Ángela Landete, Author
Ángela Landete is a native of Barcelona with a degree in English Philology. She devoted her life to teaching until systemic lupus crossed her way. Since then, she has dedicated her time to writing and to the practice of QI Gong. As a writer, she explores human psychology. Her novels hide self-help premises, such as resilience, communication, slow life and facing and beating one’s fears so as to have healthier relationships. Ángela currently lives in Masnou with her husband and three children.
Illness as the cure….
It’s funny… I never thought one day I’d be writing about this; actually, I never thought I’d write about anything. Despite my love for books and philology, my career centered on translation, office work and, finally, teaching. Until nine years ago.
In 2016 I was diagnosed with systemic lupus, later with fibromyalgia and later on with chronic fatigue. Even though I was young and loved my job at the academy of English, the symptoms of the three illnesses together forced me to retire in advance, which added still another disorder – major depression. My treacherous mind could only see the dark side of my life (illness, pain, no energy, no job, too much free time) and convinced me that I was absolutely useless and unnecessary in this world. Almost convinced me.
The bright side of my life was there, before my eyes (an adorable husband, three healthy kids, a house, a family and lots more), but I was blind to it. My own mind had blinded me to the point that, one evening, while staring at my drawer full of medicines, I seriously considered suicide. ‘Why not mix all of them and end this tragedy?’, I thought. Because that’s how I perceived my life, as a tragedy. Silly me! I had so much to learn.
Soon after those terrible thoughts, which I eventually abandoned – thank goodness – I discovered the magic of Qi Gong, which, in its turn, pushed me towards something also magical: writing. I invented a wonderful love story to escape reality, an impossible love between a young Spanish lady from a broken home and (please, don’t laugh!) a lord; a story set in Newcastle in the 80s, a period which represented blissful happiness for me. Thia sole memory makes me smile…
Nevertheless, the romance looked trifling by itself so I added my suffering. I kept on with the novel and at the same time I kept on absorbing the Qi Gong principles. Haidi was me and I was Haidi. I had given her a suffering in fiction which I was learning how to accept in reality, so I gave her also the ability of acceptance with the intention of mirroring me. Her thoughts were my own. As the story advanced, my heroine evolved towards a state of resilience and complacence, the one I was heading to as well. We were both growing emotionally thanks to the Qi Gong premises, which I effortlessly recorded in my mind to the letter.
One day I started feeling grateful. The blindfold had disappeared and I, along with the obvious, even thanked my several illnesses. Yes, you’ve read well. I was aware that, thanks to my illness, I had been led to do other things, I had been taught other ideas, I had written a book with an important message in its pages: the magic is inside you. The book’s title is El viaje de Haidi.
Àngela’s books can be ordered via Amazon or at most bookshops.
Quick fire questions:
Fave restaurant in Maresme?Trekking in the natural park of the Litoral mountain range
Friendliest restauarant in Maresme?“Retrobello“, vintage second-hand clothes, in El Masnou. The shop is run by two English ladies
What would surprise people most when they first come to Maresme?The subtle and perfect combination of mountain and sea