Ten years later

Anyway. Today is the 10th anniversary of Vallvi—the craziest, longest, densest, most populous, and most personal book I ever wrote (pending the upcoming Heaven Park, which will beat it in all those areas).

Vallvi is also my least-read novel. And it hasn't aged well. I would never reissue it today without substantial changes to mitigate my ignorance, and still I fear it would go bad again in another ten years. In spite of that, I'm fonder of it than I am of later mistakes. That's because Vallvi was my first time addressing (albeit clumsily) questions that have haunted me for a long time: Gender. (My) masculinity. (My) sexuality. Emasculation. Self-destruction. 

 I was 29. I am 40 now, and I'm still figuring this shit out. I'm beginning to accept that there'll be no big epiphany at the end of the journey, so I might as well enjoy it. 

Heaven Park, I'm afraid, won't contain any answers either. But it will hopefully touch more people, and provide bigger, better-aimed laughs.

 

Hollywood Hills...

...és Vallvidrera amb palmeres, si fa no fa.

Some thousands of words about covers

So I want to share something with you today, but first, some backstory.

Recently, during a panel at Denver Comic Con, some authors discussed whether book cover artists actually read the books they illustrate. My position was that mine did, at least since I publish in the US.

I know this isn't always the case. Never was, never will be. It's how the industry works. For my first novel, Dormir amb Winona Ryder, released by a big Catalan publisher, designers sent me five proposals that were, at best, illustrations based on two-word concepts jotted down by someone who had read it. Emphasis on "at best": one was just a flower pattern. We went with a sixth proposal, just as random.

For my next book, Vallvi, I insisted (tooth and claw) on drawing the cover myself. In the end, they accepted the illustration, but went with their own design. (Left is the actual book, right is my proposal.)

This said, I have good reasons to affirm that my cover artist at Doubleday, Michael J. Windsor, reads my books before doing his job. First, I've met him and he's told me so. Second, just check out the back of the jacket for This Body's Not Big Enough.

That little thing in front of the car is a roadrunner. The roadrunner is a very minor theme in the book. No way a synopsis, even a thorough synopsis, would mention it. This is the kind of thing that tells me whether the artist has read the book or not.

And now, here's what I wanted to share: this design for the Brazilian edition of Meddling Kids is clearly by someone who has *SO* read the book.

The illustration, I'm told, is by Jefferson Costa. And I think it's my favorite design for anything I've written, ever. It's not that the looks are perfectly dark and fun, it's not just Kerri's lavish red hair and the car that really looks like a Vega Kammback Wagon (and I even like the color). I mean... let's zoom into some details:

That little Kerri there seems to be reading something longer than a mysterious note to the BSDC. I'd say she's reading a love letter. (Also, check out the six-limbed wheezies!)

A figure lurking from the *round* attic window of Deboën Mansion. That's a very accurate rendition of my words.

And that's Pierce in Andy's hand. What can I say. Bravo, Brazil. Hope you enjoy the book as much as the artist seems to have.

My second book

As we continue to work on the upcoming Meddling Kids (or, as I descibe it to friends, the one with Michelle Rodriguez, Weimaraners, and amphibian monsters), I realize that for many of my readers this will be my second book. Only it won't.

The Supernatural Enhancements was only my English debut. Before that, I had authored two novels in Catalan. In fact, my second book came out five years ago this week. Whereas my first, Dormir amb Winona Ryder ("Sleeping with Winona Ryder", 2007) received awards and considerable academic attention, you're unlikely to ever read about my second⁠—not to mention read it, pending your learning a language with scant job prospects. So today I'd like to show you my second book.

This was the cover. Actually this was my proposal for it; the real thing kept the art, but toned down the comic-book style. But the art was mine, and you wouldn't believe how many weeks it took me. Here's the first sketch:

Vallvi was set in an alternate-history Vallvidrera. Vallvidrera is an actual suburb of Barcelona, and most of the geography in the book was real. I drew this Tolkien-inspired map to help foreigners keep up.

But I wasn't the only artist involved. One element in the plot was an underground comic-book that related some Vallvidreran backstory. One of my beta-readers and frequent collaborator Jordi March suggested that the comic be featured inside the novel. So I wrote it, he drew it, and this was the result.

There were eight pages of this!

I'm not going to tell you much of the plot, but let's just say there was a lot going on. And I had much fun writing it. Really; it's not my memory idealizing the past: much of the process was actually recorded on my Fotolog (yes, it was 2010 and I was still using Fotolog, oh em gee, el oh el), and I look happy there.

From my Fotolog archives: The fuel of champions.

This is the plot board. Not very enlightening, but it looked cool on the wall.

(Warning: spoilers for Catalan readers!)

And these are some photos I took during my frequent hikes to Vallvidrera, on the mountains north of Barcelona. Many spots were incorporated into the book, but where the real Vallvi is like a peaceful little village, mine had become a lawless punk dystopia taken over by eurotrash, gangsters, and violent junkies.

I had to write at home, but I used to take notes on the field. I'm very proud of this crucial passage, which made it to the book verbatim.

The main character was this young hipster author Edgar Cantero with a promising career in the highbrow Barcelona scene—until he visits Vallvidrera and his literary leitmotifs are ruined by drugs, car chases and punk superheroes. Those things are hard to write in Catalan, which is a language more suitable for 19th century rural dramas than psychedelic trips and action sequences. To try and overcome this difficulty I made up a Vallvi slang, borrowing words from English and French. A five-page appendix provided some assistance, and I later designed these "Learn Vallvi" cards with some definitions.

And to top it all, since I'd ended up with a bunch of sexy colorful badass characters, I came up with some stickers! Looking back, I made for Vallvi the most sophisticated art in my life.

What did all this effort result in? Well, Vallvi came out in June 2011. It sold no more than 500 copies.  [Edited 2019: 8 years later, it's safe to say the publisher destroyed the surplus.] It got little media attention and very few reviews. The one I liked most, after attempting to summarize the overpopulated plot, ended with, "You will likely think it's all excessive, crazy, and overwhelming. It is, and that's why it's funny."

I never got published in my country again. If you asked the people who in the wake of Dormir amb Winona Ryder called me a "promising" author, the few who remember my name would tell you I never delivered.

Second books come with their own set of concerns and anxieties: living up to expectations and all that stuff. I despise that cliché, but damn, it was so real for me! Vallvi was so greatly shaped up by that "second book syndrome" that I turned it into a "fuck-the-second-book-syndrome-book." In it I tried to say that calling someone "promising" is not flattery; at best, it's condescension. All it does is undervalue the work that person has already done. Vallvi said, almost in as many words, "fuck literature, I won't mature. I will live here in the mountains, get drunk, and keep dreaming of Winona Ryders—the one in America, and the two new ones I fell in love with while writing this—and all my effort will be aimed toward impressing them, not you; all my skill to try to pour into words the beauty they inspire me."

It's a guideline I still abide by, as you'll see in Meddling Kids. Which will be awesome. :)

Vallvi Trading Cards!

Hace mucho tiempo que trabajaba con la idea de fabricar cromos con los personajes de Vallvi, tal como los regalarían con un cao en tu paqui de confianza. De momento he publicado la primera mitad de la primera serie. No sé si habrá más mitades. O más series. Como ya he dicho, llevo mucho tiempo con esto. Demasiado. La primera entrega, en mi Flickr.

Vallvi - 100% Completed

Pues esto ya está.

Guerras de bandas. Yonkis psicóticos. Superhéroes amateurs. Chicas sin pantalones. Explosiones, mutilaciones y persecuciones en BTT. Ah, y un asesino. Por aquello de añadir un conflicto en la trama. Todo ello en un barrio con unas vistas acojonantes.


Vallvi. La segona novel·la d'Edgar Cantero. En catalán. Ya en librerías. Para leer comiendo palomitas.

Vallvi peeks 2

Vallvi peeks

Vallvi

(En grande.)