Photography: @Sara Ballesteros. On the León Arsenal website.
Having arrived in Leon Arsenal thanks to his historical novel Dark heart, in whose plot, and in the background, are two of my favorite historical figures: the Scottish king Robert I The Bruce and his right hand James Douglas. Recently I was able to contact him to thank him for the good time. Incidentally, he had the kindness to answer me this interview which of course also I thank you. In her speaks to us about they creative writing, authors or customs, analyze the editorial landscape and he tells us how he lives these moments of crisis.
INTERVIEW WITH LEÓN ARSENAL
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: Do you remember the first book you read? And the first story you wrote?
ARSENAL LION: I don't remember the first book that I read. Really I grew up with literature. The most remote memories are those of being very small and reading Children's Stories which, at least then, were sent to school. Few and very large font, colorful drawings, etc. And from there move on to books with more text and thus in progression.
As for the The first story I wrote, I started very small. Like not a few, I began to write adventures that I would like to read and could not find. But, out of all that babbling, the first story that I wrote with the intention of making a closed story was with 16 years, in COU. I don't have it, but I still remember that it was called The pond of Saturn, it was cut fantastic-terrifying and it had an aftertaste Lovecraft, to which at that time I read a lot.
- AL: What was the first book that struck you and why?
LA: To know. I read books one Bruguera collection that my versions shortened from great novels (with its comic version interspersed every two pages). So there they mix Sandokan, 20.000 leagues of underwater travel, The black arrow… It is not strange that love the adventure novel.
- AL: Who is your favorite writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
LA: I don't have favorite writers, but Favorite books. To quote two authors of my favorite works, I would say Gustave Flaubert y JG Ballard.
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
There is muchos literary characters that they have fascinated meBut the truth is that when I leave the pages of the novel or the story they are still that, characters. I also lack the fascination that some readers feel for the characters of the novel, to the point of turning them into beings of flesh and blood and speculating about what their life would be like before and after the play. Nor would I like to create characters of others, but of course, yes what i would like to create characters similar to how other authors did. And I know it will surprise but I would like to create secondaries as strongly as those who often parade through the pages of the National episodesby Benito Pérez Galdós.
- AL: Any mania when it comes to writing or reading?
LA: If by mania you mean the typical ritual, no, the truth. Although, like everyone, I have my systems which they are changing. There times in which I write with the music setting and other instead I prefer to do it surrounded by silence. As for reading, the truth is that I read anywhere.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
LA: I have already answered in part, at least with regard to reading. To read, almost any time is good. Regarding write, unlike many, I am one of those who get up early to advance his novels and thus arrive at midmorning with the feeling of having seized the day.
- AL: What writer or book has influenced your work as an author?
TO: Salambo, Ballard, Verne, Salgari, Jack London, Joseph Conrad, The king must die, The forging of a rebel… And thousands more. Many have left their mark, big or small, on me.
- AL: Your favorite genres besides historical?
LA: Actually, the historical genre is no more favorite of mine than others if the scale is the number of books of that genre that I read. I like, yeah, the same as him fantastic, blackThat of adventure and also informative essays.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
LA: I'm taking advantage of reread Life and destinyby Vasili grossman, and I have engaged in a test called Culture, anthropology and other nonsense, Angel Diaz de Rada.
As for the write, I finished a novel a month ago and now I'm in the phase of building up the strength for the next one.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is for as many authors as there are or want to publish?
TO: Very difficult, at least for those trying to get started. Indeed, more and more people can access the publishing market with their work and that makes the editorials look literally buried in offers of manuscripts. And neither it is so easy access to newbies literary agents let their work move them. Even quite a few authors that had been publishing regularly have been seen in dry dock. Because another problem is the concentration of publishers, at least of what are called medium and large. That means a merger or disappearance of editorial lines ... Anyway, we are talking about professional publishing.
Self-publish, of course, it is easy and with a very acceptable quality. Unfortunately that's a discredited market by all those who have dedicated themselves to hanging or self-edit your books without even passing them through a proofreader. People have had enough of buying self-published garbage and that has quite closed the way to people who were doing decent things and for whom desktop publishing could have been a first step. It is a pity.
- AL: Is the moment of crisis that we are experiencing being difficult for you or will you get something positive out of it for future novels?
TO: By supuesto that it is being difficult for me, like almost everyone. This has been the meteorite, and to the middle class of writers —Which lives off a pack consisting of its books, plus conferences, workshops, courses, etc.— suspension all public act it has been a catastrophe. Of course positive things will come out because new ones will open windows of opportunity, but one does not stop thinking about all those who can stay along the way, like many small bookstores, if they do not arbitrate measures to help them.
As for future novels, don't worry, what are we going to have saturation de fictions about him coronavirus and they don't need any of mine to grow the heap.