Photography: Natalia Gómez Navajas, IG of the author.
Natalia Gomez Navajas es from Logroño, from my generation in the 70s. He studied business management in Madrid and made his debut in literature in 2016, with after the goal. His second novel was Buzali. The origin, finalist for the Cartagena Negra Novel Award 2018. And ese year he left The magician and the dagger. Es too curator of Rioja Noir ysu last published title es Sake of revenge. In this interview He tells us about her and much more. I really appreciate her time and kindness.
Natalia Gómez Navajas — Interview
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: Your latest novel is titled Aras de Vengeance. What do you tell us in it and where did the idea come from?
Natalia Gomez Navajas: I really wanted to write something set in my land, but at the same time that respect for my readers (mostly from La Rioja) held me back. I wanted to be able to offer them a novel with a certain literary quality that would not disappoint. So after two novels, one of them a finalist for an award and a story, winner of another award, I decided that the time had come.
Going around the net I came across a page that mentioned a series of locations in La Rioja, everyone with a common point that I cannot reveal. So I dedicated myself to visiting them and verifying that they were conducive to the novel.
Sake of revenge talk about good and evil. Through a police plot we find several issues. Place on the table child abuse and how they influence the development of the mind. Of the ghosts we carry on our backs. About the role of some media outlets that, rather than inform, seek the headline that sells. It also takes us on a tour The Rioja, its mountains, villages and hermitages.
- AL: Can you go back to that first book you read? And the first story you wrote?
NGN: I have a very clear image of that first book. I was a very precocious reader and in the second year of kindergarten, when I was 4 years old, since I was born in December, the teacher passed me from the primer to the book. It was a book that compiled the classic stories, of those with yellowed pages and small print. I loved the experience.
As for the the first thing I wrote, must have been a game. I don't remember which one. She made up stories that she later recreated with my sisters. I kept writing for myself. And it wasn't until a few years ago, 2014, when I sat down to build a novel.
- AL: A head writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
NGN:Umberto Eco, Foucault's pendulum It was my bedside book for years and one that marked me when I was very young was Michael Ende with momo.
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
NGN: Alonso quijano, Don Quixote. He is a visionary who shows a part of our history, who has an overflowing imagination. A very sane madman.
- AL: Any special habits or habits when it comes to writing or reading?
NGN: At the time of writing coffee, much coffee. When reading, none.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
NGN: I write for the morningsMore out of necessity than pleasure. I get up at half past six and work on the novel for two hours. Then I go to my work, from which I return at half past nine at night. At that time I have no neurons. And I do in the kitchen, I don't have an office, I'd like to.
- AL: Are there other genres that you like?
NGN: The historical novel fascinates me. The narrative in general. I read everything, except romantic.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
NGN: I am with the good father, by Santiago Diaz. And I'm typing a novel that could be included in the narrative. A story that is costing me a little, since I leave my comfort zone which is the dialogues.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is and what decided you to try to publish?
NGN: I think there is a duality. It is very easy to publish, since there are alternative media to the traditional edition and, on the other hand, it has become difficult to reach the reader. There is a lot of supply and the books hardly have a life.
When it ends after the goal, my first novel, I didn't know what to do with it. I did not know this world. I sent it to a publisher, more to try it than for the idea that it might see the light of day. In fifteen days they answered me that they wanted it. So I signed a contract and here I am.
- 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?
NGN: The crisis, as a writer, is not affecting me too much, since I don't live from this. So each issue read for me is an achievement and a joy.
The pandemic affected me. It was a dry period in terms of writing and reading. Also, Sake of revenge It was released when presentations or meetings with readers were not yet possible, even so I am very satisfied. He gave me an award Ateneo Riojano 2021, two nominations, Cartagena black and Cubelles noir. And it is a novel that two years after its publication continues to generate readers.
I believe that it is not a question of staying with the positive or the negative, for me, in this as in everything related to my life, the important thing is to know how to take advantage of what happens. Don't feel sorry for anything and fight for your dreams. From honesty with yourself, everything comes.