Archivi tag: books

DAVIDE SIMEONE

“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.”

― Anne Frank

 


Davide Simeone

Avvocato, 32 anni, vivo a Lecce.
La mia prima pubblicazione è avvenuta nel 2003, a diciannove anni, con il romanzo Come dico Io, premiato l’anno successivo alla V Biennale del Premio La Lama.
Nel 2005, con la mia seconda esperienza narrativa, Quattro, ho conseguito il Premio Ignazio Ciaia – Nunzio Schena e nel 2007 ho realizzato il mio terzo lavoro, il romanzo L’alba di domani.
Nel 2013 ho pubblicato il romanzo Rewind, premiato dall’Associazione Asterisco.
Dal 2014 collaboro con il blog letterario Inchiostro di Puglia, per il quale ho realizzato il racconto breve Caterina va a Martina.
Ho un mio blog su WordPress e collaboro come social media manager con alcune piccole realtà imprenditoriali pugliesi.

“La scrittura resta: va sola per il mondo”
– Sylvia Path

Sono nato in quello che Wikipedia definisce un ridente paesino, ma in realtà ho scoperto che c’è poco da ridere: e così ho iniziato a leggere, senza sosta. E poi ho iniziato a scrivere, perché sono troppo emotivo per tenere tutto dentro e credo sempre che finché una cosa non è scritta non esista realmente. Ho una paura folle di diventare, un giorno, razionale, schematico e maledettamente noioso.

  “La lettura rende un uomo completo, la conversazione lo rende agile di spirito e la scrittura lo rende esatto.”
– Francesco Bacone

Il mio romanzo omaggia il Salento: il mare, il sole, il barocco e i silenzi di ogni scorcio. E’ la prima volta che un paesaggio diviene coprotagonista di un mio lavoro, ho sentito forte questo legame durante la mia esperienza a Milano, e credo che molti ragazzi che hanno lasciato questa terra troveranno nelle mie parole un modo per riconciliarsi con il proprio passato e con scelte di vita dolorose: partenze e addii.

“Uno scrittore è un mondo intrappolato in una persona.”
– Victor Hugo

Il problema attuale in Italia? Tutti scrivono e nessuno legge! A complicare ancora di più le cose, la crisi del settore editoriale impone prezzi un po’ troppo alti per un lettore medio, e così ogni autore è costretto a scegliere la scorciatoia del blog, oppure ad affidarsi ai lettori forti, quelli da un libro al mese, per intenderci. E inoltre, purtroppo, i nuovi schemi del web impongono letture veloci, nell’attesa di una metro o che sia il proprio turno in sala d’attesa, e questo va a discapito della creatività di un autore, costretto a cercare sempre più la frase a effetto che il contenuto elaborato.

“Io voglio che alla baionetta sia equiparata alla penna”  
– Vladimir Majakovskij

Il libro si ispira al bisogno che tutti abbiamo di trovare un posto che possiamo chiamare casa. Il mio protagonista è tormentato da un passato ingombrante e incapace di trovare una sua serenità interiore: vagabonda tra Milano e il resto del mondo, ma è troppo inquieto per vedere davvero la sua strada… prendo il lettore per mano e lo porto in questo viaggio dentro se stessi.

A seguito di un attentato terroristico, il nevrotico Stefano Randi, autore di fiabe per bambini, si ritrova bloccato per quattro giorni nel Salento, a pochi chilometri dal suo paese natale.
Grazie alla sua amica d’infanzia Chicca, ragazza madre della piccola Camilla, Stefano verrà introdotto nella piccola comunità di contadini e pescatori di Monterrino: accanto ad Al e Giuliana, anziani coniugi sposati da oltre trent’anni, e a padre Randall, ex migrante e guida spirituale del paese, Stefano riscoprirà il valore delle piccole cose e della vita semplice del Sud.
Alice, la sua incantevole musa, lo aiuterà a superare ansie e paure con dolcezza e pazienza, in una lenta e sorprendente accettazione di se stesso, con tutti i suoi limiti e le sue deliziose imperfezioni.

Davide Simeone

Lawyer, 32 years old. I live in Lecce. I was 19 years old at the time of my first publication in 2003, the novel was called Come dico Io, it obtained La Lama Award at the V Biennale.
In 2005, with my second book, Quattro, I received Ignazio Ciaia – Nunzio Schena Award and, in 2007, I completed my third book, the novel L’alba di domani.
In 2013 I published the novel Rewind, awarded by Asterisco Association. I have been collaborating with the literary blog Inchiostro di Puglia since 2014, for which I have written the short story called Caterina va a Martina.
I also have my own blog and I work as Social Media Manager for some small reality businesses in the region of Puglia (Apulia).

 

“You can make anything by writing.”
– C.S. Lewis

I was born in what Wikipedia describes as a charming and pleasant village, but there was nothing to be pleased about, and so I started reading without ceasing. Then, I started writing because I am too emotional to keep everything inside and I believe that until something is not written down, it does not really exist. I am very scare to become, one day, rational, schematic and darn boring.

“A word after a word after a word is power.”
– Margaret Atwood

 

My novel pays homage to the Salento Region: the sea, the sun, the baroque style and the silences that fill every corner. It’s the first time in which a landscape becomes a join protagonist of a work of mine, I felt that this bond was really strong when I left for Milan ( in the far North of Italy), I am convinced that many young people who had to leave our land will find in my words a way to reconcile with their past and with some painful life choices: departures and goodbyes.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
– Maya Angelou

Being a writer today in Italy is problematic: everyone writes but nobody reads. In addition, to make things more complicated, the crisis of the publishing industry compels higher prices to the average reader, this leads authors to use shortcuts as blogs, or to rely on the “one-book- a-month” readers. Furthermore, the web nowadays imposes ultra-quick read times at the expense of the creativity of an author, forced to pursue always and continually a catch-phrase instead of an elaborate content.

“If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.”          
– Martin Luther

The book is inspired to the need of each one of us to find a place we can identify as home. My main character is an author of stories and fables, Stefano Randi, tormented by his past who wanders restlessly between Milan and the rest of the world… but he cannot see its own way. Thanks to his dear friend Chicca, he will be introduced to a small community of farmers and fishermen in Monterrino. Eventually he will meet the muse of his life, Alice. She will support him and drive him into a new brighter life where he will be able to accept himself, his limits and his flaws.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Schermata 2017-03-16 alle 10.37.27

 

Davide is here, talk with him: DAVIDE SIMEONE FACEBOOK PAGE

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”

― William Wordsworth

Jesús Cañadas

“As you can see, there have been many changes in my life in the last twelve years, but one thing has always remained the same: my passion for literature. I have been reading for almost as long as I can remember. At some point, I also started writing my own stories.”

 

Let’s start talking about you, who is Jesús Cañadas?

I was born in the south of Spain in 1980, in a small city called Cádiz. I lived there since I was 23 years old. At that time I left to study in Venice. I was going to leave for just one year, but it turned out that I never came back. Since then, I have lived in 13 different cities: Madrid, Barcelona, Osaka, Lecce, San Sebastián, Göttingen, Frankfurt… right now I spend most of the time in Berlin. As you can see, there have been many changes in my life in the last twelve years, but one thing has always remained the same: my passion for literature. I have been reading for almost as long as I can remember. At some point, I also started writing my own stories.

When did you start writing and how did it happen?

I guess these things just happen. I have been a huge fantasy / horror fan since I was a teenager. You start day-dreaming about writing the same stories that touch you in any way. Then you imitate your favorite writers and, needless to say, you write crap. You spend an indecent amount of time writing crap, until one day something switches in your head and you understand how to write something that is neither plagiarism of those authors nor crap. That is the beginning. After that you have to learn how to write for real.

I wrote my first crappy short story when I was fifteen, I think. Luckily for the whole world, it has been lost for ages. I spent the next twelve years trying to figure out what makes a good story. Writing a novel seemed too far away for me. I used to tell myself I was not ready yet. Until one day, while I was living in Göttingen, I said to myself: “You stupid fuck; when do you know you are going to be ready? Come on and give it a try!” The result was my first novel, which I finished in Osaka: “El Baile de los Secretos.”

I guess that was pretty much it. I have not stopped ever since.

Which kind of writer are you?

Until the present day I have written three books: “El baile de los secretos”, a dark fantasy heavily inspired by early Tim Burton’s works or films such as Pan’s Labyrinth, was published in 2011.

Then came “Los nombres muertos”, a sort of classic adventure novel starring H.P. Lovecraft himself, where he is forced to travel around the world to find a book that does not exist. That one was published by Penguin Random House in 2013. It will be translated into Portuguese and published in Brazil at some point in 2015.

My third novel “Anochece” could be described as a murder mystery with a strong fantastic component. It will also be published in Spain in 2015. I am currently writing my fourth novel, from which I still cannot tell you much. But this much I can tell: there is fantasy, there is horror, there will be blood!

As you can see, fantasy is my favorite genre. It is not the only genre I read; I actually do not advise to read only one genre. But no matter what I write, some fantastic element ends up finding its way into the story. However, even though you can find monsters, demons, cults, nazis, cannibals, giant squids and whatnot in my stories, I think at some level they all deal with one simple topic: family.

Hobbies – Interests – Passions

People usually think that authors have intense, amazing lives. The truth is we are regular ordinary folks who wake up, sit in front of the computer with a coffee mug for a couple of hours and then go to work. The amazing things happen inside my head, but from outside it could not me more boring. My interests are most ordinary: I like travelling, I consider myself a decent cook, I am also a big cinema fan… … Hello? … We are in an interview! WAKE UP!

Where do you get the inspiration to write? How much of you and your life is in your books?

Literally everywhere. It can be a film, something I read in a book, a comic, maybe a conversation… actually, all of the latter together. Everything mixes in your head and lays there for hours, days, whatever. Then you go jogging or do the dishes and, bam! you get the idea. However, the idea is not the problem. The difficult part is sitting your ass down and turning that amazing idea into an amazing story. That part is hard as fuck; that is why writing has much less to do with inspiration as it has to do with work.

Everything from me and my life is in my books. I am part of all the characters, even though something it is incredibly difficult to control them.

Can you “describe” us how it works when you write?

Exactly as I explained before: boring. I wake up at 7.00 a.m. I pee. I make coffee. I am grumpy and feel like shit and complain about everything and my back hurts and I ask myself what I am doing with my life and why I don’t sleep more. I drink coffee. I feel better. Much better, actually. It is 7.30, so I better start hitting the keyboard. Then I write for two hours. Sometimes I hit 2.000 words, sometimes I do not even reach 400. Sometimes every single sentence sucks and I fell that I do not know how words match together anymore. But other times, and this is why I everyone writes, the story is alive and you feel like it comes through you, that you are really just a channel. This state of mind is called “the flow” and it is almost like a drug.

I also have a day job, so at 9:30 I stop and pretend I am working. I work from home, so this is not difficult. I will spend the rest of the day thinking what happens next in the novel. After work I will try to read at least other two hours. I keep a notebook close to write down any idea.

That is basically it: Wake up. Write. Repeat.

What do you miss from Spain? How is your life in Germany; what do you like more and what would you change?

Even in this question I am boring, you see? I miss the food, the sun and my friends, just as every other south European living in Germany. However, I cannot complain: I have a good job that leaves me enough time to write. I enjoy life in Berlin; I would not change it for any other city in Germany. Plus, my writing career is going pretty well: my second novel was shortlisted for every single fantasy award in Spain, plus it has been translated. Critics have listed my name among a new wave of writers that people should pay attention too!

As I said, I cannot complain. Nevertheless, I do complain, for complaining is a part of a Spaniard’s identity: I wish I had more time to write and more opportunities to visit my family in Spain. And I wish winter were not so cold in Germany!!

Let’ s talk about your last book: feel free to promote it!

Well, I can gladly promote my last book: “Los nombres muertos” (The Dead Names).

Website

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