Victoria González, writer: "Being original is very, very good, but it is very difficult"

She debuted in literature in 2017 with

, a prequel to the mythical character created by her father, Francisco González Ledesma, a classic of Spanish crime novels.

In this way, he paid off a debt to history while beginning a now-established career with his second work,

(Siruela), a crime fiction, but also a story of adventure and learning in Spain in the seventies.

Victoria González (Barcelona, ​​56 years old) assures that she suffers from "absolute impostor syndrome" and that she looks "very strange" in the role of a writer, on the opposite side of the table, invited to the BCNegra festival, increasingly involved in her new life, further and further away from his days as a full-time journalist.

question

.

Is the father's shadow long?

Answer

.

So long, in fact, that I never thought I would write a

.

If they had told me six months earlier, I would have thought that I wouldn't even get fed up with wine.

When she had the stroke she was practically finished

but it was not finished and had no title.

He wanted to finish it, he had a commitment to Planet that he wanted to respect, and I finished it.

I don't even know how, because then what worried me was my father's health.

We had talked a lot about him having to do a Méndez prequel and that had been left pending, but he already got into my head and I began to try without any idea that it would amount to anything.

My father always told me: "You have to write, you have to write."

And it seems to me a joke of fate that he listened to him just when he was no longer there.

Q.

is set in 1945,

, in the seventies.

Why this interest in the past?

A.

I don't know how to answer you.

I don't know how to tell him.

Let's see, in the seventies I was little and it's like a paradise for me, a lost time.

If I have to give you a reason.

Then there is something else, but it is false.

In

I really enjoyed the investigation and I said to myself: 'The seventies are good for investigating.'

And then I realized that I didn't have to document myself as much because I was already there.

Q.

The outline of the novel is classic.

Does the genre have plenty of experiments?

R.

Being original is very, very good, but it is very difficult.

Originality is a value, but sometimes it is confused with other things.

I don't pretend to be original, but I don't want to be topical either.

There is a rule that I impose on myself, which is to do what I would like to read, something that all writers do, and from there go as far as you are capable of.

I was not at all concerned with doing an original thing.

I had enough work so that everything would add up and the characters would be as I wanted them to be.

That worries me more than doing something with a pattern.

I'm not looking for originality, but maybe it's because I'm not capable of doing it.

Q.

is a recognized and recognizable influence on

.

Are those readings of youth decisive?

A.

All.

What happens is that in this case the first thing that came to mind was the character of Sil, who is John Silver.

He was the one who assaulted me.

When you write everything that happens around you and what you read, you put it in the bag, not just what you have read or experienced before.

If we dropped ballast everything would be easier, but we wouldn't write novels

Q.

We know where Sil comes from, but what about Laura, the young protagonist?

R.

When I was writing the novel I was afraid that something very youthful would come out of me, but I stopped worrying, there was a moment when I said to myself "do what comes out of...".

It has things about me, of course, but it's a mixture of what adolescents were like at that time.

The ages were very different from now, and the realities.

Q.

What do we learn from this learning novel?

R.

Several characters are looking for a treasure, so to speak, and Laura doesn't look for anything but she is the one who finds the most.

She wants to take a life that is hers.

The previous one was the impostada.

Q.

Is life easier if ballast is released?

A.

Of course.

We all live with a lot of ballast.

Laura is a young character and she's not supposed to have it.

If we all managed to get rid of the ballast it would be much easier.

A tiger wakes up every day being the same tiger and it doesn't matter what happened.

And the human being is what happened to you, what you think is going to happen to you because that other thing happened to you and so on.

It would be easier, but we wouldn't write novels.

Q.

surprises with some well-executed turns.

To what extent was the structure defined in advance?

R.

I think I lack a lot of trade.

I always believed that the second was going to be easier than the first.

Lie.

I wrote the first one as a mourning for the death of my father and this one has cost me more.

I had clear things, but many others, not at all.

Q.

Can we only write about those we know?

R.

Yes from the emotional point of view, but the human being does not harbor so many emotions, we all go with the same, very basic ones.

There are very different circumstances that can stir an emotion.

And the writer has to manage those springs.

It seems to me a joke of fate that I listened to my father just when he was no longer there

Q.

So how do we write about ourselves?

R.

Writing about one is very, very difficult.

The only way is when you don't intend to do it and things come out that are yours, when you forget that it's you who writes.

Q.

How do you balance writing and life, the trade with which to earn your bread?

R.

While you write you earn a living, because there is no other.

Until now I have combined it with other things, but in the end, very late in

I began to download work and focus on this.

It's dizzy, yes, but I'm 56 years old.

I don't have a good time writing, but it's what I want to do.

Q.

What question have you had ready when there was no longer the right person to answer it?

R.

It has happened to me with many people, but especially with my father.

When you have had the person in front of you, you have not been interested in the least, nor have you been busy because you were with other things, those that correspond to your reality, it is not a reproach that one should make, I think, because it is normal.

Lives run at different times but now I would ask my father many things that I never asked him, also out of modesty.

When these people are not there, they no longer play the role they used to play, they are no longer parents, grandparents, they are entities that are inside you and that modesty is already lost.

Now that you are adding years you think, oysters, how good would he tell me about this.

Q.

More than four years have passed between the first and the second novel.

Will the third come sooner?

A.

I hope so.

I'm a slow cooker.

But it's also true that I'd rather be happy with the result than rush.

Q.

What great story do you want to write?

R.

The ambition is that the next one goes well for me.

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