David A. Romero of Diamond Bar on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We’re looking forward to introducing you to David A. Romero. Check out our conversation below.

David A., we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: Who are you learning from right now?
The most celebrated author I’ll have the honor of publishing through El Martillo Press, Lorna Dee Cervantes, stayed in Southern California throughout the 2025-2026 holiday season. El Martillo Press co-founder Matt Sedillo hosted her for a number of weeks. I’ve had the pleasure of learning from her.

The other day at his house, in the midst of a conversation for what makes for compelling political art, Lorna began to talk to be about the three kinds of poetry outlined by Ezra Pound in his book ABC of Reading: melopoeia, phanopoeia, logopoeia. As Lorna began to talk about each one in detail, I realized that I was receiving an impromptu lecture from a former professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder for twenty years who also just so happened to be one of our greatest living writers. That realization, that I was learning for free from someone who used to teach classes on poetics, who knew how to apply this theory in her own work, was a great honor.

Whether it be hearing Lorna talk about Ezra Pound, Miguel Piñero, or a number of other writers whose work she has taught and/or she has met in her lifetime, I’m glad for the opportunity to learn from her.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is David A. Romero. I’m the co-founder and editor-in-chief of El Martillo Press.

I’ve just recently finished by debut novel, The Enemy Sleeps, a supernatural thriller.

Here’s the synopsis:

Who killed Eliza Vazquez? As a Mexican-American family moves from Boyle Heights, Los Angeles into the sleepy suburban town of Harper they are met with suspicion. Who is the so-called “Harper Murderer?” Is it Michael Martinez, a construction supervisor with a quick temper and an anti-immigrant bias, Robert Parsons, a known racist with a number of secrets kept from his family and community, or Kenton Weaver, a disgraced former teacher who is haunted by the ghost of one of his students? Grievances both new and old emerge as members of the Martinez family, the Parsons family, and Weaver become tangled in a disastrous chain of events before a shocking conclusion.

Here’s where to order:
https://www.elmartillopress.com/product-page/the-enemy-sleeps-by-david-a-romero

For nearly two decades, I’ve written and performed spoken word poetry. I’ve been fortunate enough to perform my poetry in France, Mexico, and Italy, as well as in thirty-four different states in the USA. One of my poems, “You Were Born a Tree” was sent to the Moon by NASA in 2025 as part of the Lunar Codex. I’m really glad to have accomplished so much with my poetry.

Now, I’m pursuing one of my oldest dreams: to be a novelist. With my final edit of my first book done, my book submitted to the printer, and an official release set for Thursday, February 5th at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena I feel like my dream of being a novelist is coming true.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
When I was young I would spend hours in my backyard climbing trees, wandering around the abandoned club house my brother had built in the backyard with his friends, and imagining up all kinds of stories and adventures. At school, I would either do really well, or get lost daydreaming. I drew super heroes and monsters and wrote stories. On Saturday mornings, I grabbed my action figures from different franchises and mixed them up together. I loved to imagine stories of all genres: comedy, mystery, science fiction, and action-adventure.

The older I got, the more people told me that one, I was too old to still be playing with action figures (which was probably true), and two, that if I had artistic and creative talent, I had better become a famous artist or writer.

The older I got, the more self-conscious I got about my writing, knowing that it was something it was hard to make money doing and that I should find a creative pursuit that was better for earning money.

I told myself that filmmaking was a much more lucrative field and that was part of the reason why I chose to study that in college instead of creative writing.

The problem was, I never took to filmmaking the way I took to writing. I didn’t have much experience with video cameras or editing software. All that writing took, in contrast, was some quiet time, my imagination, and either a pen and a notebook, or a typewriter or computer.

It’s great to be reconnecting to that part of myself that puts a focus on my imagination over all other concerns. There’s no better feeling than receiving images, bits of dialogue, character ideas, plot details, or entire scenes of a story. I look forward to beginning my outline for my follow-up to my debut novel.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
There were mutliple times I almost gave up on my debut novel. First, I wrote the story as a screenplay in my 20s but then abandoned it for many years, disppointed in how it came out and what little excitement it generated from friends and family.

Years later I rewrote the story, expanding the screenplay into a novel. I fixed a lot of the problems inherent in the screenplay and added a rich backstory that greatly expanded upon the book’s themes.

However, even with all of these improvements, I noticed more issues. There were problems with pacing. The prologue was front-loaded with too much exposition Also, the book was written in present tense, which made it difficult for casual readers to read (most novels are written in past tense).

Finally, a number of agents passed on representing me and the book. That was really disheartening. It made me question whether the book deserved to be published.

Once I settled on publishing the book through El Martillo Press, I felt a great sense of relief and empowerment. I knew that I could turn my decades of experience in promoting myself as a professional nationally-touring spoken word artist towards the promotion of the book.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My closest friends know that almost nothing means more to me more than my work as novelist, poet, and publisher. They’ve seen the sacrifices I’ve made, the hours I’ve put in, and they remember how many times they’ve tried to get me to care more about other things: relationships, other career options, various hobies, etc., and how unsuccessful they’ve been at each and every one.

The only thing they could say that matters more than, or just as much as, my creative work is my family. I make an effort to prioritize time with my mother, siblings, and nieces.

I’m happy to think that if I died tomorrow, my friends would tell my family how much I talked about them and how much I loved them. I didn’t always have money, but I always tried to be around to help with things, tell jokes, share stories and play games.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
If I knew I had 10 years left, I would finish my current publishing schedule for El Martillo Press: titles from Lorna Dee Cervantes, Minerva Reynosa, Donato Martinez, Margaret Elysia Garcia, Norman Zelaya, Roberto Leni and one or two more, and then pledge to do publish nothing else (or at least edit and format nothing else) until I had written and published my next two novels.

I’ve had the idea in my head for both of my next books for about a decade now, one a prequel and the other a sequel to my debut novel. The prequel will be a folk horror period piece about Mexican ranchers in California in the fallout of the Mexican-American War and the other will be a modern-day pyschedelic thriller set in a California mansion. They’re both wildly different from The Enemy Sleeps, but combine to form a trilogy that tells the epic story of one family over the centuries.

Editing and formatting novels takes a lot of time. Since I began editing and formatting books for El Martillo Press three years ago, I haven’t written a single new book. I’ve published two, a poetry book and my debut novel. But the majority of the writing for both was actually done before I co-founded the press.

Sometimes, I get scared that I’ll get so busy releasing books with the press that I won’t ever get back to writing. Knowing that I had only ten years left, it would be a lot easier for me to put everything else aside.

With any bonus time in those next ten years, I’d love to have the freedom to write some unexpected projects: some children’s books, comic books, plays, and more.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.elmartillopress.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidaromerospokenword/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidaromero/
• Twitter: https://x.com/davidaromero84
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidanthonyromero

Image Credits
Photos by Jeannette Jurado. Taken at Frank Romero Studio in Los Angeles.