Writing in English & Spanish

Tales from the Pond

CUENTOS DE LA CHARCA

Tales from the Pond or Cuentos de la Charca were the first stories I wrote from beginning to end in Spanish. I was so excited and proud when I managed to finish the first one EL REY SAPO (The Toad King) that I decided to self-publish it just to see how it would look like in printed format.
It included a series of collaged portraits of the main characters which I created as illustrations for the text
(see images below)

Click on the image above to read EL REY SAPO for free in e-format.

How can I describe the Tales from the Pond? I suppose if I had to classify them, they would fall within the category of fables (since all the characters are animals) and also within the genre of magical realism (for all sort of strange things happen as part of their everyday lives). After that...well, things are a bit more complicated. Are they stories for children or for adults? Are they stand along novels or a series of short stories? Do you need to read them in a particular order?...Well, yes and no and everything in between! I couldn't say for sure...Does it really matter?

They are stories from a faraway land with a magical pond where strange animal-ruled kingdoms have developed and where the stories of their inhabitants connect with each other somehow throughout the years, sometimes even centuries! There is a selfish toad king who wears a golden headband with two big ears attached to it; a group of rats that work as seamstresses to the king; an illegal band of jazz formed by lanky frogs playing the bass and the clarinet...and many, many more! It really is a symphony of characters that just keep coming from some weird place in my imagination. To me, they are delightfully quirky and that's why I like writing so much about them. I just keep coming back to this pond and fishing magical tales that I'm then compelled to write.

The second book in the series is called EL EXTRANO VIAJE DE DON ADALMUNDO TEJON Y DON OSIMANDIAS TOPO.ASOCIADOS (The strange journey of Mr Osimandias Mole and Mr Adalmundo Badger. Associated Partners.). In this story, we witness the curious partnership of a badger and a mole who decide to go on a quest to find a secret passage to China, one not too long... or too dangerous...or that involves climbing high...or going near water...!... Once there, their plan is to exchange an old family recipe of hot and mega sticky chocolate for a few leaves of tea, so they can make a fortune back home serving it on little white and blue china cups that everybody will drink from as they rise their pinkie finger as only smartly educated people do...But will they ever get to China in the first place?

So far, I've always written these stories in Spanish but I would like to translate them for everyone to read. Keep an eye on the news for any developments in this respect.
In the meantime, if you can speak Spanish, go ahead and read my stories. I hope you enjoy your visit to the pond as much as I do.

And if you are a publisher looking for something special to offer to your readers, I'd love to hear from you. Please, do get in touch!