Building bridges, not walls
She had an older sister, Betty, but they never got on. She was too formal, too obedient. She was also her mother’s pride and joy, whilst she was not. But she didn’t mind too much, so long as she was allowed to go out exploring and climbing trees.
One day, however, her childhood morphed into something else as the air became tense.
As I stood in front of the enlarged portrait, the same sensations arose, but something else revealed itself to me. Something more important that I had not noticed before, just like the image surfacing in the bath of the dark room; their gazes looked empty. Like their eyes were open but they weren’t seeing anything. Like their expressions were being hidden in the past. And so, my mission to find out about them was born, who they were and how they lived, so that their astonished gazes would suddenly light up with meaning and they would hand over their deepest secrets to me.
Ever since they boarded the Baltic they’ve killed the hours with long conversations, which at times have been a welcoming respite and other times a tedious condemnation. Aquilino tends to favor silence and has little in common with these middle-aged married men. But half of the village has decided to emigrate to San Francisco, so Aquilino is resigned to the company that destiny has provided.
Desde que embarcaron en el Baltic los hombres han matado las horas con largas conversaciones, lo cual a veces ha sido una salvación y otras una condena. Aquilino es de los que prefiere el silencio y poco tiene en común con estos hombres de mediana edad ya casados. Pero medio pueblo ha decidido emigrar a San Francisco así que Aquilino asume con resignación la compañía que le ha brindado el destino.
My grandmother’s house in Atlantic City… this white and pink house a block away from the ocean… you just went in and it felt like home. Whenever I’m thinking about writing or where I feel both safe and comfortable enough to create and imagine anything that’s possible… I go back to that place, that house… When I think about my literary home is that house that’s no longer there.
[Being a writer you need] to take care of yourself… because writing can be really hard… for my writing I deal with topics such as PTSD and trauma and that affects you mentally as well…. Having a daily exercise routine is also important [to support your writing routine]. I practice yoga and go for walks.
The sea strips / the sand into strata, / shifts the timeline /on the tides. / The village / was Saxon, was Viking / was Roman. /Was here, then gone.
I don’t have a writing routine for my writing now, it mostly happens in little bursts in between finishing something … More
If you are looking for an agent you’ll have to pull all your connections and you can’t be too pushy … More
In this extract, Inés discusses how to write in a langue that is not your mother tongue and how to find publishers in different countries.
THE WANDERING BARD 