Frank Gaydos & Ronald J. Ruiz || San Miguel Literary Sala

San Miguel Literary Sala Presents:

Frank Gaydos. screenwriter
Hotel Mañana
and
Ronald J. Ruiz , novelist
Lawyer 

Thursday, August 8
5 to 7 PM

Hotel Posada de Aldea
Ancha de San Antonio #15

$100 pesos ($50 pesos for Literary Sala members)
Complimentary Wine Reception

 Literary Sala Presents Courtroom Suspense Novelist and Seasoned Screenwriter

By Carole Schor

The August 8 Literary Sala is excited to present “the John Grisham of Mexico,” courtroom suspense novelist Ronald Ruiz, along with screenwriter Frank Gaydos in what will be an entertaining and spell binding evening. Both Ruiz and Gaydos embody the dream of many of us who come to Mexico to reinvent ourselves and become accomplished writers.

Frank Gaydos

Frank Gaydos retired from a long career as an organizational development consultant. He was invited to write a skit for a 2010 Literary Sala summer festival about the book, In the Shadow of the Angel, and he wrote such a brilliant piece, he was encourage to continue. While at the San Miguel Writers Conference in 2014 he met professional comedy writer, Mark Saunders (Author of Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak). This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship and a productive writing collaboration. Frank and Mark have adapted Luis Urrea’s bestselling book, Into the Beautiful North into a screenplay, and they have co-written several screenplays and TV pilots. Frank has gone on to write the screenplay for the historical novel, In the Shadow of the Angel by Kathryn Blair (often dubbed the Gone With the Wind of Mexico) and is co-writing the Civil War TV drama, Black Dispatches and a comedy feature film, Road to Mexico with another former San Miguel resident, Michael Hager.

At our Sala evening, Frank will be showing the trailer for his latest work, a romantic comedy set in San Miguel, entitled Hotel Mañana, currently in pre-production and scheduled to be shot later this year.

Ronald J. Ruiz

Ronald J. Ruiz follows in the footsteps of John Grisham, Scott Turow and other courtroom thriller writers with his crime novels 120 Days and The Big Bear, but his memoir Lawyer is the true story of a smart, determined Mexican-American raised in the fields of Fresno, California where he struggled to pull himself up and finally become one of only six Mexican-American lawyers in all of Northern California.  Like other Mexican and Mexican-American authors, Ron Ruiz tells heartwarming and heart-wrenching tales of immigrants, borders, drugs, and family in his books, Jesusita and Happy Birthday, Jesus.  His memoir, Lawyer, spans over thirty years of Ruiz’s criminal law practice and examines the impact of race on his life and on five memorable cases. Ruiz has been called “a strikingly good writer” who forces the reader to see behind the story through his highly skilled storytelling.

Join us for a macho peek into the worlds of crime and the courthouse, and Hollywood and the art of screenwriting at the Literary Sala on August 8 at 5 PM at the Hotel La Aldea. Admission is 50 pesos for members and 100 pesos for non-members, including a wine and snack reception.

Writers’ Conference

Tickets and Registration for the 2020 San Miguel Writers’ Conference will be available at this Sala event, as well as Membership in the Literary Sala, with its many benefits. For full information, visit www.sanmiguelwritersconference.org or www.sanmiguelliterarysala.org.

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