The final chapter…a new chapter!

The final chapter has been approved and this means the end of a year of interviewing, writing and revising stories for my book ‘La Herradura Reflections’. A book that I wanted to write without really knowing why. Curious as this may seem, there was a strong urge within me, an urge born out of curiosity and irritation. I was curious and irritated about the fact that so many interesting cultural things happened in the village where I live, La Herradura, and that I always seemed to hear about it after the event had taken place. Why did I not know about the great flamenco spectacle on the village square, why did I miss the opening of that interesting exhibition? Why did I not know about the live Jazz music in a local café or about the Blues festival? For a part it had to do with my own ignorance of course as most events were publicised on A3 size posters put up on information boards on the sea front and some even mentioned on a big banner waving in the wind between two palm trees on the beach. I have to admit, I am usually busy imagining a story, remembering an adventure, repeating a worrying thought or thinking about my shopping list whilst I make my way through the village, unaware of posters, information boards and banners. But who were these artists that had found their way to this village, why were they here and what inspired them? I knew my own artistic story of coincidence or destiny, depending on one’s view on life, but what about their stories? I decided that I wanted to find out and the idea was born. I was going to write a book. I first created a questionnaire with 24 questions and approached some artist friends. The ball started rolling and every time I interviewed an artist, they gave me the name of several others. My list of artists like writers, dancers, musicians, singers and painters was so long that I had to create some conditions. I decided that all foreign artists had to live in La Herradura for longer periods every year and be more or less full-time artists with no other job on the side and that the Spanish artists had to either live in the village or have a house or studio in La Herradura. Whilst I was interviewing the format of the book took shape. I wanted to share the fascinating village history and evolution and give voice to some interesting characters and organisers of cultural events as well. Each story would have a description of the village, taking the reader on a journey through its streets and nearby mountains and giving a peek into the minds of the artists. Little did I know what I had taken on. It wasn’t the first time I had written a book in a similar format, interviewing people to then write their experiences in a story-telling way in the first or third person. For my book Cheers I interviewed partners, children and friends of people with an alcohol addiction and also alcoholics and healthcare workers, to show the human side of this world-wide problem and to help those affected by it to find a way out of their situation of isolation and despair. All interviewees read and approved their story before publishing, but remained anonymous. I wrote and published the book within a period of five months. My La Herradura book is a different story, possibly because it isn’t anonymous, but it has been an amazing journey. Most interviews took place in the privacy of my living room. No doubt the coming and going of predominantly men of all sizes, shapes and ages, entering our front door whilst my Spanish husband was out working, raised some eye brows and gave the housewives in the neighbourhood some interesting gossip material. I met most of the artists for the first time at my front door and it was fascinating to hear their reasons for coming to La Herradura. They explained how they found it, why they decided to stay and how the village inspired them. I felt inspired by their stories and amazed about the interesting facts that I learned on the way about flamenco, archaeology and much more. The stories almost wrote themselves and apart from a few minor tweaks most interviewees were happy to approve their stories. I felt it was all flowing really well. I always write in English but I had decided that this book also needed a Spanish version since it is taking place in and talking about a Spanish village, so every time I finished a story it went to my translator. I feel lucky to have found someone bilingual who was willing to do the translation in exchange for one of my larger paintings. During my year working on this book I had no other income and no budget for translators or proof readers so I feel blessed and grateful that they love my artwork so much that they are happy to do the work, and it is a lot of work, for a painting instead of money. After the translation and a quick proof by one of my Spanish family members the story went to the Spanish language artists in question. The word mañana suddenly showed its full potential. I am Dutch but not having lived in my country of birth for over sixteen years means that I do not consider myself very Dutch anymore, however, punctuality and sticking to appointments and promises are pretty much ingrained into my system. In those cases that I have become a bit negligent and fail to do as I said I feel bad and ashamed. I also don’t like to bother people and the fact that I had to remind some of the artists numerous times to read and possibly tweak and approve their stories made me feel hugely uncomfortable. It was very obvious to me that they were unaware of this as most of them were ever so sweet and complimentary about my representation of their experience, but there were also moments I felt I had to tiptoe through a mind-field and keep my Dutch direct to an absolute minimum in order to keep some egos happy. This chapter is now closed and I can relax. It feels great that the last story has been checked and approved and now in the hands of my Spanish and English proof readers who are taking care of the final grammar checks before it can be prepared for print and the launch in this coming spring. A new chapter in my life is about to start. One of spreading the word, getting it to the reader and most of all, let it go, as my next book is already taking shape in my head when I walk through the streets of my home village of La Herradura, totally unaware of the posters and banners announcing yet another interesting cultural event.

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