Laura Gallego García—The Spanish Queen of Swords

by Adriana Domíguez -- Críticas, 9/15/2008

Following the tremendous success of her fantasy trilogy Memoria de Idhún (“The Idhún Chronicles,” SM, 2004-2006), Laura Gallego García was almost immediately dubbed “the Spanish J.K. Rowling.” And it’s no wonder; the books broke all previous sales records for original young adult novels in her native Spain, and spawned legions of devoted fans, as evidenced by the significant growth of activity on her website.

The trilogy has been translated into several languages as well, carrying this young phenomenon out into the international sphere; fans—or “Idhunites” as they like to call themselves—can now be found all over the Americas and Europe. But despite her young age, the author’s success did not arrive overnight. Críticas recently contacted the author to discuss her two latest novels: Dos velas para el Diablo (“Two Candles for the Devil,” SM, 2008), and La emperatriz de los etéreos (“The Empress of the Ethereal Kingdom,” Santillana, 2007). In the process, we learned that this author’s literary success story is the result of a long-held appreciation for books, a lot of hard work, and her life-long desire to express herself.

You are a young and extremely prolific author, when did you begin writing?

I began writing when I was about ten or eleven. At 13, I finished my first novel, and though it was never published, by then I knew I wanted to be a writer. I wrote about a dozen books before publishing my first one, Finis Mundi, at age 21.

Did you always know you wanted to write young adult novels?

My usual response to this question is that my books are not young adult books because I write them with young people in mind, but because it is they who read them most and who make up my largest fan base, which, of course, makes me very proud. However, I write for me first, and secondly for whomever wants to reads my books, regardless of age.

I was very young when I began to write, so it didn’t occur to me to send my novels to adult publishers or to adult literature contests. I sent my novels to those who published the books I was reading at the time. The only publishers that offered material similar to what I was writing were children’s publishers. And so I ended up finding my niche within these publishers and readers. I never asked myself whom I was writing for; I write what I like, and I am thrilled to receive such tremendous support from young readers, despite the fact that I am no longer one of them.

Who are your favorite authors? Where do you get your inspiration for your fantasy novels?

I am a voracious reader; I read books of all kinds, especially young adult novels, and works of fantasy and science fiction. Those are the books that feed my imagination. I don’t believe that inspiration comes from a particular source. I get many ideas; some work themselves into novels; others do not. Writing is not just about inspiration; a novel has to have a well-developed plot and strong characters. This cannot be attained by simply waiting for inspiration to arrive; it requires a lot of work. I don’t know if I have favorite authors. I have favorite books, and these change all the time. The only book that I’ve continuously loved throughout my life is Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story, which I’ve read over 20 times since I was nine and remains my all-time favorite.

The protagonists of your latest books, La emperatriz de los etéreos and Dos velas para el Diablo, are both very strong girls who are not afraid of challenges. Do you see yourself reflected in them?

I write fantastic stories, hence the events that take place in them could never have taken place in my personal life; they are too far fetched. My life is very different from those of the characters in my stories. As their creator, I know my characters very well, which means that I know what they think and feel, and how they would behave in a particular situation. But I am not them, and not one of them is like me. The very nature of invention keeps me from ever becoming a character in one of my stories. Besides, everything that happens in a story—real or imaginary—shapes the nature of its characters. That’s why I’ve always thought that the only character I’ve written that is like me…is the protagonist of my journal!

How were La emperatriz de los etéreos and Dos velas para el Diablo received by the public? Have they been/will they be translated into any other languages?

The two books are very different from each other; La emperatriz is the first book I published after Memorias de Idhún. At that point in my life, I knew I wanted to write something entirely different; a fantasy that was a little stranger to make it clear to my readers that the trilogy had come to an end, and that I was going to move on to something else. I think that many fans of Idhún didn’t care for that departure.

La emperatriz has been best received by readers who were familiar with my work before the trilogy, and who are aware of my many different writing styles within fantasy. Dos velas has been best received by fans of the trilogy because it borrows some of its elements: sword fights, characters of dubious moral values, and the timeless battle between good and evil. Both books have been translated into other languages, including French and German. Dos velas will soon be published in Italian and La emperatriz in Romanian.

La emperatriz… has a really original, beautiful setting. How did you come up with it?

I wouldn’t be able to answer this question without revealing some plot points. However, I can say that I wanted to write a different type of fantasy novel, where the setting became another one of its characters and was altogether different and strange. The description of each of the places visited by Bipa, that main character, has much to do with the evolution described in the story. I cannot reveal any more than that….

There has been a lot of talk about teenagers reading less and spending more time playing electronic games, surfing the Internet, etc. What are you thoughts on this?

I think that there will always be a smaller number of young people who love to read, and a larger number who don’t care for it as much. That was the case when I was a teen, and then, there was no Internet, no cell phones, and few people had computers or videogames in their homes. The difference between then and now, I believe, is that people who read were looked at with a greater degree of respect. Everyone knew that reading (like sports, or getting good grades at school) was something worth pursuing whether they did it, or not.

I feel that today’s teens have lost some of that respect for reading. Often, avid readers are looked at with disdain. That’s why I think that it is important that we pay more attention to the kids who love to read because they often feel marginalized, not just by their classmates, but by adults who often spend more time concentrating their efforts on non-readers. Reading campaigns are often structured to appeal to non-readers. I would like us to pay more attention to kids who love to read and not just set them aside, because the more marginalized they feel, the fewer readers we will have in the future.

Before Dos velas para el Diablo was published, you created a blog in which Cat, the main character, wrote her journal entries. Some of your fans have created clips with characters of your books in YouTube.com. Did that attract/is it attracting a lot of new readers?

I don’t think that the Internet works as a tool to attract new readers. A lot of attention has been focused on my web page, which is about five years old, and has a very large and active community of readers. Many have said that this is where the secret of my success lies. But if we look at the numbers, we find that this is not so. Despite the large number of subscribers to my website, its members make up only about 10 percent of my readers. And a large number of these members are not active. Cat’s blog was up for only about two months; a small amount of time in comparison to the website’s forum. It had a lot of visitors, of course, but again, these only made up a very small percentage of the book’s readers.

I’ve never believed that these tools attract new fans or readers, but rather, that they serve as a great way to connect existing readers, which is just as important. Reading is a solitary act, and teens like to engage in social activities. The value of creating a community of readers lies in the fact that fans of a particular book or author can use it to find each other and share their impressions of the books, and this is a wonderful thing.

Cat’s blog worked very much this way; most of the comments on it came from existing fans of my work. My goal in writing it was to keep my readers informed about my latest project, not to attract new ones. My fans have always taken it upon themselves to add to the pool by recommending my books to others; this is why I believe that word-of-mouth advertising will always work better than any Internet marketing campaign.

Are you working on a new novel? Can you tell us about it?

I am putting the finishing touches on Alas negras (“Black Wings”), which is a new fantasy novel about angels and demons, but very different from Dos Velas para el Diablo because it takes place in a fantasy world, and is of a more epic nature. The book is a continuation of another I wrote about five years ago called Alas de fuego (“Fire Wings,” Laberinto, 2004). Alas de fuego is one of my readers’ favorites, and they often complain that the book’s ending was left too open, so I decided to write a sequel. It should be released in the fall or spring.