Q&A with Francesco Paola

 

 

Francesco Paola is the author of the new novel Left on Rancho. Also a technology entrepreneur, he lives in New York City.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Left on Rancho, and how did you create your character Andrew?

 

A: After a 20-year career in tech, I spent two years working for a legal California cannabis company. I’d commute to the factory every day from Los Angeles, drive across the Cajon Pass into the Mojave Desert, and pass by multiple cannabis grow, extraction, and manufacturing facilities that were interspersed between private, county, and state prisons. In the middle of nowhere.

 

Add to that the fact that the legal cannabis industry is a mess (see below), I decided there had to be a story in there somewhere.

 

Andrew is a composite character infused with three traits that I took from my background and experience: (1) my upbringing in Southeast Asia and spending summers in Italy, where I experienced multi-cultural environments that allowed me to quickly adapt to new ones; (2) my experience in cannabis, which allowed me to immerse the reader in the industry with the right level of details; and (3) my experience in tech. I needed someone to ground Andrew in. Otherwise, he’s made up.

 

Q: Given the focus today on immigration, what do you hope people take away from your novel?

 

A: I myself am an immigrant (I was born in Italy). I came to the US to attend university and then stayed, the opportunities for someone with my skills and background (engineering) were plentiful, and this country was more than willing to let me contribute.

 

And I did. I even started my own company, contributing to the perennial technology boom, from the days of the internet to the cloud and now with artificial intelligence (AI).

 

I firmly believe that no other country in the world provides opportunities for both skilled and unskilled immigrants who are willing to work hard and contribute, and that very few countries have the moral fortitude to help those fleeing poverty, hunger, abuse, and murder. The United States, until recently, was that country. I am not so sure anymore.

 

I tried to capture the angst, the fear, and the hopelessness of the migrants that make their way to the United States in search of safety, health, and opportunity.

 

I tried to convey the fact that migrants are treated as widgets, as commodities, with private prison incentives that reward them with keeping migrants in cells for as long as possible—each migrant on average brings in revenues of $100 a day.

 

The incentives are all wrong. And yet we continue to close our borders, and close our eyes, and hope this problem will go away. We need to be more accepting and compassionate in how we treat immigrants.

Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: Even though the bulk of my cannabis knowledge was acquired in the two years I worked in the Mojave Desert, West Hollywood, and Downtown LA, I was constantly doing research, on the latest cannabis news and trends, the regulatory challenges, and reading about the (mostly) failures of cannabis legalization in states outside of California, like New York, where I reside.

 

I also spent quite a bit of time researching immigration policy, how private prisons function, and trying to find real stories of nonprofits and agencies that support the plight of migrants.

 

I made several trips back to LA during the writing period to ensure that I captured the essence of the locations and be able to effectively describe the scenery and the feel, like when Ish and Andrew cruise up Laurel Canyon and Mulholland Drive, when they drive down Santa Monica and Melrose from West Hollywood to Downtown LA, and to highlight the contrast between the inland locations and Manhattan Beach, where a critical confrontation occurs between Andrew and Charlie.

 

A few items surprised me: (1) the fact that private prisons are for-profit entities with incentives to keep migrants incarcerated as long as possible; (2) how inept other states were at legalizing cannabis—they repeated the same mistakes that California had made, almost as if these states were living on a different, isolated planet; and (3) Cannabis is a Federal Schedule I drug, in the same category as heroin, LSD, and ecstasy, while fentanyl is a Schedule II drug.

 

Q: What do you think the novel says about the cannabis industry?

 

A: As I mentioned in the first question, the legal cannabis industry is a mess: the economics don’t make any business sense (taxes are a disincentive while business expenses cannot be deducted from revenue); there’s a glut of cannabis in the legal market, driving down prices, further impacting economics; 70 percent of the cannabis market (in California) is illegal because prices for illegal weed are significantly lower than those for legal weed; law enforcement is underfunded and hence rules and laws are rarely enforced; and cannabis is not what was smoked and ingested in the ‘80s and ‘90s, it has been bred to where it’s now up to five times more potent, and in some cases more, leading to significant medical and mental health issues for heavy users of the drug.

 

Don’t get me wrong, cannabis should be legal. But it must be better regulated, and it must be legalized at the federal level (starting with reclassification to a Schedule III drug).

 

I’m not going to get into the details of when or how it should be federally legalized, major national publications have a new story on cannabis almost every day. I will say only that along with federal legalization, more power should be given to the FDA to regulate the market.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I completed the first draft of a second novel in early November. It’s about a retired New York homicide detective who sets up a private investigative practice in Tucson, Arizona. He’s been dealing primarily with divorce and missing pet cases (there are a lot of critters in the desert) until he lands a kidnapping case that spins out of control. I’m letting it sit for a while before I return to it.

 

In the meantime, I’ve been writing short stories and short-film scripts to stay busy. Writing short stories helps develop the writing craft, and I use them to experiment with various styles, themes, and with character development.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to your blog! Here are a few links where readers can find me, including a couple of events I have scheduled to mark the publication of Left on Rancho.

 

Web: francescopaola.com

Blog: francescopaola.com/blog

Short Stories: francescopaola.com/stories

Instagram: fpaola01

Facebook: francesco.paola.52

 

Upcoming Events:

Book launch and reading at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA; Tuesday February 11, 7 P.M.

Book launch party at the National Arts Club, New York, NY; Thursday February 20, 6:30 P.M.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb