#Interviews-in-translation. Today @EnriqueLaso and ‘The Blue Crimes’

Hi all:

I promised I’d bring you another interview with an author who’s well known for his books in Spanish. Although to tell you the truth, our guest today, Enrique Laso, is well-known everywhere, as he’ll explain himself. He’s a very driven author and when I met him I was sure he’d be a fascinating subject for an interview. I also asked him to talk to us about his most recent novel available in English. So here he is.

Mini biography

I was born in Badajoz in 1972.

I have lived in Badajoz, Murcia, Valencia, Barcelona and Madrid. Thanks to my profession and to an eagerness to travel that has been a part of me since my childhood I have had the chance to visit more than thirty countries in the five continents.

After a break of 10 years, having won several awards as a teenager and having published three books then, in 2005 I resumed my literary career. That year I published a novella ‘Desde el Infierno’ (From Hell), adapted for the cinema in 2014 by Luís Endera, I wrote some special collaborations sporadically for newspapers and several magazines, and I created my first blog (http://www.owachy.com/).

At the moment I’m busy with several projects, of which the most important are the novels, Cataclismo, The Tesla Mystery and Heaven of Happiness. My latest novels have been published under several pseudonyms, the majority unknown to the big public. The only one I’ve revealed to this date, and therefore I don’t mind mentioning, is Henry Osal, whose writing is focused on self-help manuals and personal development.

My most successful novel, El Rumor de los Muertos (The Rumour of the Dead), with more than 130000 digital copies sold, is available in paperback in all big bookshops since the autumn of 2014, published by MR (Planeta). It has been recommended by writers such as Juan Gómez Jurado, Bruno Nievas or Blanca Miosi (yes, our guest last week!).

I have sold, to this date, more than 300000 books, many of them available in Spanish, English, French, Italian and Portuguese (I’ve been translated to 12 languages, including the books written under pseudonym), I’ve won a large number of literary contests and I’ve published over fifty newspaper articles.

How and when did you start writing?

When I was eight years old. I was an avid reader, and a slightly introverted boy. I wrote a novella called ROCA (Rock) about a young lad who wasn’t able to communicate and ended up becoming a rock. It was a way of expressing myself and communicating my feelings better.

Describe briefly your experience as an independent writer.

Fantastic. The truth is that although I’ve published with four different publishing companies, I carry on publishing independently. I have received many offers to sign long-term writing contracts, but I think I’m better off free. Nowadays an author has many more possibilities and more strength when it comes to negotiating.

What’s the moment you remember more fondly (so far) of your experience as a writer?

There are many. But I think the day when I found myself number 1 in Amazon.com for the first time it was the most emotive, because of what it meant (and, in truth, from that moment on my life changed for the better).

What made you decide to get your work translated?

Amazon encouraged me, and also many of my readers from the USA did the same. They thought my novels would be very successful in other languages and they weren’t wrong. I’ve been N.1 in several categories in Amazon, iTunes, Google Books, and Barnes and Noble, in English, French, Italian, German and Greek!

Tell us something about your book

THE BLUE CRIMES is a thriller, police procedural story, full of intrigue. From its inception I thought about the American market, and in just a month I’ve sold hundreds of copies and it has received 7 reviews (all very positive), among them one by one of the TOP-100 reviewers. Set in the ‘deep America’ it tells the story of the investigation of the murders of two girls, who are found near a lakeside by a promising agent of the Unit of Behavioural Analysis of the FBI. It has been compared with successful TV series such as CSI, Criminal Minds, Twin Peaks or True Detective, and that’s fantastic.

Andy advice for your fellow writers (and especially for new writers)

They are very typical, but the truth is that they work.

-To trust in themselves

-To persist, persist, persist

-To never stop reading and learning

-To accept the help and advice of professionals

-To not dismiss marketing or think it is not part of the job.

Don’t forget to check his blog (see link above) and here I leave you his Amazon page:

http://www.amazon.com/Enrique-Laso/e/B004KCULSA/

 

The Blue Crimes

A SUPERB CRIME NOVEL. GRIPPING FROM START TO FINISH.

‘And so proceeds Enrique’s THE BLUE CRIMES and the manner in which he places Ethan Bush and team in the resolution of crime is tense, suspenseful, and at all times involving. This is quality mystery writing by a voice new to most of us – a welcome addition to the thriller genre’

Grady Harp, TOP-100 Reviewer/ Hall of Fame/ Vine Voice

_________________________________________________________
Two bodies found in a lagoon.
A promising FBI special agent.
A crime that occurred almost twenty years ago.
A convoluted mystery novel that grabs you.
_________________________________________________________
If you enjoyed novels like ‘The Silence of the Lambs‘ or TV series as ‘Twin Peaks‘ or ‘True Detective‘… this is the story that you have been waiting for.
_________________________________________________________
FROM CHAPTER I
By the time they called me, a whole week had passed since the second body had been discovered. This was a setback as much of the evidence would have disappeared by now and I’d have to work with what little evidence the local police, unaccustomed to these types of crimes, would have been able to collect. Luckily I had been allocated a competent enough CSI unit and as we flew from Washington to Kansas City International Airport, we imagined, quite rightly as it turned out, that the crime scene will have been spoiled by dozens of well-meaning but clumsy Deputies.
Liz, who I already knew professionally from the only case that I’d worked on up to then, handed me a folder containing photos; the cyanotic bodies of two naked girls, abandoned in a lagoon, like the unimportant remnants of a quiet morning picnic. I was staring into the open eyes of one of the young girls, who could not have been more than twenty years old, when I was struck by her plea: “You must find who did this to me.”

Link to the novel: 

http://www.amazon.com/THE-BLUE-CRIMES-Enrique-Laso-ebook/dp/B00UQV3BYA 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/THE-BLUE-CRIMES-Enrique-Laso-ebook/dp/B00UQV3BYA

 

Enrique has also left me with one of the reviews, to give you some idea of the opinions about it.

`You must find who did this to me.’, March 28, 2015

By

Grady Harp

Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

This review is from: THE BLUE CRIMES (Kindle Edition)

Enrique Laso was born in Badajoz, the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain, situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana, in 1972. Although professionally he has always been linked to the world of marketing and communication, literature is his true passion. He began writing in his teens and in 1994 won the Murcia youth national prize for his poetry collection ‘Lost children’. In 2005 he published the short novel ‘from hell’, adapted to film in 2014. He has published several novels under pseudonyms, the only one revealed by the author is Henry Osal who has signed several self-help manuals. ‘The sound of the dead’ is the novel with which he has had more success. It has sold more than 250,000 books and has been translated into 12 languages. He has won numerous literary competitions throughout his extensive literary career. For personal reasons, he did not write for almost ten years, until in 2005, when he revived his passion, and since then he has dedicated himself to writing whole-heartedly.

Enrique knows his way around mystery thrillers and of interest this Spanish author has placed his current story in the heartland of the American Midwest. He opens his story with a rather gruesome setting: `By the time they called me, a whole week had passed since the second body had been discovered. This was a setback as much of the evidence would have disappeared by now and I’d have to work with what little evidence the local police, unaccustomed to these types of crimes, would have been able to collect. Luckily I had been allocated a competent enough CSI unit and as we flew from Washington to Kansas City International Airport, we imagined, quite rightly as it turned out, that the crime scene will have been spoiled by dozens of well-meaning but clumsy Deputies. Liz, who I already knew professionally from the only case that I’d worked on up to then, handed me a folder containing photos; the cyanotic bodies of two naked girls, abandoned in a lagoon, like the unimportant remnants of a quiet morning picnic. I was staring into the open eyes of one of the young girls, who could not have been more than twenty years old, when I was struck by her plea: “You must find who did this to me.” Horrified, I turned the photos over and looked out the window of the small Gulfstream III; we were already over the state of Illinois.’

We meet Ethan Bush, and FBI agent, haunted by the fear that his initial success with the FBI may not be reproducible and that he may be destined to fail. But he is assigned a cold case – in addition to the two cyanotic girls mentioned earlier, there is Sharon Nichols who was not exactly killed yesterday. Her lifeless body appeared in the same place as the other two unfortunates, but in 1998, that is … almost 17 years ago. It was a case that went unsolved and was eventually shelved, like many others. This is the reason we needed you. We fear that we are facing a serial murderer who has returned to the area … Who can tell how many victims he might have claimed during the last nearly twenty years!’

And so proceeds Enrique’s THE BLUE CRIMES and the manner in which he places Ethan Bush and team in the resolution of crime is tense, suspenseful, and at all times involving. This is quality mystery writing by a voice new to most of us – a welcome addition to the thriller genre. Grady Harp, March 15

 

Thanks to Enrique for agreeing to come and be interviewed, thanks to all of you for reading, and you know what to do, like, share, comment and CLICK!