Portrait of the author
With an increasingly recognizable voice in romantic narrative, Alice Kellen recovers one of her most personal stories and opens a new stage in her career: the return of It's Still Raining is accompanied by audiovisual projects and a reflection on the genre that has placed her among the most widely read authors.
This is not a simple rescue from the catalogue: the Valencian writer revisits her second self-published work with a rewriting that polishes without distorting that which connected with thousands of readers. And it does so by claiming a romantic who dialogues with the present, with more real, nuanced characters with contemporary conflicts.
A reissue that looks to the present
Reissue of 'It's Still Raining'
It's Still Raining returns to bookstores thanks to Planeta as part of that line of short and intimate novels that Kellen has cultivated alongside titles such as The Boy Who Drew Constellations or The Theory of Archipelagos. The author has subtly intervened in the text, "stitching here and there," to maintain the essence and refine the technique that defines it today.
The story follows Victor and Sara, a couple getting divorced and as the story progresses, it reveals the fissures in his past and the exact point at which everything broke. It is not a luminous narrative, it hovers over the pain, but makes room for hope and the possibility of understanding from another place.
The author admits that meeting that younger version again was "hard, but necessary«: a kind of renovation in someone else's house in which you can't knock down load-bearing walls, only improve what already exists. Among the touch-ups, the couple's past is expanded, how they know each other and what sustains them, to give it more depth.
The book is set in Valencia and its surroundings and passes through recognizable places like El Saler, l'Albufera, la Malva-rosa, el Carmen, Russafa, and Patraix. For Kellen, choosing his city isn't a premeditated gesture: arises organically, because it is the emotional territory from which he writes.
Updated romance: nuances and context
Romantic genre today
Kellen argues that novels are a mirror of social reality of its time. Those who approach the genre today are not just looking for love at first sight: they want protagonists with sharp edges, consistent with how we understand relationships and the world, and plots where identity, friendship, family, grief, work or motherhood (or its absence) appear.
Hence, many legacy labels have become obsolete: what worked in the eighties Today it grates, says the author, because the codes have changed. Her narrative is still centered on love, yes, but opens the focus to other links and over time, an increasingly present interest in his books.
In the writing workshop, Kellen combines map and intuition: he needs a clear architecture so as not to stiffen the story, and at the same time give the characters room to breathe. Blocks are resolved with chair hours, reading and perseveranceIf an idea doesn't take off, sometimes the best decision is to let it rest.
Regarding the way of counting, he acknowledges that it's easier to write about heartbreak: therein lies the conflict, the edges, and the challenge. But there are no recipes: second chances depend on the context; you don't always have to give them, only when there is really something left to save.
From the book to the film set
The Kellen universe begins to translate into images. The map of desires It will be a miniseries on Netflix and Everything We Never Were will make the leap to cinema with a cast headed by Maxi Iglesias and Margarida CorceiroThe author has read the scripts, made comments and attended the shoots, learning the audiovisual code.
He naturally assumes that an adaptation will never be a carbon copy of the book: When you give up rights, the rules changeThere's no perfect version for everyone, and if you're looking for that exact mirror, the only option is not to adapt. She, on the other hand, embrace the process and his specific look.
Valencia and the writing of the intimate
Although its popularity takes off with the youth audienceIt's still raining fully adult and is part of a cycle of short stories, with a collected tone, with few characters and a lot of introspection. Its reading invites you to accompany Victor and Sara almost in one go, to feel that suffocating lightness that surrounds them.
The narrating voice displays a sensitivity that its readers recognize: attention to the minimum, interest in inhabiting another skin and a contained emotional pulseChapters like the one that lists what Sara likes about the rain, and which closes with a line from Victor, condense the tone of the novel and his way of looking.
Trajectory, community and what's next
Born in 1989 in Valencia, Alice Kellen is the pseudonym of Silvia HervásHe debuted with Take Me Anywhere and has already sixteen novels, between them Us on the moon, The map of desires, Where everything shines or Love will remain, with more than three million readers.
On social media, the author cultivates a serene community on Instagram, where he shares readings, reflections, and the day-to-day life of books. Direct contact with his audience is a blessing, he admits, although It also involves pressure: You can't please everyone and you have to negotiate with self-demand.
Looking ahead, Kellen is working on a new novel planned with five protagonists —four lifelong friends joined by a woman— and a structure that runs through a full yearA choral project that promises to explore other voices and rhythms.
In the creative field, his ethics remain the same: erotic scenes without gratuitous morbidity (one more scene between characters), inevitable doubts about whether or not to believe in what comes after death, and the conviction that fiction is also a game where emotional realism outweighs being liked.
Between the intimate pulse of It's Still Raining, its defense of a romanticism that's grounded in reality, and the leap to the screen, Alice Kellen reaffirms her position in the literary scene: short stories that beat, characters with edges and a roadmap that combines bookstores and filming without losing its seal.