Photography: Blanca Cabañas, Facebook profile.
White Cabins She is from Cadiz from Chiclana and a special education teacher and pedagogue. She also writes and has already won several short story awards. Dog that does not bark is the debut novel. In this interview tells us about her and other topics, so thank you so much your time and kindness with those who have treated me.
BLANCA CABAÑAS — INTERVIEW
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: Your latest published novel is titled Dog that does not bark. What can you tell us about her and where did the idea for her come from?
WHITE CABINS: Dog that does not bark tells how a single event from the past can destroy the lives of a few: that group of friends that will always be incomplete, that family that will never give up looking for their daughter and that protagonist, Lara, who is afraid to return to where it all happened. However, that is where the story begins, right at the moment when Lara you have to go back to your Chiclana hometown after 14 years with hardly any news of his family. There she will feel the inexorable need to search for the truth, to search for her missing friend. In the novel I wanted to capture the opposite of an ideal family, because we are used to seeing unbreakable family ties and it is a biased reflection of society. Families are not always like this, there is much more behind. They are complex, imperfect, controversial. Lara's is very special, the reader must discover it.
As for the the idea of the novel arises from the study of neuroeducation, a pioneering science that studies the impact of learning on the brain in real time through neuroimaging techniques. In 2020, the year I wrote the novel, I was studying a master's degree in Early Intervention and Educational Needs Specials and that's how I met this whole world. I found it so interesting that I dumped it into the story. In fact, the first idea stems from a very little-known syndrome about which we now have more information thanks to neuroeducation. Its about capgras syndrome, which makes everyone who suffers from it not recognizing people in their immediate environment. Instead, they think that these people are not who they say they are, they think that they have been supplanted by identical doubles. I found it so fascinating that I wanted to capture it in the novel.
- AL: Can you remember any of your first readings? And your first writing?
BC: As a girl I would tell you Little Wind's Journey and as a teenager, without a doubt, Harry Potter. JK Rowling's world made me read for pleasure. My first writing would tell you that a story with which I won a small contest at school. it was called Sepillin, because back then I thought brush was written with s. It told the story of a toothbrush that was sad because its owner didn't use it, but of course, everything changed when the boy went to the dentist and they read him the primer. So, he started brushing his teeth every day and Sepillin was happily ever after. I was about ten years old when I wrote it.
- AL: A leading author? You can choose more than one and from all periods.
BC: Dolores Round It has been the author with whom I have enjoyed the most lately. I love how it intertwines crime fiction and folklore in thisThe Baztan Valley. I usually read authors who set their novels in their land. For me it is a point in favor. A good setting is synonymous with quality.
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
BC: Harry Potter? My teenage spirit won't let me tell you another. I remember how the author made me feel that I was also in the tower where they taught Divination class or those times when Harry's scar hurts so much that it almost hurts me too. For me it is fantastic that a book made me read at such a young age. I would have loved to meet him to tell him to hook up with Hermione. They would have made a better couple.
And create… I would have liked to create Amaya Salazar, the inspector of The Baztan Valley. I like complex characters, who I think I know and who surprise me, strong, cold, with character, with a past to reveal.
- AL: Any special habits or habits when it comes to writing or reading?
BC: When reading, I fold pages. I can't help it. I have tried to use post-its, but they do not work for me, I end up folding corners anyway. Y when writing, I need silence. Although sometimes, listening to movie soundtracks serves as inspiration. The saddest and bohemian.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
BC: Dog that does not bark I wrote it in three different houses. So... I don't have a predilection for a specific site, just make it comfortable. My time to write is usually in the afternoons. In the mornings what I usually do is review what I have written the day before.
- AL: Are there other genres that you like?
BC: Genres are necessary labels used by publishers and booksellers as a guide for the reader to get an idea of what the story contains, but it is quite subjective. From the thriller you can tell a romantic story or start from a historical fact. I actually I try to capture different worlds in my novels, neuroeducation in this case, protected in the thriller. I like reading allBut always with that bit of mystery.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
BC: Right now I'm reading The truth about the Harry Quebert case, by Joel Dicker, and in August I'll be writing about the draft of my second novel.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is and what decided you to try to publish?
BC: The publishing landscape is Quite complicated. It is difficult to access it, it is difficult to maintain it and it is even more difficult to live from writing. There is so much variety of titles that it is not easy to find a niche. In addition, normally a reader does not make bets, he consumes what he knows and if he has read a writer and liked it, he repeats. It is a safe decision, he does not take risks with new authors unless the noise he is making is brutal. I decided to publish because it was what I had always wanted. I did it for myself, it was a thorn that I had to remove. I didn't even remotely think I was going to get to where I am.
- 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?
BC: Our generation is the best educated and worst paid generation in history. We have curricula that are breathtaking, and yet few of us dedicate ourselves to what we study. The exits are few: abroad or oppositions. In my case, I have opted for the second. In fact, I can proudly say that I have finally achieved my position as a special education teacher. It's news that they gave me not long ago and that I'm still trying to assimilate. It is the economy with which we have grown, of course it is reflected in what I write. It is unavoidable. I feel more comfortable talking about what I know and it is a fact that the crisis has been part of our lives.