Claudia Ramírez presented “La corte del eclipse” at Filbo 2023: “I don’t think you have to put books on a pedestal, that drives readers away”

Claudia Ramírez Lomelí is one of the Mexican authors invited to the 35th edition of FILBo

During the 35th edition of the Bogotá International Book Fair, FILBo, the guest country has been Mexico, one of the most important in the publishing industry in Latin America, one of the writers who were part of this delegation was Claudia Ramírez Lomelí, who presented his book “La corte del eclipse” at FILBo, the last of a trilogy that he has been publishing since 2018.

Better known on social networks as Clau Reads Books, Ramírez Lomelí has ​​been running a popular YouTube channel for almost 10 years, thanks to which she has become one of the booktubers with the most followers in Mexico and one of the most recognized in the world of BookTube.

Through her social networks, Claudia Ramírez has focused, since 2013, on promoting and removing preconceived ideas about youth literature. She recommends books, she makes reviews and challenges in videos in which fantasy books stand out mainly and those that are classified as juvenile in bookstores; she always with the intention of sharing with other people her taste for books and attracting the youngest to this habit.

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“Youth literature is rubbish”, was the title that this booktuber gave to her TEDx talk in 2020, at which time she addressed one of the criticisms that she received the most on her social networks for being a reader of this type of novel. and he insisted on his purpose of demonstrating why fantasy worlds and youth publications were essential to bring the new generations closer to books.

“The court of the eclipse” is the final book of the trilogy that the “booktuber” published in 2018 (@gvanille)

After being an avid reader of fantasy worlds, full of magic and supernatural beings, Claudia Ramírez became the creator of her own universe. In 2018, together with the Planeta publishing house, she published her first book called “The Prince of the Sun”, with which she opened a trilogy that addressed the war between the nation of the sun and the kingdom of the moon, with their respective royal families. .

In mid-2019, “The Moon Thief” arrived, the second part of his story and, in the midst of the pandemic, he released a book apart from the trilogy, but connected to this universe, called “Fenrai’s Memoirs.” The end of this story came at the end of 2022 with “La corte del eclipse”, a book that she talked about with Infobae Leamos prior to his presentation at FILBo on the afternoon of April 30.

– “The Eclipse Court” is the last installment of your trilogy, is there a process to say goodbye to the world you created and its characters?

– Yes. The truth is that writing “The Eclipse Court” was a totally different experience from the previous books because it’s just the end and I had to tie all the loose ends, above all I had to say goodbye to these characters who have been with me for so many years; I started writing these books in 2016 and they are already part of my life. It took me a lot to get used to the idea that I had to give them a full stop, that their story had to finish being told and for a long time I refused to write it. “The Prince of the Sun” and “The Moon Thief” were published in 2018 and 2019; the latter was until 2022, the pandemic influenced, of course, but also the fact that it was very difficult for me to say goodbye to the characters and make sure it was a satisfactory ending, that the characters deserved it, but that the readers liked it and that I eat author was satisfied. There was a lot of pressure from the readers, but in the end I wrote the ending that I wanted to read because I am also a reader, rather than a writer; if an ending is not good it can affect the whole reading experience.

Cover of “The Court of the Eclipse” by Claudia Ramírez Lomelí

– How did you make readers feel identified with the stories of a fantastic world that suddenly seems unthinkable?

– That’s what I like about fantasy and it’s that the place is another world, it doesn’t exist, but the characters are very real. In the case of my characters, I tried to make them very human, they have real fears, they have flaws, they have many obstacles. For example, the protagonist is afraid of not being enough, disappointing everyone and disappointing those who expect something from him, and I think that this is something that we have all felt at some point in life. There is another girl who has a very codependent relationship with her mom and she is living everything her mom wants, following her mom’s dreams and not hers, so we follow her on that journey of discovering who she wants to be and it happens to us too. a lot about wanting to fulfill the expectations and dreams of our parents, but not necessarily ours. I feel like each character has their own situation, their own ambitions and what they would do to achieve them are very real things, situations that we face in real life and that readers can relate to. One of the nicest things that happens to me is when they tell me ‘I felt very identified with this character’ or ‘I felt I was the only person who felt that way’, it’s nice that they identify with them.

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– Throughout this story we see significant growth, especially in Emil, who is the king of the Nation of the Sun, what would be those main characteristics, after accompanying him for so long, that would stand out from him?

– I like Emil as the main character. I thought of him because I read a lot of fantasy and in fantasy we always have this heroic protagonist, super brave, super strong, who doesn’t show his emotions; that is usually the mold of the male protagonist in fantasy and Emil is vulnerable, he cries, he openly expresses his fears, he just thinks he is not brave, he is shy, I tried to do the complete opposite of the fantasy protagonist that we usually find We see growth in him from “The Prince of the Sun”, but from that first part to “The Court of the Eclipse” the growth is enormous because he understands that being brave does not mean that you are not afraid, it means that despite fears you continue go ahead and face things, he learned that you can’t meet everyone’s expectations, but give your best and that’s enough; He also starts out as a fearful prince and by the third book he is already a king with many more responsibilities, standing up for his nation and although he is a king we can identify with his fears. I think Emil is, in fact, the character readers have been most able to identify with.

– Sun, moon and eclipse are the key words in the titles of this trilogy. Is this last installment finally the moment in which the similarities between those who have always been conceived as opposites are found?

– Yes, precisely in “The Prince of the Sun” the legend begins to tell that the nation of the sun and the kingdom of the moon are enemies, they are in a truce but they don’t really talk to each other and they think that the other is the worst, those of the nation of the sun think that those of the moon are bad, that their powers are the opposite of theirs, dark. So yes, by the third book the characters are learning to see beyond their prejudices and are trying to understand the other realm a little more, trying not to unify them, but to see through those differences that they have had for a millennium. Through the three books they have learned that not everything is as they had been told, that not everything is black and white. Despite the difference in religions, beliefs and powers, they finally understand that everyone is equal.

Claudia Ramírez recommends books and creates content on YouTube through her channel Clau Reads Books (@gvanille)

– There are readers who have a perception that youth and fantasy literature do not contribute anything. What has been the contribution of this type of books in your journey as a reader and as a writer, and what do you think yours are achieving in other readers?

– Throughout my career in this book business, I have had to face many of those prejudices, that youth literature is useless, that fantasy does not contribute anything and I have dedicated many of my videos and talks to defending literature. youth and defending fantasy authors, I even had a TED talk in which I was defending youth literature for 20 minutes. I feel that it contributes many things, young people for a long time were a segment that was relegated in literature, they did not pay much attention to it; there was children’s literature, adult literature and the classics, but there was no youth section, that began to be seen 15 or 10 years ago, so I think that young people needed that representation, to be heard.

I think these books have opened doors so that young people don’t feel so alone and also deal with very current issues, I tell you that they are the most diverse books I have read. Before in literature there was not so much diversity or so much representation and I think that books for young people are doing a lot for that, giving a voice to many authors. As for the fantasy, I can say that it saved my life, when I was little I struggled a lot to make friends and for that reason I did not feel that I belonged anywhere, but the fantasy made me feel that I belonged and for me it was a great contribution, sometimes in the world of literature, people who perceive themselves to be more intellectual do say that all books have to provide you with some knowledge, but sometimes we just want to feel pampered, at home, books are home or travel, sometimes Sometimes we just want a little while for ourselves and if a book made you feel better in a horrible moment, it already gave you something. I don’t think you have to put books on a pedestal because that drives away readers, when you tell them that books are for intellectuals that drives away potential readers. Books are for everyone and youth literature has made young people realize that.

– Is the person who sat down to write these books the same one who is presenting the finale now?

– I think not, five years have passed and apart from a pandemic, the pandemic fundamentally changed all of us. I’m not the same and I think the characters especially helped me grow, they grew in the books and I grew with them, thanks to them I got to know myself better. There is a specific character whose personality I had, I had heard a song and I had thought ‘this is the song of that character’, and as I was writing it I realized that it was also my song, because some things that had not discovered in myself my characters made me discover them. It has been a learning journey for me these five years.

– How would you define yourself today if you had to choose a single word?

– How difficult, I think it would be ‘passionate’. When I like something and am passionate about it, it eclipses everything else.

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