Salva Raga gives us an interview, editor of the Valencian label Editorial Vinatea. A book written by many hands has just appeared in this publishing house, more than a hundred. Specifically, hundreds of authors and authors come together in this anthology of stories.. Precisely for this reason, I have chosen to ask him about this 101 Valencia crimes. Editorial Vinatea has been publishing since 2017 individual or anthological works whose entire profits are destined to give economic impetus to children's sports projects through a non-profit foundation. Other books in this format “centenary” son, For example, 101 Legendary events in the history of Valencia o 101 Stories of ancient advertising. GINÉS J. VERA.
Tell us about the cover of this book, the least curious; does not seek easy visual impact, sensationalist, that of blood and instant violence in a frame.
That's how it is. The cover of a book is the first business card with which the object is presented to the world., your baptism certificate, and the covers of the Vinatea publishing house already enjoy a certain aesthetic halo that identifies them as one of our first brand images. Besides, the collage format, as if it were a tetris, It allows you to integrate different images that can be both explanatory and descriptive of elements that the book includes and give you an omniscient vision of the philosophy it pursues., so this book is no exception.
The formula of the “101” It seems that it is on its way to becoming a new success for the Vinatea publishing house. Tell us how you reached this figure when proposing this project. criminal.
Almost from the beginning, the number 101 became a telluric figure for this editorial and, as if it were a game, People go to bookstores with a number that the sellers directly relate to our product.. At the beginning of our times, the number 101 We thought it would be a fun way to present apparently unconnected facts so that they would acquire homogeneity.. That initiative was so successful., which we have later replicated in works such as advertising stories, the stories of the centenary of the Valencia football club and, in this case, in the book of crimes. Let's not forget that the first mental connection we make of this number with reality is that of a famous story, So that origin also means that we can travel on that ship towards our most childhood memories..
Of the one hundred and one stories, being odd, I was wondering if there are more authors than female authors or vice versa?. Y, in line with it, yes when it comes to crimes, There are more criminals in the book of one of the two sexes or equally.
In our anthologies we never pretend that there is a numerical balance in what today is called gender because it seems to us that this is the worst way to claim a criterion of elementary justice such as that gender should not determine presence in one or another area of reality., but it must be that of merit. In any case, We have made a deep selection of 101 authors without paying attention to the length of their hair, use the expression, but taking into account a criterion of opportunity and relevance regarding its suitability to adjust to a type of stories that were tremendously demanding with respect to its plot..
Although the title mentions Valencia, I know that the crimes and their corresponding crimes are not limited to either the city or the Levantine province.. Can you tell us?
As you say, We try to ensure that the Vinatea publishing house is unfailingly linked to events on various topics that have to do with our lands., not only with those from the city of Valencia, not only with those from the province of Valencia, but of course with those of our neighboring provinces of Alicante and Castellón, so close geographically but so far in spirit at times. Both, that end up creating a rivalry with Cap i Casal that in many cases seems fictitious to me and that is fueled by interests that I cannot understand but that I reject outright since we are part of the same history and the same vital project..
I read somewhere that what attracts us most are the two extremes of life, the beginning (Sex) and the end (death). In this case these are crimes, although I think that there is not only death here, also other types of crimes and criminals. Tell us about it.
In this anthology of criminal stories there is a varied catalog of themes, which is what makes it especially flexible and especially rich.. In this sense, in this beginning and end that is included in your question, There are sexual crimes and there are blood crimes that originate from attacks., homicides or murders, but there are also other types of crimes that are crimes against property, intellectual crimes, scam crimes where the deception of one human being to another is what causes them, and also a last section of mysterious events in the city of Valencia that do not have a criminal origin but that also take us to that underworld of the unknown, of the unintelligible or, sincerely, of what makes us afraid.
Being a book with more than one hundred criminal stories, there will be those who think that they will be short in length., as well as that to read chronicles of events you already have the news or the newspaper library… But they are wrong, Well, they are not that short nor are they journalistic texts.. Is it so?
As usual, The spirit of our books is not to create a catalog that is a succession of technical data or where journalistic language prevails, but rather we want to create literature., good literature where the lyric, the epic or the narrative leaves certain comfort zones so that more experienced or newer hands have intellectual tools with which to express facts that filled the papers of our newspapers and that produce contradictory memories.. An extension of four pages on printed paper means that we have to be especially surgical and accurate in texts in which the beginning, The development and the middle or ending have the literary quality and the appropriate strategy to present a fact that is recognizable but that does not give us clues to specific places and names because that would place us in a dubious legal position and would open wounds that it is not our responsibility to remove..
From the publisher, you prepare an event to present the book. The authors will be there, There will be surprises and... I was wondering if things will end up like A's work.. Christie, that of '10 little black men', or like the title of the Berlin film (double wink, for being a Valencian filmmaker) 'Everyone to jail'. Comments, if they let you.
You say well that our presentations have become a true reference in which those who attend have the feeling that something different is always going to happen.. We started this type of presentation-show with fascinating women, then came the fascinating men, then the advertising stories and the stories of Valencia's centenary, and on this occasion the theme of these stories is going to offer us surprises that we do not want to reveal but that are going to be very scenic, very theatrical, and where the music, The narrative and the theatrical element will make it difficult once again to forget what we propose as an invitation to purchase our books.. In this we commit our talent and commitment. I don't want to forget, finally, the decisive intervention of volunteers like Rafa Sastre, Amparo Hoyos, Pere Lluis Alegre -or yourself- so that this anthology has become a reality.
