Photography: Roberto López Cagiao, author's website.
Roberto Lopez Cagiao was born in Bañobre (La Coruña) in 1976. Graduated in Educational Sciences, when he was younger he headed towards rock music and recorded a couple of albums with the group Trashnos. I ended up leaving him and in 2019 he published the first title of what is already a saga that has brought him success: the guardian of flowers. With him he won Red Circle Award for best mystery novel. In this interview He tells us a bit about everything about his career, work and what he thinks of the current publishing scene. You I really appreciate your time and kindness to assist me.
Roberto Lopez Cagiao. Construction site
The saga of the guardian of flowers, starring the Inspector Paola Gómez and his companions, is made up of 9 titles:
- I. the guardian of flowers
- II. The Stone of Destiny
- III. The North Road Killer
- IV. the law of the people
- V. Azabache Notebooks
- SAW. The Virgin of the Pilgrim
- VII. The curse of the zanchos
- VIII. ozone lettering
- IX. Sunset
And he also signs the trilogy of mysteries of Ferrolterra, that connects with the previous one, and is made up of the disenfranchised, On fire y Exorcism in Ferrolterra.
Roberto Lopez Cagiao. Interview
- ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: The saga of the guardian of flowers, The mysteries of Ferrolterra… Mixing genres and love for series or other reasons for writing them?
ROBERTO LÓPEZ CAGIAO: There was no greater reason than the pleasure of writing, the desire to tell things and mix the legends of Galicia, chance wanted me to disguise it with crimes and mysteries, but that was nothing more than the excuse to give life to those characters with feelings and that were evolving book by book.
- AL: Can you go back to that first book you read? And the first story you wrote?
RLC: The first book I read was momo, with nine years, edition that I still have. I loved it, although many things I could not fully understand. And the first stories I wrote at school for my classmates and they were boys adventures.
- AL: A head writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
RC: Definitely. Juan MarseHis way of seeing Barcelona and life marked me. And my books have nothing to do with his, but he was my great idol and the one who taught me how beautiful it is to turn words into stories.
- What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
RLC: The poshapart de Latest afternoons with Teresa. raskolnikov de Crime and Punishment, among many others.
- AL: Any special habits or habits when it comes to writing or reading?
RLC: Not too many. I write almost always with rock y heavy in the background and I read everything I write that day before I fall asleep. For read none, just that I prefer the paper.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
RLC: My place is my home, Bañobre, watching the sea and the waves beating against the coast, but lately I have been writing in airports, train stations, cafeterias. And read I can read anywhere.
- AL: Are there other genres that you like?
RLC: The novel contemporary and History. I also read a lot galician.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
RLC: I am writing a new book in which my characters travel from A Coruña to Barcelona via Tenerife and I read A blue fire, Peter Feijoo, and beauty must not die, by Mercedes Corbillón.
Current outlook
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is?
RLC: The publishing world is changing, and it's better for it to do so because the monopolistic model in which writers are the last m…. should be extinguished. I do not have a magic formula, but we will all agree that it is badly distributed. If the writer does not write, the books are over, all the rest are relatively expendable. So why does the creator keep the smaller portion? Why do you think many of us opt for independent publishers with other types of deals? Because the future is there, and the change has to happen.
- AL: How are you doing in the current moment we are living? Can you stay with something positive in both the cultural and social spheres?
RLC: In the social ambit I live among wonderful people who are always willing to lend a hand, so I keep the good, The positive. The bad also exists, but it should not be given so much importance. In the cultural sphere, we still have a long way to go to be like other countries and even in Galicia like other parts of Spain, but I know that many people are working hard for it. Culture is essential for human beings, you cannot live without it.