Photography: Ricardo Alia | Facebook profile
Ricardo Alía is the author of the Zodiac trilogy (comprising The Sign of the Dragon, The Flight of the Serpent, and The Horse's Leap ) and The Poisoned Pawn , which he published with Maeva. But with his latest novel, The English Cemetery, he chose the opposite path of self-publishing. In this interview, he talks about it and several other topics, so I am very grateful for his time and kindness in speaking with me.
Ricardo Alia
Ricardo Alía was born in San Sebastián and holds a degree in Chemistry from the University of the Basque Country. A keen chess player, he has competed in several national and international tournaments. He lives in Barcelona , where he works as a chemist, and his profession played a significant role in the publication of his first novel, which led to the Zodiac trilogy . Chess, meanwhile, is a central theme in The Poisoned Pawn.
Ricardo Alia — Interview
- LITERATURE CURRENT: The title of your latest novel is The cemetery of the English. How did it go and where did the idea come from?
RICARDO ALÍA: I've lived in Barcelona for a few years now, and I remember when I first arrived I came across a literary map of the city, with points of interest that referenced writers and novels. Years later, I looked for a similar map in the San Sebastián tourist office and couldn't find one. Then I had the idea of a young writer who finds a corpse in the English Cemetery (a place on Mount Urgull where only a few abandoned gravestones remain) and, to unravel the mystery of the culprit , follows in the footsteps of writers (Baroja, Hugo, Hemingway…) who left their mark on San Sebastián.
The novel is available exclusively on Amazon, self-published , a different choice from my previous novels published under the MAEVA imprint . I wanted to try it, and although it has been challenging, it's very rewarding.
- AL: Can you remember any of your first readings? And the first story you wrote?
RA: One of my first books was Don Quixote , an old copy that my father kept. But the book that marked me and led me to want to write was Christine, by Stephen King.
RA: The first story I wrote became my first novel, The Sign of the Dragon.
- AL: A head writer? You can choose more than one and from all eras.
RA: Nesbø , Del Árbol, Pérez-Reverte, Lemaitre, García Márquez… I am an eclectic reader.
- AL: What character in a book would you have liked to meet and create?
RA: Any character created by García Márquez, but if I had to choose one I would go for Aureliano Buendía in One Hundred Years of Solitude.
- AL: Any special habits or habits when it comes to writing or reading?
RA: I listen to music; I create a playlist for each novel.
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
RA: In my home office . The time isn't important, any time is fine.
- AL: Are there other genres that you like?
RA: I like any genre if the novel is good.
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
RA: I'm reading Blood on the Snow by Jo Nesbø and The Furious Army by Fred Vargas. And I've just finished a new novel set in the 90s in a remote town in the United States.
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is and what decided you to try to publish?
RA: I'm a bit pessimistic about this. Fewer and fewer books are being sold, more bookstores are closing , and now the current situation, with the war in Ukraine and rampant inflation, isn't helping matters.
- 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?
RA: Fortunately, I have a stable job that's far removed from writing. And when it comes to writing, the current situation doesn't affect me . I'm able to abstract myself quite a bit, and lately I tend to write stories set before the indiscriminate use of mobile phones, the 80s or 90s, when we didn't complicate our lives so much.