The life of Paco Campos and his family changed in 2012 after his wife, Cristina, had to be admitted to the hospital urgently, something that affected and greatly frightened his daughters Naiara and Bárbara, who at that time were 5 and 8 years old, respectively.
Campos has always liked to write, so that's when he came up with the idea of creating a story to reassure his daughters during that process. "Seeing my daughters' faces so scared and not understanding what was happening to their mother, the story emerged, one thing led to another and my goal was to calm them down," he says.
Cristina, his wife, suffers from several complicated autoimmune diseases that caused her an "unexpected" outbreak, which led to an urgent admission. "It was the first time my daughters had seen their mother so ill," the writer recalls.
A Story with Values
The City of Sunspot is a fantasy book that talks about friendship, helping others, and, above all, never giving up in the face of the adversities that life presents. "The protagonists are tiny beings who live in the hollow of a tree, and one of the friends gets sick, so the rest of the friends talk to the village wise man who tells them that there is a plant that can cure him. That's when they begin an adventure to try to find that plant and save their friend," Campos explains.
In the creation process, while Paco Campos was developing and devising the story, his daughters drew and painted the characters. These drawings then became part of the final result and the illustrations of the book by the illustrator Eva García (Lilleon). "I gave her those illustrations as models, but then she had total freedom to draw, and the result is beautiful," he says.
"My daughters are the ones who encouraged me to let The City of Sunspot see the light because it was in a drawer for years, and about three years ago, I presented it to the publishing house Badibidú, but for one reason or another, I backed out because I didn't think I had enough time to dedicate to it," Campos says.
However, the writer fell ill, which led him to be bedridden for almost four months. "Just at that moment, the publishing house called me to resume the project, and since I needed to keep my head occupied and my wife and daughters encouraged me, I accepted," he says.
This not only allowed him to make this first book see the light, but he also took the opportunity to write the second part of the story, which the publishing house has already accepted. It will be another story but with the same characters.
A Successful Book
Despite being published just a month ago, more than 600 people have already reserved The City of Sunspot. In addition to buying it online, in Lanzarote, it can be purchased at the Fajardo bookstore in Arrecife, although Campos is in the process of getting the project to more bookstores on the island progressively.
The writer will hold a presentation of the book at the Casa de la Cultura de Agustín de la Hoz on April 24 at 6:00 p.m., but the official presentation will be on April 28 at 7:00 p.m. at the Insular Library. In addition, he will be signing copies at the Book Fair within the Fajardo bookstore stand, but there is still no confirmed date.