Once more, our beloved collaborator Cristina Jurado brings us an extremely interesting inteview. This time, she chats with the Spanish horror author Juan de Dios Garduño, whose novel Y pese a todo is being adapted into a movie. This interview was previously published in the miNatura magazine and you can read it in Spanish on Cristina's wonderful blog Más Ficción Que Ciencia. We thank miNatura and Cristina for letting us reproduce it here. Hope you enjoy it!
Striking fear into our hearts: An interview with Juan de Dios Garduño
Juan de Dios Garduño is a writer
born in Seville thirty something years ago who has built his personal
playground from horror literature. He is a member of Nocte (Spanish Association of Horror Authors), and has published
several novels: El arte sombrío (which
inaugurated the Stoker imprint in Dolmen), Y pese a todo (Dolmen), Apuntes
Macabros (23 Escalones), El camino
de baldosas amarillas (Tyrannosaurus Books) and El Caído (Entrelíneas Ed.)
Books have
always surrounded him. Starting a few years back, he has embarked in the publishing world
thanks to the imprint Palabras de Agua.
Prior to that, he studied to
become a librarian and worked in publishing houses such as Planeta. Author of many
forewords for numerous literary projects, his short stories populate the pages
of some of the most prominent anthologies. He has also acted as jury for
numerous literary contests, so one could question if Garduño sleeps or, rather like a creature of his own invention,
always holds a vigil. We have been very fortunate to contact him when he was
just back from a trip to Prague, where an international team is filming a movie
based on his novel Y pese a todo.
“Fear attracts us, only if we control the situation”
Cristina Jurado: The first question is a very
direct one. Why are you in love with fear? What is it in something threatening or
frightening -something we rather run away from- that attracts and repels us at
the same time?
Juan de Dios Garduño: I believe fear attracts us,
only if we control the situation. Nobody would like an assassin to enter his
home to try to kill him, even if they fail. Nevertheless we love to “live” those
situations through literature, cinema or videogames. I like to feel frightened,
only if fear is “controlled” somehow, if we can close the book and get out from
a story that is getting into us, if we can exit the cinema and have a drink or,
simply, if we can push a button from our game system and go out to buy bread.
CJ: I’m obsessed with knowing the creative
process of all authors I interview for miNatura.
How do you shape your stories? Do you have a method?
JDG: I’m the most chaotic writer you can imagine.
Sometimes I have an outline. Some others, I don’t. Sometimes I produce a
character “bible”. I can write every day for three straight weeks, and then
stop for a month. I need total silence or to listen to movie soundtracks. I’m a
complete chaos!
CJ: Horror literature drinks
from the fountain of human frustrations, from the deepest and most shameful desires,
from feelings like guilt, and from emotions as the fear of pain and the
unknown. What do you think it’s needed to create believable characters in a good
horror story?
JDG: The most important thing is for characters to have a
personality with well-defined features. You have to be faithful to the
character, writing what he or she would likely do and not what you would do.
Characters never must be mere puppets, they need to be alive. Many people laugh
at this rather obvious statement, but it’s the truth. Characters must surprise
even the author who has created them. They must make decisions that the
omnipotent and almighty narrator might not see coming.
“Readers are realizing we have as many good quality writers as other markets”
CJ: In El Camino de Baldosas Amarillas, released by Tyrannosaurus Books, musician and writer Félix
Royo created a soundtrack for the book, so the story can be read
with a tailored musical setting. How was this multifaceted project born? Do you
believe new formulae are needed to bolster horror in our country?
JDG: I worked with Félix before in a book-trailer and I
thought (and still think) he is a very talented musician. When the novel was
finished, I contacted him to see if he was interested in doing an original
soundtrack about it.
I believe we need to look for new formulae to boost
horror. We are working on it. Anyhow, horror authors are more respected now
than when I started.
CJ: In relation to the previous
question, I would like to know what do you think about new editorial
initiatives (crowdfunding, co-publishing and self-publishing). Do you think
they are beneficial or detrimental for this type of literature?
JDG: I believe everything is respectable. Everyone should
be able to publish as he or she wants or can. I took my way and I’m still here.
What I don’t like is to see people preaching from pulpits, thinking they hold
the absolute truth. If you like a particular method to publish, it does not
mean it would work for others.
CJ: What do you think about
fantasy literature in Spain? Specifically, what’s up with horror?
JDG: It’s really sad that we are in the midst of a
profound crisis, because never before Spanish authors had so many opportunities
as now to succeed. Today there are big publishing houses backing up local writers.
Not only two or three are getting published and not always the same ones. Readers
are realizing we have as many good quality writers as other markets. We only
need to have an opportunity to showcase ourselves. And we are doing it.
CJ: Surely you have been asked
many times about which fantasy authors have influenced your work. I personally
believe that authors from outside the genre, influencing a given writer, reveal
even more. In your case, who are they?
JDG: I hope Charles
Dickens, Torcuato Luca de Tena
or Mark Twain.
CJ: One of your novels, Y
pese a todo, has been adapted to the big screen and is being filmed as we
speak under the title Welcome to Harmony with a famous cast. Mathew Fox (Perdidos) and Jeffrey
Donovan (J. Edgar, Law & Order) play the main
characters, Miguel Ángel Vivas (Kidnapped)
directs it, and Vaca Films and Ombra Films are producing it.
What has been the journey of the story from the time you wrote it until the
filming was confirmed? Are you involved in the movie?
JDG: I’m not involved in the movie. I did not write the
screenplay. Everything started when Miguel
Ángel Vivas was looking for his new project and came across my book. He
liked it a lot and then spoke to the producers to buy the rights. The
production company blindly trusted his judgment, so they called my editors to
get the rights. That was at the end of 2010 and, after many ups and downs, they
are filming now.
This is the moment I would like to ask you for some
quick answers to these questions:
CJ: Star Wars or Star Trek?
JDG: Star Wars.
CJ: Fast food or home made food?
JDG: I gravitate a lot
towards fast food but, luckily, Ana is guiding me well.
CJ: If you had to choose to be a
character from a movie, which one would it be?
JDG: I’ll be a geek: Frodo.
CJ: Can you tell as the worst book
you ever read?
JDG: I’m sorry to say that I
was very disappointed with Off Season by Jack Ketchum,
even though I wouldn’t say it’s the worse I have read.
CJ: And the best book you ever
read?
JDG: I am Legend, by Richard Matheson.
CJ: Which type of music you like
to listen?
JDG: Mainly, soundtracks.
CJ: 3D cinema, yes or not?
JDG: It depends on the
movie, but I usually don’t watch movies in 3D.
CJ: If you had to choose to have
a super-power, which one would it be?
JDG: To fly.
We would like to
thank Juande for agreeing to this
interview, even though we know about his hyper-busy schedule. We are sure his
future will be brighter than the desolated landscapes he recreates in his
stories, and hope he will continue frightening us until we drop dead.
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