Destiny’s Child
A Man Who Still Believes in Love
Local teacher finds love and a literary career
by Donalevan Maines
In his debut novel, Yves Ga writes wistfully and lyrically about looking for love.
With the soul of a Don Juan, the handsome Panamanian-born Houstonian titled his book A Man Who Still Believes in Love. He explains, “When I was younger, I didn’t have many books to read about romance among homosexuals. The only books I did know were just about going out and having fun.”
So Ga created the character of Alexander, a gay Panamanian who, at age 23, has a thrilling but fleeting sexual experience with an Italian visitor, then crosses three continents in search of a partner to live up to that ideal.
When I ask Ga if he’s familiar with the song “You Can’t Hurry Love,” he chuckles, “That’s right.”
Now 30, Ga says, “I’m currently single, and I’m not searching for love, I’m just waiting for it to come. If love is to come, it will be because it is part of your destiny.”
After living in France and Germany, Ga met a boyfriend while on a business trip to Houston, and they embarked on a long-distance romance that included about five e-mail correspondences and two phone calls each day. “There were mail packages, too,” he explains. “I prefer to mail. I think that letters are more romantic. But,” he shrugs, “e-mail is faster.” When the couple’s feelings continued to blossom, Ga moved to Houston, where they remain “very good friends,” he says.
Ga wrote A Man Who Still Believes in Love on his laptop, in his spare time, over the course of two years. He wrote the first version in Spanish, then spent four months translating it into English at his publisher’s request. All the while, he was teaching math and science to fourth-graders. “It is very gratifying to know you are influencing the lives of a younger generation. I’m passionate for that. You get to be a father figure to them.”
More information about the author and A Man Who Still Believes in Love is available at his website yvesga.vpweb.com, while March 22 was scheduled to be the book’s official worldwide release at barnesandnoble.com.
The book’s surest chance of becoming a best seller is by word of mouth. While that might not help the average aspiring author, Ga has friends “all over the place,” on both sides of the Atlantic.
While waiting for readers to go gaga over his first effort, the author jots “notes, ideas, and inspirations” on paper, planning to transfer them onto his computer in the form of a second novel, which will be a romantic comedy.
“I found love!” he says. “The love of writing.”
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