Semana Marillier: Entrevista EXCLUSIVA (Parte 1/3)

Começa hoje, no Lydo e Opinado , uma semana dedicada totalmente a Juliet Marillier (autora da já falada aqui no blog trilogia Sevenwaters). Até ao próximo Domingo, todos os dias irão ser colocadas novidades - as três partes da entrevista exclusiva feita à autora pelo Lydo e Opinado, informações acerca dos livros já publicados e, no fim-de-semana, críticas a dois livros dela, que eu e a patrícia estamos a ler actualmente, de propósito para esta situação.

Segue-se a primeira parte, de três, da entrevista à Juliet, que amavelmente e de forma extremamente simpática se dispôs a responder. Se são fãs desta autora, ou se quiserem passar a conhecê-la melhor, vão visitando o blog ao longo desta Semana Marillier.

Ah, se quiserem ler a entrevista em português carreguem aqui.

1º - Can you tell us your age when you started to write stories, even that the stories don’t have the structure of a novel?
I started writing stories at about the age of seven. I still have one of them, about a rampaging robot. It was quite a violent story – hundreds of people died in it!

2º - While child, which books and writers you selected as your favourites?
Beatrix Potter, Alison Uttley (the Little Grey Rabbit books), Tove Jansson’s Moomin books, C S Lewis’s Narnia books. When I was a little older, I loved Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden and A Little Princess. I also liked Rosemary Sutcliffe’s historical novels. By the age of twelve I was reading mostly adult books.

3º - Let’s talk about school. When Juliet was a student, you had good grades?
Yes, I did have good grades, especially in anything to do with language or history. I managed quite well in maths and science, too, but I never enjoyed either and I gave them up as soon as I could. I was not good at sports. I had to wear very thick glasses, and I had no confidence at all with physical challenges.

4º - The editors accepted immediately your first novel, “Daughter of the Forest”?
I did send it to one local publisher who sent it back with a nice letter saying although it wasn’t their kind of book, one of the mainstream publishers might be interested. I did a little editing then submitted it to Pan Macmillan in Australia, and they accepted both “Daughter of the Forest” and “Son of the Shadows”, which was only partly written at that stage.

5º - When you had the idea of publish “Daughter of the Forest”, you thought that you could have such success that your books will have in the future? Which were your expectations?
My expectations were not very high. I had written the book with no intention of publication – really, I wrote it because I had a strong wish to tell that particular story in that way. So I was extremely excited to be having a book published, and I did not think very far beyond the thrill of seeing my novel on the shelf in the book shop.

6º - What fascinate you in the Irish sceneries that you use so much in your stories?
My ancestors lived in Scotland and Ireland, and I grew up reading mythology and folklore from the Celtic countries. Also, in many ways that landscape is similar to the part of New Zealand where I was born and grew up, so I think forests, lakes and islands were part of my psyche from early days.

7º - You have for habit travel to the places and then include them in your stories?
When it’s possible, I like to go to the places where the books are set, yes. I usually travel part-way through writing the book. When I return, I work on the descriptions of wild nature, the way the light looks, the weather, the terrain and so on. It is possible to get a lot of that information from books or the Internet, but nothing is quite as effective as going to the country itself.

Amanhã, não percas no Lydo e Opinado, um especial acerca da mais famosa saga da autora, a Trilogia Sevenwaters! Boas leituras!

Tiago