Photography: Leticia Castro and her dog Tofi, Facebook profile.
Leticia Castro She is Argentine but lives in Madrid. The latest novel she has published is titled lick the wounds, where there is a four-legged protagonist and a story that will move all dog lovers. He has been kind enough to help me this interview where he talks about her and several other topics. Thank you so much your time.
Leticia Castro—Interview
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: Your latest novel is titled lick the wounds. What do you tell us about it and where did the idea come from?
LETICIA CASTRO: It is the story of two lives that intersect by chance: that of Camila, an Argentine who running away of his past leaves his home, his family and work to take refuge in a small town in La Alpujarra, and that of Tofi, an abandoned dog. They are both going through a very bad time; They will only have each other to get by.
Camila was a character that had been around my head for a long time, I wanted to tell her internal conflict, her story, but she didn't know who could accompany her. when a few years ago I found a dog abandoned with whom I went through a few adversities, I thought that he could be the other character in the novel.
- TO THE: You can go back to that first book you read? And the first story you wrote?
CL: I remember as if it were today when I read the stories in the book The happy Prince, Oscar Wilde. My dad bought it for me used, in a bookstore on Corrientes Avenue (in Buenos Aires). I was nine years old. My life was before and after that book.
I wrote my first story at that same age, I still have it. goes from a kitten that runs away from the house where he lives with his mother and gets into a magical world: the animals are of other colors, the clouds are edible, the fire in the fireplace speaks to him. It couldn't be worse written, however, I have a lot of love for it.
- AL: A head writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
CL: The writers who, for one reason or another, have marked me up to now were Cortázar, Saramago, Bryce echenique, Virginia Woolf, García Márquez, Milan kundera, hebe uhart, Anais Nin, Oscar Wilde, to name a few.
- AL: And that literary dog that has been able to touch your heart the most?
LC: It's the story of my dog Tofi. In fact, the dog lick the wounds I called it the same. I invented the past of the novelized Tofi completely, but everything else I tell is truth, it happened to me.
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
CL: I would love to meet Alonso quijano. And having created it, of course. A pity that Cervantes was ahead of me.
- AL: Any special habits or habits when it comes to writing or reading?
CL: I need silence for both writing and reading. It's the only hobby I have.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
CL: I read and write anytimeWhenever I can, or whenever I have free time, I'm doing one thing or the other. In front of one hearth With my little animals nearby, I would say that it is my favorite place to read or write.
- AL: Are there other genres that you like?
CL: I read everything. I read whatever let it fall into my hands. I read what they recommend or find on the street or discover in a bookstore or lend me. Although I try to run away from the great commercial successes.
- What are you reading now? And writing?
CL: I am reading several (depending on my desire I go to one or the other, I always read several at the same time): Permafrost, by Eva Baltasar. strange fruits, by Leila Guerriero. our dead world, by Liliana Colanzi. Life at times, by Juan Jose Millas.
Am reviewing, correcting, tweaking a novel i wrote a long time ago which for me It has a very important sentimental value., is a novel that takes place entirely in Argentina.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is and what decided you to try to publish?
CL: Nowadays getting your manuscript to a publishing house and having it read is difficult, although I don't know if it was ever easy. Having said this, I add: it is not impossible. You have to have patience, a lot of patience and keep trying.
I go to a writing school in Madrid (the School of Imaginators) and my teacher, Juan Jacinto Muñoz Rengel, was the one who encouraged me to look for a publisher. I have been writing for fourteen yearsI have a few finished novels. After several rejections, lick the wounds one of my editors at HarperCollins liked it very much.
- 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?
CL: I always I stay with the positive, even in the worst moments of my life I was able to rescue something good. And so it will be after this crisis, I have no doubts.