Sebastian Roa. Interview: "I lean towards well-written stories"

Sebastian Roa He has an unstoppable career and on the 7th his latest novel came out, Nemesis. The Teruel writer of historical novels, author of titles such as Casus Belli, Blood revenge, the trilogy The she-wolf of al-Andalus, God's army y The chains of destiny: Enemies of Sparta, grant me this interview today. He tells us a little about books, authors and the current editorial and social panorama. I really appreciate your time and dedication.

Interview with Sebastián Roa

• ACTUALIDAD LITERATURA: Do you remember the first book you read? And the first story you wrote?

SEBASTIÁN ROA: I don't remember my first reading, but it sure was a novel pulp by Bruguera, the kind that changed hard at the kiosk. Horror and science fiction by Spanish authors with different Anglo-Saxon pseudonyms. It's what was at home.

And the first thing I wrote was lthe story of a sparrow that, when summer comes, he has to compete for food with swallows and swifts. Ornithological drives that one had as a child.

• AL: What was the first book that struck you and why?

SR: The road. They made me read it in BUP. The only possible reason for that impact is Delibes' genius.

• AL: Who is your favorite writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.

SR: I don't actually have writers, but favorite novels. Its authors can be from Delibes, Sender or Blasco Ibáñez until Waltari, posteguillo, Pressfield or Pérez-Reverte. The last great thing I have read is from Madeline miller. Circe its titled.

• AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?

SR: To the princess mary that Sender invented in his unjustly unknown Byzantium.

• AL: Any mania when it comes to writing or reading?

SR: I'm from few hobbies in general. I can write and read anywhere, although you always have your preferences.

• AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?

SR: I usually write in my desktop computer, in the little office that we have set up at home for these tasks. I always get more out of Night hours, it will be because there are fewer distractions. To read, nothing like the bed. Although where I read the most is on the subway, going to and from work.

• AL: What writer or book has influenced your work as an author?

SR: I'm sure everything I've read (what has impacted me, it is understood) has influenced what I have written later. From the Iliad but also Canes and clay.

And at this moment Yaiza, my daughter, sees the answer I have written and asks me if I am an intellectual. That if everything I have read influences me, add here Twilight.

"Let's see," I answer, "I read Twilight (I confess, I was curious), but it did not impact me at all and I am not interested in doing anything like that.

"Well then," she continues, "at least you learned what you don't want to write." In other words, influence has influenced you.

Well, since my daughter is right, I put it: Twilight. A saga that does not impact me at all despite the fact that it has sold more than a hundred million copies, and that five films with a collection of more than 3.000 million dollars are based on it. Now let me explain to myself how shabby I am.

• AL: Your favorite genres besides historical?

SR: Actually I don't have favorite genres. Not even the historical novel. In fact, lately I read more of an essay. In novel I lean towards well-written stories, with spun wefts and lively characters. Gender is the least of it; but if something throws me back a bit, it is crime and crime novels.

• AL: What are you reading now? And writing?

SR: I am reading The hereticby Delibes. I had it pending. Y typing, curiously, something related in part to heresy. Is what we would call medieval historical novel, more I can not say.

• AL: How do you think the publishing scene is for as many authors as there are or want to publish?

SR: Publishing is very easy. Doing it with level and guarantees, except for specific cases of Marian apparitions that cannot serve as an example, is another matter. There is very low demand and too much supply, and both focus on extraliterary aspects. Right now, the best thing to do to post like a donkey is to instagramer, youtuber, gamer o choriflower. Being on TV also helps.

• 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 novels?

SR: Nothing positive can come of this. If anything, you can take advantage of the negative to express it in a literary way. The human essence that has been exposed, I say. That's what literature is about: the human condition, right? Well, the hypocrisy of the applause, the indifference to the death toll, the irresponsibility of so many assholes with their masks on their elbows, the non-existent brains of the deniers, the pettiness of those politicians of all kinds who profit from the issue, blindness of those who allow themselves to be carried away by the Cainite slanders ... Look: there are for hundreds of novels.