Photography: author's website
Mountain of Peace He was born in Lleida in 1970, but his childhood was spent in León, where he learned to love nature and history. Later he returned to Catalonia and studied English philology, while collaborating with a charity and getting involved in the world of solidarity. He writes epic fantasy, science fiction and historical novel and in 2011 he won the VIII Minotauro Prize for City without stars. He has also written books on spirituality, personal growth and women of the Bible. Her latest published title is The shadow of the labyrinth. In this interview He tells us about him and other topics. I am very grateful for his time and kindness.
Montse de Paz — Interview
- LITERATURE CURRENT: Your latest novel is The shadow of the labyrinth. What do you tell us in it and where did your inspiration come from?
MONTSE DE PAZ: I have always been attracted to Greek myths and history. I wanted to write a novel that would fuse both passions and a report I saw about Crete spurred me on. After a few months of research, I wrote my particular version of the myth of Theseus, Ariadne and the labyrinth, getting into the characters and delving especially into the women of the myth and their personal evolution.
I will confess that my initial version of the novel was different, twice as long, more thoughtful and discarding some more fabulous aspects of the myth; the publisher forced me to change certain things and I rewrote the manuscript pruning a lot and adding new elements, one of which is what my readers have valued the most. If you have read it, I invite you to guess what it is!
- AL: Can you remember any of your first readings? And the first thing you wrote?
MDP: My first readings: wonderful stories and comics Children's Bible. The first "serious" readings, at the age of eight, were adapted versions from Iliad, the Odisea and Amadis of GaulI loved them and this has shaped my literary tastes.
The first thing I wrote was cFantastic and romantic tales, in comics. I illustrated them myselfI have one written when I was seven years old: The Princess and the Phantom. I posted an entry about him on my forgotten literary blog How to get published.
Authors and characters
- AL: A leading author? You can choose more than one and from all periods.
MDP: What difficult questions you interviewers ask! It would not end.
For a change, I'll give you four:
- A contemporary Spanish woman: Ana María Matute.
- A near-contemporary Anglo-Saxon: John Steinbeck.
- A classic English: Virginia Woolf.
- A classic Spaniard: Ramon Maria del Inclán Valley.
There is more, there is more… the Russian classics (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky) and French (Dumas, Flaubert, Daudet, Anatole France…). Robert Graves I am fascinated by it and, like so many teenagers in the eighties, I fell under the spell of Tolkien reading the first Spanish edition (I think) of The Lord of the RingsYears later I reread it in English.
- AL: What character would you have liked to meet and create?
MDP: Meet? Many historical figures. I would love to sit down and chat with Santa. Teresa of Jesus, with Hildegard of Bingen, with the queen Mary of Trastamara (to whom I have dedicated a novel), with her niece Isabel the Catholic; with Pericles, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Olaf Tryggvason, Francis of Assisi and Cid.
But create, crear? I have created All the characters I've ever wanted, in my published novels and especially in the unpublished ones. I just hope that one day they will come to light.
Customs and genres
- AL: Any special habits or habits when it comes to writing or reading?
MDP: Although I have my Kindle and I read more and more ebooks, I still prefer the paper. I read more comfortably and remember much better what I see in print.
I write in my computer, at home, in total silence. No special mania, I just need time and solitude. Oh yes: and order around me. Now that I think about it, I am a neat freak (I have followed the Kon-Mari method at home, don't ask me how I did it when it was time to "organize" the books).
- AL: And your preferred place and time to do it?
MDP: When I started writing I only had time at night, stealing hours from sleep. My health took its toll on me and now I write in the mornings. mornings, well cleared. It's the first thing I do. In my office already in the light of Salt.
- AL: What other genres do you like?
MDP: I really like the historical novel, but I like any novel with intrigue and/or human drama. Above all, I need it to be well written and beautiful. And that the author, as Juan Eslava Galán says, does not get in the way too much with his manias, biases and moralizing. "The shadow of the gardener should not fall on the orchard." Although there are shadows that are brilliant and those do not bother so much, but they are few.
Projects
- AL: What are you reading now? And writing?
MDP: Now I'm reading (another vice) several things at once. The minstrel, by Antonio Perez Henares; Psychotherapy of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, by Dr. Wighard Strehlow; Freedom or tyranny, by Cristina Martín Jiménez. And I'm getting ready to start The Wolves and the Star 1 – The Journey and the City, by Mariola Díaz-Cano. I discovered it on Amazon and I couldn't resist the temptation! 😊
Writing? I am finishing a book on the mystery of evil in the world, following a parable from the gospel, that of the wheat and the tares. It's a commission from Editorial San Pablo. I'm doing research to write another novel, but I won't say what it is about, I prefer to keep it confidential thinking about the publisher that will publish it. And sometimes I correct the last one that I finished writing in January of this year.
Panorama Editorial
- AL: How do you think the publishing scene is?
MDP: I do not feel I have the knowledge or authority to assess this aspect. I see that a lot of books are published and that bookstores are filled with titles every season.I imagine it's like in a jungle: there's everything, and "the wheat grows with the weeds," so to speak.
From an author's point of view, publishing on a freelance basis with a serious publisher is very difficult for those who are not "famous" or best-sellers, and even more so for Hispanics. When I started publishing in 2007 it was a sweet moment: many opportunities were opening up for new authors, but that passed. The great challenge now is for publishers to coexist with the world of indies and self-publishing; for authors the challenge is no small one.
Self-publishing doesn't make it any easier than seeing your book there, a reality, at a very low cost. But then you have to undertake a huge amount of work if you want to promote your work. And writers, unfortunately, are not always good salespeople or business savvy. If you want to stand out in a jungle like Amazon, you have to learn how to sell and do it very, very well..
The present
- AL: How do you feel about the current moment we live in?
MDP: Like a surfer: watching the wave, crouching when it rises and trying to cross it decisively without being knocked over and falling over. Enjoying the present, even the bad times, and trying to transmit joy and hope. I feel very full of energy, with projects in mind and in hand, and with the same enthusiasm I had when I was a child.
I am aware that there are many changes taking place in the world, and not all of them are for the better. I see the danger to basic rights such as freedom and the lives of many people, and also the deception that the media and our leaders want to involve us in. But I am not willing to let this take away the best things in life: my family, my friends, my passion and my vocation. I also want to take advantage of all the opportunities that are opening up to us, which are many. I want to live life to the fullest until the end, fighting with as many minotaurs as necessary (or avoiding them)As my grandfather, who knew war and knew what it was like to see death rain down around him, used to say, I want to "die standing up."