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Can a good fantasy book be religious?: I think fantasy is very often about religious beliefs or ideas. They are not always as Christian as C.S. Lewis', but the beliefs of a writer on death and life, good and evil always also reflect his or her religious beliefs. Just make sure they never overshadow your story or try to indoctrinate your readers. That is disrespectful and will cripple your storytelling!
Can I send you a story I have written?: I appreciate novels, but I can`t comment or re-write or correct them for my fans. I don`t want to influence anyone`s writing style.
Did you base any of your characters off of anybody you know?: Bo (The Thief Lord) is a little bit like my son Ben was when he was little, Victor (The Thief Lord) looks exactly like the British actor Bob Hoskins and Mo talked and looked like the actor Brandon Fraser from the beginning.
Did you name "the Black Jackets" (or get the idea for the name) after Benito Mussolini's gang of bodyguards called "the Black Shirts"?: I actually didn't know they were called the Black Shirts so thank you for telling me! When I made up the Black Jackets I thought in a more general way of all those criminal organisations spreading terror by threatening people but the Mussolini-connection makes perfect sense. That often happens in writing - that you suddenly find you have established a connection to reality you hadn't planned. Exciting, isn't it?
Do you have any pets?: I have a big, shaggy dog called Luna (looks like a running bedside rug) and two Iceland ponys, Snegla and Jarpur. These are Icelandic names. Snegla means “Woman with the Expressive Face“ and Jarpur means “The Brown One“.
Do you have any siblings?: I have three siblings - one sister (Insa, who takes care of this website) and two brothers (Elmar and Volker).
Do you like to write about magic?: I admit, as a reader I have always loved good fantasy. I think that fantasy is the oldest way of storytelling. Fairy tales, myths ... I strongly believe that we sometimes understand reality far better if we disguise it, if we find pictures and images which describe sorrow, joy, fear, and other feelings we all share. The human mind often grasps a visual image better than an abstract or realistic description, and as a writer I love to work in a genre that doesn`t forbid my imagination to work unlimited. You could say that I enjoy being able to clad reality in different clothes. I often have the feeling that writing fantasy frees the unconscious and allows things to flood onto the paper, ideas I didn`t even know I could write about. Apart from all these quite philosophical thoughts, I love to imagine riding on dragons or meeting creatures I have never met before and make them feel real for my readers.
Do you think it is easier to concentrate on your stories when you are outside or inside?: Writing is easiest in my writing house in the garden, but the story ideas often come outside.
How did you think of Meggie`s and Mo`s talent?: I think that some people have a special talent for reading aloud and if the reading is done well, it can put the listener under a spell.
How did you think of such evil villains in the Ink trilogy?: Well, there is a lot of evil in our world, so you just have to look at them.
How do you begin your writing process?: With an idea, that makes my heart beat faster. The moment such an idea shows up I write it down and then I decide whether I want to spend one or two years finding the story behind this idea. If the answer is Yes, I start the research - about bookbinding or martens or dragons or whatever I need - and the search for places and characters. Then I prepare about 20 chapters and then the story tells me where to go (which is sometimes quite different from what I planned).
How do you come up with all the characters?: Mostly they step into my writing room and are so much alive, that I ask myself, where did they come from. Of course, some of them are the result of hard thinking, adding characteristics, manners, etc., but others are alive from the first moment they appear. When I wrote Inkheart, this happened with Dustfinger. He told me his name, and he was so real that after a while I had the feeling that he was standing behind me whispering his story in my ear.
How do you come up with all the ideas for your books?: They come from everywhere and nowhere, from outside and inside. I have so many, I won`t be able to write them down in one lifetime. As for The Thief Lord, I got my inspiration from Venice. I love Venice, especially in fall and winter. Then the city is most bewitching. The Inkheart story originated in a picture that I couldn`t get out of my head: a girl sitting in her bed while outside the house a figure is standing in the rain. This picture got the story going. And I always wanted to write a book about a book from which the characters are brought to life.
How do you get the books you write so gripping that you cannot put it down?: There is no recipe. It's just story telling magic :)
How do you hit on the unusual names?: I always take a lot of care of the names. I look in different encyclopedias (of names, animals, plants), but some names are just thought up. As for Inkheart and The Thief Lord I looked in Italian dictionaries, in Italian history books and in lists of Italian names.
How long does it take you to write a book?: It took me about one year for each of my books Inkheart, The Thief Lord and Dragon Rider. But I have written books for younger children as well (which have not been translated into English yet) and it took me less time writing these books.
How long have you been writing books?: I've been writing books for 23 years now.
How many books have you already written?: More than 40 books. Fourteen of them, The Thief Lord, Dragon Rider, The Princess Knight, Pirate Girl, Princess Pigsty, The Wildest Brother, Inkheart, Inkspell, Inkdeath, When Santa fell to Earth, and the Ghosthunters series, have been translated into English so far. And there will be more soon!
I was wondering why you wanted to stop the Ink trilogy story? I mean, there was a open ending to Inkdeath!: For the next two or three years I am stuck in the Reckless-world but I feel like you do: that there are still a lot of stories untold in the Inkworld (I am especially worried about what Orpheus is doing on the other side of the mountains) so hopefully one day I will get back to tell those stories and find out more about Doria and Meggies brother and all the others!
If Cornelia is always one of her characters, which character from Inkheart/Inkspell/Inkdeath and Dragon Rider is she?: I am always many of my characters. I am Dustfinger, Meggie, Fenoglio and Elinor, the glassman, the marten and many others in the Inkbooks and I am the dragon, Twigleg, Sorrel and Lola in Dragonrider (and surely some more). That's the wonderful thing about being a storyteller. You are many many many characters :)
If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?: I would have learned to drive a car much earlier:)
If you could go back and begin your career over would you choose the same career?: Absolutely. I feel blessed to be able to write for children.
In the third book, Inkdeath, was it hard to decide if Meggie would go with Farid, or go with Doria and the others? Also why did you choose for her to go with Doria and the others instead of Farid?: No, it was not difficult. I feel very strongly that Farid will want the same life Dustfinger led for a while- going off by himself and probably falling in love with a lot of girls, while Meggie yearns for a place to stay and for someone, who loves her more than anyone else- which I think Doria will do.
Is there a message you`re trying to send to children or young adults through Scipio`s transformation?: I don`t like to send messages. I do not think that most of us read a book to find a message there. Maybe questions to ask, yes, maybe something to think about, but a message doesn`t allow the reader to think, and this is disrespectful. I hope that The Thief Lord expresses my love for children, my deep respect for them, and my anger about the way adults so often treat the smaller, younger ones. And I always wanted to fulfill Scipio`s wish to become an adult: That was our deal from the beginning.
Out of all the books you have written, which is your favorite?: The Inkworld books!
What animal would you describe yourself as?: Hm, I think I would be a bird, a swift or something like that.
What are your hobbys?: One is writing - I tell the truth.
And I am a bookworm. I "eat" books - and movies, too!
Since I am an educated illustrator, I love drawing and painting as well. And I enjoy travelling very much.
What are your religious beliefs?: I think that Jesus has taught beautiful things, but I am not a member of any church. I believe in a god, but I also respect that people find many different names for their gods. I wish that everyone would have respect for the religion of other people.
What character in all of your books are you most like?: I am in all of them! I guess Igraine though comes quite close to how I am :)
What childhood memories do you have?? Do they relate to your stories?: No, mostly I use memories of my children or things that happened more recently - and most of my stories I simply make up!
What did you want to be when you grew up?: I wanted to be an astronaut, later on a pilot or live with the Red Indians.
I was quite serious about all these plans.
What do you do in a writers block?: Fortunately I do not get writers block very often, but if I do not know how to continue a story, I usually go for a walk with my daughter Anna and we talk about the problem. That's always very helpful.
What is your advice for aspiring authors?: Read – and be curious. And if somebody says to you: "Things are this way. You can`t change it" - don`t believe a word.
What is your favourite animal?: Dogs, horses and frogs.
What is your favourite book?: "The once and future king" by T.H. White. It is about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I love the Arthurian Legends.
What is your favourite dish?: Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. And I love Italian cooking!
What is your favourite film?: "Gods and Monsters" by Bill Condon, with Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave and Brendan Fraser (but I suppose that it is rather boring for children).
What is your favourite music?: Henry Purcell (weird, my son would say) and Neil Young, and I like Annie Lennox.
What is your most precious memory?: The birth of my two children – but in the past two years so many precious memories have piled in my heart, that for the rest I can`t choose one anymore. They are all about meeting people, finding new friends, working together – My memories of the past two years are like a box of treasures, and I am sure, there will be a time, where I will like to open it and look at them still shining.
What motivated you to write Dragon Rider?: I love dragons and I love to draw them. That`s why I always wanted to write a story about dragons. I even collect them. One of my bookshelves is full of little dragons – plastic dragons, porcelain dragons, rubber dragons, stone dragons and so on. Many of them are presents from my fans.
What was your favourite book when you were a child?: Jim Knopf (Michael Ende), Tom Sawyer, The Brothers Lionheart (Astrid Lindgren), the Chronicles of Narnia - and the books of Karl May.
What was your favourite subject at school?: German and English Literature were the subjects I liked most of all.
What were you like at school?: Good – and not ambitious (which means, quite lazy), but I loved to write essays, though always too long and not always strict on the topic.
When is your birthday?: I was born on 10 December 1958
Where are you from?: I was born in a little German town called Dorsten.
Where do you live?: In May 2005 me and my family moved to California for any length of time. The three months we spent there at the beginning of 2005 did us good – especially the kids. I want my children to experience living in another country. Before I moved to the USA, I lived in Hamburg, a big, very green German city with a harbour and a famous fish market.
Which book would you most like to have written?: Of course everything from Shakespeare – and then T.H.White: "The once and future king".
Why did you start writing?: I studied education, because I wanted to work in some way with children, not as a teacher, but as a social worker. I think I wanted to make the world a better place, but I found out, that you can`t live against your gifts. And my gifts are writing and drawing. I nevertheless learned very much about children, when I worked as a social worker. I still have the greatest respect for the ones, I met in those years – and they all had bad things to deal with, and did it so bravely. In The Thief Lord I tried to describe, how much children can care for each other even under worst circumstances, even if they are left alone by their parents. After having worked as a social worker for about three years I became an illustrator, and when I never got stories I liked, I started to write them myself – and discovered, my passion for writing is much bigger than for illustrating.
Why are some of your books set in Italy?: I have been to Italy many times and love the Italian way of life and the Italian people. I often thought about buying a house in Italy. My book The Thief Lord is set in Venice. It is my favourite place in Italy, especially in fall and winter, when the city is most bewitching.
Will you write a sequel to The Thief Lord?: No, I won`t. I wanted the story to end like it ends - even if it is an open ending.
Would you want to meet Basta and Capricorn if you were in the same position as Fenoglio?: No!

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