Interviewing Rym Kechacha

Hellooo!

A few weeks ago I read the wonderfully fantastical To Catch A Moon by Rym Kechacha a tale of magic, circuses, daughters of the moon and the end of the world. It a unique and amazing read. I was very fortunate to be able to ask Rym some questions about this tale and its unique inspiration.

How do you like to booktempt To Catch A Moon?

Featuring a lion made of leaves, a juggler, an owl woman and a silken tapestry that makes the world and everything in it, To Catch a Moon is based on the paintings of Spanish Surrealist Remedios Varo. It’s for anyone who likes their fantasy a bit weird, filled with strange creatures and likes a bit of meta-fictional metaphysics!

The unique paintings of Remedios Varo are an inspiration for the tale. How did this all come about and how long did the story tale to come together?

I don’t remember where I first saw Remedios’ work. I think it might have been through idle browsing on twitter or something, where I saw one of her images and was intrigued and then researched a bit more about her. I found the paintings filled with narratives that were a bit more structured than some other work from Surrealist artists and I decided I wanted to write about these stories that were beckoning to me. It took about a year and a half to write and the process was a joy. I rarely got stuck as I worked non-linearly and when something wasn’t working I just moved onto another section until my subconscious sorted out the problems for me! I almost didn’t want to finish writing and editing it because it was so fun to spend time in Remedios’ world.

The fantastical is so often more grafted onto a ‘real’ world here it felt a far more flowing world where anything could happen but all of it still followed rules. How did you balance stretching the magic of the story and keeping it structured?

In some ways, I like to think I followed Remedios’ lead on that one. She identified her work as Surrealist, was associated with the movement and did things like recording her dreams, automatic writing and practical jokes but at the same time she had the best artistic education available at the time at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Madrid; her training was exacting and her technique was rigorous. While I’m certainly no art expert, I can see the composition of her paintings was immaculate while depicting all this dream-like imagery. So I tried to bring some of that to the writing, not indulging myself in a surreal free-for-all, but taking care to structure a story that has some reality to it along with the wild elements. I’m attracted to ‘soft’ magic systems where the rules are a little fuzzy around the edges because I find, as a reader, they leave me more space for my imagination. I think trying to get to the heart of the characters in the paintings also helped keep the story rooted as there are only so many things people do when faced in certain situations!

Has the story made you re-evaluate how you see Varo’s work? What did you learn about your own approach to your work when writing this book?

I saw more and more to admire and love about Remedios’ life and work as I wrote and I’d love to think I had her spirit and blessing with me as To Catch a Moon goes out into the world. I think researching Remedios’ private and artistic life has given me a kind of permission to create and play and see my own work as something fluid and evolving. She was dedicated to her process, not just the products of her paintings and this has been incredibly inspiring to me. I’ve tried to take that forwards not just as I work on other projects but also as I move around the world; the solidarity with other female artists, the joy in the act of creating and a fierce sense of adventure.

What else can we look forward to you in the future and where can we find out more?

I’m occasionally on twitter @RymKechacha and I have a website where I’m trying to keep a record of my work: rymkechacha.squarespace.co.uk. As for what’s next, it seems I’m becoming one of those writers who does something different with each book in a worrying unmarketable way! Right now I’m working (slowly) on a novel about a touring ballet company and a magic train. I’m having a very lovely time with it and like To Catch a Moon, it’s about creation, art and the gaps between the world we’ve made and the worlds we want.

If there was one book that you wish you could get everyone to read (not your own) what would it be?

I think I’d answer this question differently on different days and different years but today I’d say If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. It completely astonished me when I first read it some years ago, I had no idea a novel could do or be that. I think I’m probably due a re-read of it.