, playing with various themes. So, overall, the final project took about five years
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
Yes, writing in third person can be playful and intimate but demands a certain discipline, a certain requirement to hold boundaries between narrative voice and character voice. That was hard and required constant vigilance. Which I seem to clearly lack evidenced by the amount of work I put my copy editors through!
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I had wonderful editors, Kathy Portis and Jovanna Brinck, who asked me some tough questions about halfway through the revision process. For example: Initially the book didn’t have any quotation marks because that’s been my normal literary style, but they felt like it allowed the reader to be too close to the main character and that the quotation marks would give readers some distance to laugh at or be angry with or feel for Rey. That was a really interesting moment for me as a writer: to consider the reader's interaction as a priority rather than just what I feel like I must do stylistically as an artist. I became a better writer through the editorial conversations.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I certainly hope readers get a sense of how powerful community can be, how we can still be active and support each other (especially our elders), whether that’s through volunteering, riding public transportation, or talking with strangers. I love all the random moments of humanity that Rey experiences in the final month of his time in the Mission District of San Francisco. And finally, I want readers to see how a playful and joyous book like The King of Aloe Vera can also explore themes like housing rights, queerness, activism, friendship, and depression.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
My one piece of advice is turn off grammar check, love typos, run-on sentences, muddled plot points, cliches, overly descriptive attempts at emotion as you write the initial draft. Because it’s getting the writing done that counts. All the editing and cleaning and smoothing comes later. All of the mess is necessary, so get that first draft done.
