Photography: Isabel Abenia. Facebook profile.
Elizabeth Abenia is Zaragoza, graduated in Law and also has studies in Art and Medieval History. In addition to writerit's painter. has posted alone three novels, all of the historical genre, but enough to gain a foothold in the first places. The third title of him is the last sibyl and before they are The Dutch Alchemist y Erik the Goth.
Today grant me this interview in which he tells us a little of everything about his favorite authors and books, his readings and projects, his writing habits or how he sees the current publishing scene. I thank you very much their time, kindness and dedication, as well as their participation in this series of interviews dedicated to authors of historical novels who are helping us to learn so much about them. And now that I review them I see that she is the only author.
INTERVIEW WITH ISABEL ABENIA
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: Do you remember the first book you read? And the first story you wrote?
ISABEL ABENÍA: My mother taught me to read before de begin to go to school, which in my time was four years old. It was about simple stories the kind that had no more than ten or twelve pages with huge drawings.
Shortly after I started with children's adventure books, the series of Enid blyton and the like, but at the age of eight or nine I already remember having read a novel, let's say, more serious... what I dont know tell you is what was the primera. Obviously he did not understand parts of the argument, but did not abandon no book because it was a very avid reader. Since I was also good at drawing, the logical consequence was that he encouraged me to write illustrated comics at an unusual age.
- AL: What was the first book that struck you and why?
AI: As a child, every book impacts, learning is constant and the mind opens up to different knowledge that is recorded forever. However, I can say that The Name of the Rose It was a very special novel for me, perhaps because it made me consider for the first time the possibility of become en writer.
- AL: Who is your favorite writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
IA: I am attracted to classical Greek and Roman authors, especially Plutarch, whom I turned into one of the characters in my novel the last sibyl; of the Spanish Golden Age there are many that seem magnificent to me, but I have great admiration for Lope de Vega, of whom I believe was truly the Fénix de los Ingenios.
Regarding the literature of the last two centuries, I prefer the narrative of Robert Graves, but I must also cite Umberto Eco because of the weight that the aforementioned work had on me. Lately I have also really enjoyed the innocence of poets full carolingian period, among which I would highlight Theodulf of Orleans. The truth is that I like a bit of everything and I cannot say that I have a favorite writer.
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
AI: William of Baskerville I think he is one of the most interesting characters in the history of literature.
- AL: Any mania when it comes to writing or reading?
IA: The silence. I find it difficult to write or read with background sounds.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
AI: My office and early in the morning. Before I preferred to write at night, perhaps because I was surrounded by the calm that I require to do so, but the passage of time forces me to change some habits because it takes more effort to stay up late.
- AL: What writer or book has influenced your work as an author?
IA: Several, but if I have to name one it would be Robert Graves. The mixture of historical rigor with fantastic touches and the poetic lexicon with which it is expressed are a brilliant combination for me.
- AL: Your favorite genres besides historical?
IA: The classics of any kind and tests contemporaries. But in reality the genre does not matter so much as the quality of the writing.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
IA: Soil simultaneously several books at the same time, during the day I read test and at night novel. At this moment I am with several works of disclosure about Babylon and with a couple of novels from friends and colleagues of mine.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is for as many authors as there are or want to publish?
IA: I think too many are edited titles, and the self-publishing gets worse even more the panorama because there is excess of works that have not happened no sieve. As in everything, the excess offer vulgarizes the product and decline su quality. A few years ago there was a lot of literary gem and now there is too much cheap jewelry, even defective in some cases.
We are turning the good to do in mere hobbyIt is like the result of home DIY versus furniture made by a virtuous cabinetmaker. And with this I do not mean that it should not be tried, but You have to be demanding with yourself and respectful of others. There are books that contain anachronisms, faults spelling and errors grammatical, which shows a lack of consideration for readers.
The added problem is that some exquisite works from magnificent authors lose visibility, each month there are hundreds of launches and the publicity of a book, in which the writer has been able to invest years of his life, is reduced to barely two months. After this time it is no longer a novelty and he withdraws from the bookstore windows.
- 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 novels?
IA: From my point of view it does not exist nothing positive In the disaster that we are living or in the one that we have left to live. The pandemic has been a tremendous blow across the board, a nightmare that has not yet ended and that will have dire consequences.