Photography: José Ramón Gómez Cabezas. Facebook.
Jose Ramon Gomez Cabezas has released a new novel, The ballad of the hanged, but sign too Requiem for a music box dancer, Out of sight o The Marshall attack. Is psychologist and combines the profession with writing. It is also President of the Novelpol Association (Friends of Police Literature). And he is a countryman of mine Ciudad Real.
I really appreciate your time, dedication and kindness for this interview where he tells us a bit about everything: favorite authors, books and characters, upcoming projects and how he sees the social and editorial landscape that we live in.
INTERVIEW WITH JOSÉ RAMÓN GÓMEZ CABEZAS
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: Do you remember the first book you read? And the first story you wrote?
JOSÉ RAMÓN GÓMEZ CABEZAS: I don't remember exactly what book it was, I imagine that some comic by Mortadelo and Filemon or some other long Bruguera story. I do remember asking my father to buy me the first two installments of the collection Crime circle that they advertised on television, but when I was eleven or twelve years old, I shouldn't have understood it because I didn't repeat it. The first book that impressed me was Whatership Hill. I would read it when I was twelve or thirteen and I still remember having enjoyed it very much.
- AL: What was that book that impacted you and why?
JRGC: As I said, it was Whatership Hill, de richard adams. Is the life of a colony of rabbits, how they are organized, the rules and how one of them transgresses them. It is a classic story, but it was the first time that I met it and with a teenage mind like mine, that was a match.
- AL: Who is your favorite writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
JRGC: I don't have a favorite writer, rather many, current, classics. Yes, it is true that I really enjoy discovering authors who are not entirely known, but I would not be able to tell you just one.
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
JRGC: Well Sam spade It would not have been bad, to meet and accompany him on a tour of the time, Arcady Renko wouldn't have minded either. OR Harry hole. See, in the end I pack myself.
- AL: Any mania when it comes to writing or reading?
JRGC: Lately, when writing, I do like to leave a couple of lines where I want the story to continue, even the first half sentence and that serves as a trigger. When reading I do not have many hobbies. Years ago I was forcing myself to finish to read book, even though I don't like it. Now that I am a little older, I value my time more.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
JRGC: The reading I am very comforted by the nights. It helps me put the day behind me and relax. The deed almost always by the morning. It is when I have the most time to be able to do it.
- AL: Any real or fictional commissioner, inspector, policeman or detective from here or abroad who has influenced you in the creation of characters for your novels?
JRGC: Well, surely in many of my novels there is a moment Pliny, the cachazudo municipal of Tomelloso. In real life it is likely that Alejandro Gallo, curator and writer, very good by the way. Also policemen that you observe and that I have probably read will undoubtedly be in my subconscious.
- AL: Your favorite genres besides black?
JRGC: Any novel that is well written, but it is true that since I read almost exclusively crime novels, I demand a lot from my readings. And if there is no challenge in the first bars, they often fall apart. I quite like to read Juvenile novel, the same is due to some complex or simply because also I like to write it.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
JRGC: Well, I just read a novel that I really liked: When it's winter in the north sea, by Leticia Sánchez Ruiz, very well written. And write, I walk with a black story, pulling thriller, starring in its ninety percent by women. Was a challenge that I really wanted.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is for as many authors as there are or want to publish?
JRGC: Now with all this Covid issue the landscape is likely to have changed, but in recent years publishing was not difficult, either on behalf of others or by desktop publishing. The difficult thing is to open up gap between so much competition. To conquer a reader is to climb Everest, you have to fight it more than Rafa Nadal.
- AL: Is the moment of crisis that we are experiencing being difficult for you or will you be able to keep something positive for future novels?
JRGC: I try to be positive In almost everything, it has been hard and it continues to be, no doubt. But at the level of deed for me it has been a very productive moment and they have published a novel for me these days, with which I continue to have activities and illusions that distract me a little from day to day. So I shouldn't complain too much.