Subtitled Interview

My name is Natalia Nai, and I'm the author of Los ratos libres (His Free Time) Which was this years' winner at the FILiC -Alright. Why did you use the pseudonym 'Nicolás Funes'? Nicolás would've been my name if I had been born a boy. Funes is the surname of Fat Funes, a character from the short story. Once you've read the story, and I'm sure you will do so, you'll realize where the joke is, in naming myself after this particular character. But I will not ruin the plot by telling you exactly why I chose it. -Okay, is this your first published short story? It is, and it's also the first time I write something specifically for a contest. It's the first time I come up with something that fits exactly with the theme of a contest. That's one of the difficulties for those of us [writers] who are looking for a space, for a place: to fit the specifications required in contests And well, it happened. This time it happened. -This year the theme was Literature... -Literature, a spy of reality -And how did you come up with this story, for that theme? We have this character, Tito. This is the story of Tito, a man who is in prison. It's also a love story. It's the story of someone who is terrified. It's the story of a man who is turning into a beast, and tries somehow to salvage what's left of himself, to fight his own monster. One of the ways in which he keeps himself alive is through writing; he spies a reality that is different from his own.