Photography: Emilio Lara, Twitter profile.
Emilio lara has published this year Sentinel of Dreams, his latest novel. The author jennense has become one of the most important of the historical genre thanks to The brotherhood of the Invincible Armada, The clockmaker at Puerta del Sol o Times of hope. I thank you very much for your kindness and for finding a space for this interview where he tells us a little about everything.
Emilio Lara - Interview
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: The title of your novel is Sentinel of Dreams. What do you tell us about it and where did the idea come from?
EMILIO LARA: The literary trigger is the massacre carried out by the English as soon as the Second World War. During the first ten days of September 1939, more than 800.000 cats and dogs were euthanized. to prevent, if the Germans bombed London and other cities and the owners of the animals were killed or injured, the pets be helpless. Was a mass sacrifice motivated by love, although it is paradoxical. I met the historical episode reading a report in a Sunday supplement, and I realized that there was a story full of emotions. This is how my novel begins.
- AL: Can you remember that first book you read? And the first story you wrote?
THE: He was a voracious comic reader, and the first book I read was Platero and me, and also the adventure novels of Julio Verne, an author that fascinated me when I was studying EGB.
- AL: A head writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
THE: I'm still excited about Miguel Delibes and Álvaro cunqueiro. Over time, others have joined: Philip Roth, Robert GravesGarcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa, Juan Slav Galán, Arthur Perez-Reverte...
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
THE: Any of the trilogy of Hilary Tablecloth about Henry VIII.
- AL: Any special habits or habits when it comes to writing or reading?
THE: I'm not freaky about that. I like to read in a chair, with good natural or artificial light. I write in my office to computer, and took hand notes in notebooks. I read and write a lot because I organize my time and I try not to squander it in bullshit.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
THE: I have said before that I like to write in my office, where I have a computer and find an atmosphere of tranquility. How i have great ability to abstract From the noise and the environment, I can read anywhere: I immerse myself in a bubble, myself.
- AL: Are there other genres that you like?
THE: Of course. It would be a shame (and an absurdity) that as a writer of historical novels he did not read other genres. Leo Novelty, what we could call a literary novel, autofiction, classical of the narrative and a lot essay and story.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
THE: Right now Disaster, the new essay by Niall Ferguson; The Italian, by Pérez-Reverte, y Back to whereby Antonio Muñoz Molina. I have started to write a novel set in the Modern Age.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is?
EL: Going back after the terrifying economic crisis that began in 2008. The coronavirus pandemic has meant an improvement in the book purchase index, which is good for a publishing sector that, in Spain, I see stabilized. I know there is unease among new authors and those who aspire to be, because they find many difficulties to publish, but all times have been difficult to publish for the first time. What happens is that now the number of people who want to see their novel published has multiplied.
- 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?
THE: It is not being particularly difficult for me due to my work as a writer and teacher, I have even benefited from a certain break in promotional tours, as it has allowed me to read more calmly and write without any burden. AND any adverse situation is good to get literary performance out of it. It all depends on the creativity and focus that the writer wants to take. Yes indeed, I am not at all interested in novels that may come out about the coronavirus or epidemics of bygone ages. What little originality!