The reporters María Lamela and Marina Valdés present their book ‘Microdramas’ in A Coruña

The risky adventures of the most kamikaze reporters on television. This is how it is presented to the public Microdramasthe first book by María Lamela and Marina Valdés, two of the most well-known and beloved female faces on television for their great professionalism and renowned charisma.

Reporters and now also authors of MicrodramasMaria and Marina They will present their first book today in the company of journalist Quique Morales at Vazva Coffee in A Coruña (Avenida de Pedro Barrié de la Maza, 14) at 7:00 p.m. And facing that presentation, from Fifteen thousand We have had the pleasure of talking for a while with these two lovely women about this new project that promises to become one of the most fun reads of the summer.

At what point did you decide to undertake this project of writing a book?

Marine: Sometimes opportunities are given, and it was the case of writing a book with four hands. It was during a house party, at night and treachery. We happened to be talking to someone from the publishing house who, upon hearing our crazy stories, told us “you guys have to write a book.” The next day I received the call from the publisher, and I thought it was a joke from María. But not.

Maria: We spent a month pricking ourselves without bleeding in a metaphorical sense. The publisher made it clear to us from minute 1: you have the stories, the content, now you just have to capture it. I am grateful every day to have a profession and a lifestyle linked to it that makes us live so many adventures. It’s a bit of a beast to almost write a biography at 31 and 32 years old, but our daily lives have filled the pages of this book. Marina and I have a magnet for everything to happen to us: we dedicate ourselves to telling stories and along the way true stories happen to us.

Is the idea of ​​writing a book recent or had you already considered it on a previous occasion?

Maria: Since I was little I have had an obsession: writing stories. When I was 6 years old, I wrote personalized ones on friends and family birthdays with my own illustrations. At school, I started to take it more seriously and entered all the literature contests. My strong point has always been imagination, with overtones of science fiction (although I have to admit that in this book our reality surpasses any trilogy with cyborgs included). As I am passionate about drawing, I also made comics with alternative scripts of my favorite cartoons. Imagine how many times I’ve dreamed about this!

Marine: I have always liked to write, since I was little. My grandmother and my teachers constantly encouraged me to do it. When I passed by bookstore windows I dreamed of a book with my name on it. But when I started my career in journalism, paradoxically, I put this hobby aside, so having the opportunity to write a book has also been a way of rediscovering that part of myself. And I don’t know why I hadn’t picked it up before. It is liberating and therapeutic.

What has the process of bringing to life almost 300 pages of four-handed stories been like?

Marine: Complicated in some ways, because if writing a book is normally difficult, with four hands it is also twice as difficult. It is an exercise in humility in which you have to be constantly willing to accept your partner’s criticism and manage to reach a common point. But it is also a very enriching process: it is great to see how in the end the book has the best of both. For example, María is more creative and was in charge of better outlining the common characters. I, who am more organized, gave more thought to the structure and to seeing how we could intertwine the stories of the two. All with the help of our editors, of course, who guide you on this path. Above all, it has been tremendously fun to see how much we share and discover other people’s stories as our own. When it comes to opening up, it also empowers you to be two: shared miseries and shame make you less dizzy.

Maria: I have to admit that it has been incredibly easy to work with Marina in this regard. For me the most complicated thing has been the times. The deliveries were monthly and reaching them all working on a daily current affairs program and with a life more frenetic than the maracas of Machín… has been another great adventure.

What does it feel like to receive the book, physically, and see that all those stories are now a reality within the reach of readers?

Maria: It’s very dizzying because you know that what you’ve written stays there. Be it better or worse, with or without shame. It is irrevocable. You look at it and think: I would have written this differently or, why did I tell this? And so, Descartes’ methodical doubt as a flag. But then, you look at the book, you smell it, you find it in the Book House placed on the shelf of contemporary authors, your friends call you to tell you how much they like it, people you don’t know even write to you to tell you that they like it. She feels identified with everything that happens to you and conveys her own Microdramas to you. There you know that everything has been worth it.

Marine: It’s very gratifying, really. And the best thing without a doubt is to receive the feedback of the people who read it. This book in particular is special not only because it is the first but because it is our stories, most of which are real, even though it is a fictional novel. That gives him an important emotional attachment.

This afternoon you will be in A Coruña but it will not be your first presentation. How has the reception been so far?

Marine: It has been magical. We did not expect at all that the signing at the Book Fair would be so special, much less the presentation in Valencia. All my characters appeared there in the flesh, some even closed chapters of the book live and direct. It was like attending an extension of the book, a Microdramas volume 2.

Maria: It has been wonderful to be able to take part in the Book Fair, surrounded by all our family and friends. It is without a doubt one of the most magical moments I have experienced in my life. The presentation in Valencia was also super special: I got fully involved in Marina’s family, they welcomed me as one of them, I lived all of her stories through the characters that appeared in the flesh during the presentation as if the film adaptation of the book was being recorded before our eyes.

María, although you are from Vilalba, I think that part of your life has been linked to A Coruña. How do you expect the reading public to receive you there?

Maria: A Coruña is my favorite city and where I would love to live one day. It has everything I like to be happy. Each of these Microdramas represents my way of being and living, so what better setting than this city to experience future Microdramas. Meanwhile, those present are going to enjoy them very much. In fact, there are many stories with people from A Coruña involved. I won’t say more.

In your words: What are we going to find in Microdramas?

Maria: A tragicomedy of a book. The daily life of two reporters with a clear predilection for the wild and who are forced to write daily stories always on the thin line of danger, between good and bad luck. As we define it: good bad luck. Because a series of catastrophic coincidences always ends with the best of results. And if it’s not the best, it’s certainly the funniest.

Marine: First world dramas that happen to us at work and outside of work that could be those of anyone in their daily life but with an extra dose of madness and surrealism that, in most cases, is very faithful to the TRUE. It’s about laughing at ourselves and turning tragedy into pure comedy.

Without spoilers But moving forward a little… What is your favorite anecdote that you tell?

Marine: In my case, the first day I presented the program, which illustrates very well how chaotic the world of television can be, no matter how organized and how it may seem from the outside. Personally, the story of my wedding, which was a full-fledged macrodrama but which ended with a pre-wedding without a groom, a non-wedding on a Saturday and a celebration on a Sunday. I won’t go any further.

Maria: The story of my childhood is the most curious and rich, where I describe the Galician smallholding in which I grew up and I talk to you about what day-to-day life was like being the only girl in a village of 30 inhabitants and a unitary school. And the most surreal on a professional level when I went on coverage to Russia and ended up finding a person’s arm in our intermediary’s closet during coverage.

I understand that your relationship, María-Marina, is very special. How did it start and how has it evolved to the present day?

Marine: I think that from the beginning we realized that, being very different, we had many things in common, or as I say in the book, we lack many things in common, and that makes us complement each other and understand each other very well. Now that your stories are mine and mine are yours, I believe we are connected in a very special way forever. A handwritten brotherhood.

Maria: We are two people separated at birth at geographical opposites and with very different customs, context and history but who end up connecting in the writing of the sixth and they are surprised every day by the things they share. It has been incredible that this network united us as a television duo and that we also ended up being literary. We jokingly say that we are already an artistic duet. The union of these white label Thelma and Louis is strength.

What do you have in common and what differentiates you from each other?

Marine: We lack in common a driver’s license, a sense of order and a realistic sense of time. We are both crazy, but in this artistic couple the counterpoint that brings a little sanity and organization, for the first time in my life, is me.

Maria: hahaha if you had to settle down once in your life let it be for me. It congratulates me. Being two pounds between books without a card unites a lot. In the mornings Marina sends me the horoscope and we are happy, surprised or angry together at what Esperanza Gracia tells us.

I suppose that the adventures of working on television will now be added to those that come with the book… Do you already have your next adventure together planned??

Marine: We have a summer ahead of us to present the program together in which every day is sure to be a story, and at some point we will have to get our driving license. I hope that a microdramas volume 2 comes out of all this.

Maria: Yes, the second one should start at the driving school by enrolling us. I advocate that it be titled “Microdramas in Cuenca: how to get your license in 2 weeks and not die trying.”