Photography: Courtesy Communications Ingenuity
Reyes Martínez He lives in Gijón and combines his work as a radiodiagnosis specialist with writing. He has more than ten published works intended for children, youth and adults. In this extensive interview he tells us about The sentinel, which was first published in 2018 and is now presented in a revised edition. I thank you very much for your time and kindness.
Reyes Martínez — Interview
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: You have a new published revision of your novel The sentinel. What do you tell us in it and where did your inspiration come from?
REYES MARTINEZ: The sentinel is a mystery novel, for young people, which addresses the issue of bullying giving a twist to everything we are used to.
Toño is Director a institute from Gijón who thinks that bullying does not exist in their center. After a course on the subject, he discovers that he was wrong and decides designate a student to be your eyes and ears within the institute, insisting a lot that he does not expect him to be the director's snitch, but rather his right hand, who will help him prevent all those behaviors that could lead to the terrible bullying that is so present in our classrooms.
Within the novel we can find that harassers will become harassed, just as happened in the real case that inspired me to write this story. I force everyone to assume a role in harassment, given that we tend to make only two figures visible, the harasser and the harassed, being equally responsible, and sometimes even more, the school, family and viewer.
The result is a very enjoyable novel, shrouded in a halo of mystery (the director and the sentinel communicate through a red envelope that they leave in an abandoned locker on the second floor), with very short chapters and where Nothing is what it seems.
a real case
In real life a student demanded to eight companions directly in the police for bullying and, although the center started well because it isolated her from them, did not compare the information (which was later discovered to be untrue), so these eight students they began to be the harassed. That pushed me to write this story in which I turn the tables and force them to face the consequences.
Readings
- AL: Can you remember any of your first readings? And the first thing you wrote?
RM: My first readings were classic stories, I'm sure because my parents were always great lovers of reading and we all had them at home. Since I started reading very early, I immediately picked them up. But the book that clicked in my head and immersed me in the story, turning reading from entertainment to necessity, was The Neverending Story, a timeless story, full of mystery and fantasy, where I became Bastian or Atreyu more than once, depending on where I was reading at that moment.
The first thing I remember writing and giving to someone to read was a play for high schoolIn which five witches decide to take revenge on the men who have just deceived them, each with a incantation distinct. It was my first time exposing myself to criticism and I remember it as very very funny.
Reyes Martínez — Authors
- AL: A leading author? You can choose more than one and from all periods.
RM: My author par excellence is Henning Mankell, Swedish detective novel writer, who has a character, the inspector Wallander, something atypical and unconventional and that, in addition, always denounces something in its stories.
For many years I loved books by Stephen King, because they were very varied, they scared me and kept me glued to the paper for hours and hours, but there came a time when it seemed to me that it had gone too far.
I have never been a lover of romantic novels but I do get excited about stories like Jane Eyre, Little Women, History of two cities, and there have been times in my life when I only read those types of books.
In recent years I have discovered Victor of the Tree and I am unable to pass up a book of his. I learn something from all of them and it keeps me intrigued from beginning to end. He is a great crime novel author.
I have read practically all of Isabel Allende's bibliography, although I find it repetitive at times, and that of Elisabeth George, an English detective novelist with very well-defined characters. Anyway, I prefer to think that I am more into books than authors.. Sometimes you find a gem by an author that is not of interest to you or you find truly empty books by one of your favorite authors, I don't dislike any good book.
And I read a lot novice authors, since I have been one for many years, and not having the recognition of a large publisher is not synonymous with a lack of quality, I am clear.
Characters
- AL: What character would you have liked to meet and create?
RM: This one is very easy: Harry Potter. I think they are books that, without being pretentious, have managed to move the world en masse. And because? Because we have been able to think that magic exists only by entering its pages. Why couldn't the same thing happen to us as to a gangly child who lives under a staircase?
Although the author is not one of my favorites, the Harry Potter stories have moved me, amused, horrified, encouraged... Reading these books I have gone through all the states that any person can go through. What a shame it didn't occur to me!
Customs
- AL: Any special habits or habits when it comes to writing or reading?
RM: For many years I have been alone with my three children (they were small when I started publishing) and I worked shifts in a hospital. I had to do bobbin lace to get time to write or read and I began to take advantage of every second: I would sit them down to do homework or homework after snack and I would take out the pen and paper. But they didn't leave me much continuity. So, I started writing when they fell asleep and collected some at home. That's where my sleep deficit began. I went to bed when I fell asleep on top of the paper and got up at five-thirty in the morning to write a little more. So, I could say that, for years, I have been a survivor of writing and reading, I needed silence and solitude and I looked for them wherever I could.
Later I developed an incredible ability to write in any position, situation or place until they grew old enough and my literary workshop teacher, Ramón Alcaraz, told me that all good writers had some writing hobby. Since I didn't have one, I looked for one, otherwise I could never be a good writer, right?
Manias and moments
When I start a novel, and since I write on paper, I use paper to recycle of the work and then, when I transfer it to the computer, I tear up those sheets and put the pieces in a paper bag which I leave next to the sofa. That bag doesn't move from its place until I completely finish the novel. I scrub, I sweep, I vacuum... but I surround that bag that becomes part of the living room decoration for months.
A hobby that I have had since the beginning is that I am unable to write a single line if I have not put the title of the novel. After thinking about the story, shaping it in my head and documenting everything I can, I look for the title and, once I find it, I start writing, never before.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
RM: Taking advantage of the fact that my children have grown up and don't need my attention as much, I read and write. Anytime, anywhere. I am also capable of watching a series while writing and I find out about both things. I think that was my boys' fault, I had to work so hard to concentrate When they were little my brain developed too much in that sense. I'm not sure whether to thank them for it or a capon, maybe both.
Genres and projects
- AL: What other genres do you like?
RM: The genre I read the most is Novelty, also the police and mystery. I could spend my life reading only that type of genre, but I think that, far from enriching me, it would impoverish me not to touch on others. So, I go to two book clubs where they offer me other types of books. This is how I discovered that I like boobs, the contemporary narrative without further ado, the youth and children's novel because it takes me back to times that I long for, History If it is well fictionalized, the science fiction If it is credible, and that I still don't like romantic novels, at least, what is offered now as romantic, of course.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
RM: Right now I'm reading Whispers from the past, by Alicia G. García, a writer from Gijón who has three literary awards to her credit. This last novel won the Princesa Galiana award from the Toledo city council and is republished by Orpheus, an Asturian publishing house. I have finished a novel by Laetitia Colombani, The braid, A moving and very well-woven story.
Usually I have a couple of novels started, both to read and to write. because I surrender to my mood for one thing or another and I don't always have the stomach to read a drama or to kill on paper.
Right now I'm writing a crime novel, title I free you and which takes place in a town in the south of Madrid. And one Juvenile novel of title #honey that addresses online identity theft and cyberbullying.
Reyes Martínez — Paranorama editorial
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is?
RM: For many years I have dedicated myself to desktop publishing and it seems to me to be a highly recommended method for writers who do not have the patience to wait for a publisher to read their manuscripts and dare to take the step with them. But, like everything, I think it's getting out of hand. There are many authors who believe they can write a story, publish it, and that's it. And I think not, it must be corrected, it must be properly documented, the reader must be respected, definitely. And these types of authors (and publishers that dedicate themselves to self-publishing without valuing what they publish) are not doing any favors to the rest of the writers who choose this method.
On the other hand, I think that large publishers choose to release too many novels, they have the market quite saturated and authors are not given enough time for their book to rise in the ranks or reach more places. In both cases, it's money that rules, rather than a good book.
I am lucky to have reissued The sentinel with a publisher like Harper Collins, which has not entered into that game of "publishing for the sake of publishing" and which takes care of its authors and their stories as if they were the only ones on Earth.
For the record, this is just my opinion, since I have gone through all those phases.
Current Paranorama
- AL: How do you feel about the current moment we live in?
RM: I'm not sure if you mean the literary moment. If so, I'm a little concerned about the issue of Artificial Intelligence, is a very useful tool, of course, but it detracts a lot from the spontaneity, the freshness of an author.
If you mean the Life In general, I think it is cyclical. Everything we are going through (wars, crises, pandemics, bullying, gender violence) has happened before and will happen again later, we can change the setting and name of what is happening and even look for different solutions, but it is "the same." "dog with different collar." Of course, I am also convinced that There is nothing that can stop us if we really want to do something.. I believe that we should focus on a goal and strive to achieve it regardless of what is around us. This also extends to the literary world.