Photography: Carolina Molina, Facebook profile.
Carolina molina, journalist and writer of historical novel, was born in Madrid, but has been linked to Granada for years. From there his first work will come out in 2003, The moon over the Sabika. They follow her more like Mayrit between two walls, Albayzin dreams, The lives of Iliberri o Guardians of the Alhambra. And the last one is Galdós's eyes. I really appreciate your time and kindness for this interview where he talks about her and everything a little.
Carolina Molina - Interview
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: Galdós's eyes it is your new novel, where you have moved away from the themes of your previous books. What do you tell us about it and where did the idea come from?
CM: From a very young age, Galdós readings accompanied me every summer. He has been my reference in my part of Madrid, as is Federico García Lorca in my part of Granada. So about nine or ten years ago the idea of writing a novel about Don Benito Pérez Galdós, the novelist from whom I had learned to write, struck me. My intention was to create a Galdosian essence novel. Offer a complete vision of the world that surrounded him: his intimacy, his personality, his way of elaborating his novels or how he faced the premiere of his theatrical works. Now he is more than a reference, he is an imaginary friend that I always go to.
- AL: Can you remember that first book you read? And the first story you wrote?
CM: Very recently, in a move, he appeared my first story. It was written on various sticky note papers. It was a story my mother told me and I adapted it. Had eleven years. Then came other children's stories and later the first novels, poetry and theater. Several decades later the historical novel would arrive. The first book I read was Little Women. With him I learned to read, I would go over it aloud in my room.
- AL: A head writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
CM: After, without a doubt. Nor will I discover anything new: Cervantes, Federico García Lorca and Benito Pérez Galdós. All three have many points in common and I think they are all reflected in my books.
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
CM: Jo march, Little Women. When I read the novel I felt so identified with it that it seems to me that it had a lot to do with my decision to become a writer.
- AL: Any special habits or habits when it comes to writing or reading?
CM: I'm not very fussy. I just need silence, good light and a cup of the.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
CM: Until recently the best time to write was in the afternoon, when everyone is taking a nap. Now my habits have changed I do not have a fixed schedule. Not a place, although generally it is the living room (where I have my desk) or on the terrace.
- AL: Are there other genres that you like?
CM: Of course. The story (the short story) and the ,. I am also passionate about historical essay and biography, genres that I read with passion to document myself.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
CM:I am reading two biographies, that of a Granada historian from the s. XVI and that of a very curious character from the Spanish Renaissance. I do not say their names because it would reveal the subject of my next novel. I have also started the anthology that Remedios Sánchez has done on the poetry of Emilia Pardo Bazán (Drop lost in the immense sea).
As for what I am writing now, being in the documentation phase, I am dedicated to prepare summaries, literary sketches, and stories then help me face the process of making the novel. It is a long and laborious but necessary period. Then, on any given day, the need to write will come and then the best of the literature game begins.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is? Many authors and few readers?
CM: When I started to write always I was clear that I had to publish. A novel without readers makes no sense. Some authors will say that they write for themselves but creativity requires you to share. A book is written to communicate something, so it must be published. It took me thirty years to publish. If my first story was at eleven years old, I published my first novel when I was forty. In between I had dedicated myself to journalism, had published some poetry and short stories, but publishing a novel is very complicated.
The publishing landscape is dying. If it was wrong before, with the arrival of the pandemic many publishers and bookstores have had to close. It is going to cost us to recover. Everything has changed a lot. I don't see a very hopeful future, really.
- 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?
CM: I started the pandemic with a difficult family illness to assimilate. COVID arrived and I again had another illness from a family member that was even harder. They have been two very complicated years in which I have reflected and decided to live in a different way and with other values. It has affected my literature and my habits. The positive is that those two people who fell ill are now well, which shows that whenever they close a door they open a window for you. Perhaps the same thing happens in the publishing world. We will have to wait.