Photography: Almudena de Arteaga. Courtesy of Communications Ingenuity.
Almudena de Arteaga She is a writer, lecturer and columnist. She was born in Madrid and graduated in Law from the UCM, in 1997 she published her first novel, The princess of Eboli, whose success led her to devote herself exclusively to writing. After her, another 20 more works have followed. Critics consider her one of the most outstanding current historical novel writers. Her latest novel is The creole viceroy. Thank you very much for your time and kindness for this interview where he tells us about her and many more things.
Almudena de Arteaga — Interview
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: Your latest novel is titled The creole viceroy. What do you tell us about it and where did the idea come from?
ALMUDENA OF ARTEAGA: Felicitas, born in New Orleans (Louisiana) and died in Aranjuez (Spain), is a clear example of a independent, brave and seasoned woman. Get to know first-hand two important moments in the history of the world, the independence from the United States and the French Revolution, and in both it is involved directly or indirectly. In addition to the fact that once a widow she is not afraid to continue progressing and in a world where many women travel from the old to the new continent looking for a better life, she decides to make the journey to educate her children according to the promise she made to her husband in bed of death
late eighteenth century a woman's life cannot be understood without her walking alongside her husband. Bernard is the only Spaniard recognized as hero of the american revolution and his painting hangs on the walls of the Capitol. He freed an entire bank of the Mississippi from British harassment, took Florida and Pensacola, helped George Washington when he was about to lose the war, was Governor of Louisiana and Viceroy of New Spain and I don't continue because I would make a spoiler that I don't want with my novel. His story is a story of merchandise trade stories up Mississippi, miscegenation, pirates in the Caribbean, viceroyalties in Mexico, literary gatherings at the Madrid court, and exile.
- AL: Can you go back to that first book you read? And the first story you wrote?
ADA: The first ones were children's stories and comics, and when I was able to read the collection of The five y The Hollisters, who lived adventures that all the children who studied in the EGB dreamed of.
- AL: A head writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
ADA: A difficult question, since I have read novels of almost all genres of young English literature, all of Agatha Christie, which introduced me to crime novels up to the great comedians like Woodhouse a Tom sharpe to end the matchless satire of Quevedo or our contemporary Eduardo Mendoza.
The historical novel is always interspersed with other pure fiction.
At school I began, as is necessary, with Don Quixote of the stain of Don Miguel de Cervantes, although the first time it passed through my hands, perhaps I was too young to value it properly. Later, from his Novels Exemplary our National Episodes of Benito Pérez Galdós passing through The cursed kings, by Maurice Drouon, the Memories of Hadrian, from Marguerite Yourcenar to In search of the Unicorn, by Juan Eslava Galan.
And so I could go on endlessly, because I have had the great fortune of coming across hundreds of exciting stories that have more than quenched my thirst as a reader.
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
ADA: The main of any novel that is seducing me the moment it passes through my hands. I have a computer file called the drawer of my ideas, full of historical women submerged in the most absolute ostracism or oblivion with lives worth recovering who await their opportunity so that one day, if God gives me life, they can see the light. I only hope to fulfill them as they deserve, since writing about someone carries a great responsibility, even if they have been buried for centuries.
- AL: Any special habits or habits when it comes to writing or reading?
ADA: None. Being the daughter of a large family and a very young mother still studying at university, I learned to focus on the most unexpected places and perhaps that helped me not to be a picky eater.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
ADA: My house, an airport, the train, the beach, the mountain... Any place where one can sit is good for reading. To write, usually my home unless the delivery deadlines of a novel overwhelm me.
- AL: Are there other genres that you like?
ADA: All as long as the work is good and praiseworthy. although always I lean towards the historical novel.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
ADA: Reading a bunch of files from different national historical archives. It's hard to keep track of me right now.
I am documentingThe life of a Gipuzkoan woman in the XNUMXth century that hardly anyone knows, married to a great sailor and an example of culture and self-improvement. More I do not say that later, by surprise and great coincidence, other writers appear remembering it at the same time. It wouldn't be the first time it's happened to me.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is and what decided you to try to publish?
ADA: Good publishers have a titanic work ahead because now, in addition to looking for a true and novel publishing success, to sell they have to fight with the competition of the offer that new technologies in the field of entertainment offer to youth.
Since the success of The princess of Eboli, which was my first novel of the twenty-two that I have published, I have never written without publishing.
- 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 stories?
ADA: Difficult moments for me are tremendously uplifting to stimulate talent. You just have to sit down to work and create and ideas tend to flow much more easily than in calmer times.