Photography: Félix García Hernán, Facebook profile.
Felix Garcia Hernan, from Madrid in 55, has been a hotelier by profession, but he also writes. And after Dig two graves (2020), which was well received by critics and audiences and is on the way to film production, now presents shepherds of evil, which also goes to the movies. In this interview He tells us about her and some other things. I am very grateful for her dedicated time and kindness.
Felix Garcia Hernan— Interview
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: Your new novel is titled shepherds of evil. What do you tell us about it and where did the idea come from?
Felix Garcia Hernan I have always wondered what was hidden behind one of the most miserable monstrosities of the human race: the child abuse. While I was researching in order to document myself for a future novel, I discovered what I was afraid of. As in the rest of the scourges that we have to suffer (drugs, trafficking in arms and human beings, etc.), the same thing always hides behind, some mafia They only want to profit financially. But I was also very clear from the beginning that would have to be very subtle, and that, given the thorny nature of the subject, if the reader had to suffer, he should do so more for what I do not say than for what I do say. Fortunately, from the first reviews they echoed that I had achieved my purpose.
- AL: Can you go back to that first book you read? And the first story you wrote?
FGH: I like this question. More than the first book I read, what I remember very clearly is the first one that knocked me out. There is no adventure like reading Los Miserables when you are still 13 years old, you still believe in the gods and, for the first time, you discover love (Cosette) and jealousy (Marius).
Respecto a the first thing I wrote, I'm ashamed to say I didn't until already very old. My work as a hotel manager had me so absorbed that I didn't even think about it. At 58 years old, and already more liberated, I was able to capture on paper a history that was running through my head and that had nothing to do with hotels, but with one of my passions, opera.
- AL: A head writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
FGH: In the past, without a doubt the great master of crime novels in this country, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Manuel Delibes and William Somerset Maughan. And now I really like them Henry Flames, Raphael Melero y louis rosso.
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
FGH: Clearly Quasimodo. Difficult to find a character so well outlined, so little Manichaean and with so many edges.
- AL: Any special habits or habits when it comes to writing or reading?
FGH: I write without a scale, with some notes where I write down names and dates. I only have a clear idea of the setting and a rather nebulous idea of the plot when starting a novel. I think that the best way for the reader not to guess the ending is for the author not to know either until you write it.
According to the reading, I need to be concentrated. In the same way that music helps me a lot to write, when I'm reading it distracts me from what I have in my hands.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
FGH: write in the morning and dedicate the afternoons to correct. reading at night and in the bed. It is the best way to start dreaming before falling asleep.
- AL: Are there other genres that you like?
FGH: Yes. I really like the ltraditional and historical literature.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
FGH: Well, right now I am reading a historical novel that moved me many years ago and that continues to be very current: The God of rain cries over Mexicoby Laszlo Passuth.
I'm giving the last I review the galley proofs of my next novel, which will be released in September, participating in the filming of Silver Dolphins, where I am a co-writer with the director Javier Elorrieta and with Rodolfo Sancho in the role of Javier Gallardo, and beginning to outline the Shepherds of Evil script, whose rights have been acquired by Atlantia Films for an upcoming production.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is and what decided you to try to publish?
FGH: I don't notice much difference between now and when I entered this world, seven years ago. When I decided to publish, I never imagined that it would be so complicated and that I would find so much competition. Perhaps this is one of the activities in which the luck it has so much weight. Luck that you need from the beginning to achieve perhaps the most difficult thing: to be read by those who ultimately have to publish you.
- 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?
FGH: Sorry to be so unoriginal, but I couldn't agree more with the aphorism that a crisis is always an opportunity. Interestingly, the plot of my next novel has a lot to do with your question..