Most, if not all of New York Film Academy‘s instructors are industry professionals outside of the classroom. Such is the case for Miguel Parga, whose first novel Blood Laws was just published by Anaphora Literary Press. The story revolves around Alex Torken, a young writer who wakes up to discover his thoughts of death are becoming reality – which happens to be quite a dilemma for a thriller writer. Alex finds himself in the middle of a feud that’s been raging for the better part of a millennium. While digging for answers, Alex will learn he is a direct descendant of a member of the Spanish Inquisition and the nightmares are revenge for the atrocities committed by his ancestor five centuries ago. Now he must face a modern covenant of witches bent on manipulating his mind into a grave, while questioning everything, his past, his calling, even the origin of his own inspiration.
“This novel, Blood Laws, came out of curiosity about my own Puerto Rican roots and a desire to explore the origins of artistic creation,” said Parga. “In the book a character discovers that his own writing is only genetic memory, passed on to him by his ancestors.”
Miguel has been in the business for about 17 years, having worked for ABC News in New York and directing commercials in Los Angeles for five years. His work has awarded him an Emmy, a Peabody and a Dupont Award. In the five years as an instructor at the New York Film Academy, Miguel has directed 14 final films in the Acting for Film program.
Miguel already has another manuscript in the works. It’s a fiction novel based on his experiences covering the tragedies of 9/11. Apart from his novel work, he’s also hoping to shoot his first original feature length script next summer. Not only that, he’s also working on a pilot with a producer in Ecuador. “It’ll be in Spanish and dealing with the drug cartels as independent kingdoms – kind of Game of Thrones in the drug world.”