Photography: Rafa Melero. Twitter profile.
Rafa melero has presented a new work this year and its title is Side effect. After The wrath of the Phoenix, Bishop's penance, The secret is in Sasha o full, the Barcelona author returns with a choral novel. In this interview He tells us about it and much more, such as his favorite authors, his habits as a writer or his next projects. I really appreciate your time and kindness to attend to me on these days off.
Rafa melero
Rafa melero know the black cloth. He was born in Barcelona, but spent his childhood in Lleida. Then he entered the body of the Mossos d'Esquadra and has worked in Figueras, Lérida, Hospitalet de Llobregat or Tarrasa, among other cities. His entire professional career has been in the judicial police, in groups such as Homicides, Public Health or Crimes against Heritage.
En Side effect presents a story starring the character of Thomas Monteswhose quiet life takes a 180 degree turn when His dad's death triggers events with consequences that will lead you to make a decision: get paid revenge, whatever it takes.
Interview
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: Your latest novel is titled Collateral Effect. What do you tell us in it and where did the idea come from?
RAFA MELERO: The idea came up years ago. When I visited the island of Koh Samuy, in Thailand, I was interested to know how and why some Spanish citizens lived there. Imagining what circumstances had led them to abandon their homes and end up in that place running a business was the initial seed of the novel. That was in 2014 and it has taken me a few years to concretize those answers, and others, in a novel.
- AL: Can you remember that first book you read? And the first story you wrote?
MRI: I don't remember the first very well, but the first one that I was excited about as a child was The Neverending Storyby Michael Ende. My first written story was directly my first novel, Wrath of the Phoenix.
- AL: A head writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
MRI: I have had several, but without a doubt Lorenzo Silva, and at one time Ken Follet.
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
MRI: James Bond, or Jason Bourne.
- AL: Any special habits or habits when it comes to writing or reading?
MRI: No, I had them, I admit, that if silence, go to a quiet place, those things, but as I have had family and children they have disappeared. Now I could write while doing a handstand.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
MRI: I have written chapters on trains, airplanes and on one occasion sleeping with my son in my arms so I would tell you almost anywhere that the time gives me to do it.
- AL: Are there other genres that you like?
MRI: Yes, the fantastic and the spy. My favourite book is The Dante equation by Jane Jensen.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
MRI: This immense forest, by Noemí Trujillo and rereading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
I'm finishing the draft of the fourth novel in the Xavi Masip saga.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is? Do you think it is going to change or has it already done so with the new creative formats out there?
MRI: It is difficult to have visibility if you are not in a large publishing house, but in the end, in my case at least, this is a hobby and I have a great time writing.
- 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?
MRI: Something is always drawn from all of life's experiences, but right now I have no interest in writing about the pandemic. I'm going through it like everyone else, although because of my profession a little more from the inside.