The Secret Fire : interview de Carina Rozenfeld et CJ Daugherty !

The Secret Fire sort demain en Angleterre ! Cette semaine, un Blog Tour a lieu entre des blogueurs français et anglais. Des binômes formés par l'éditeur et les auteures publient, chacun leur tour, un jour par semaine, quelque chose autour du roman.

Aujourd'hui, à J-1 de la sortie anglaise, mon binôme Matt et moi-même publions chacun notre chronique (>>> et >>>) et une interview des auteures. Tandis que Matt (un blogueur anglais sympathique et intelligent) a interviewé Carina Rozenfeld (auteure française), je me suis occupé (en tant que blogueur français) d'interview CJ Daugherty (l'auteure de Night School).

L'alchimie... c'est cette science occulte qui s'intéresse à la transformation, connue surtout pour sa recherche de la vie éternelle et de changer les métaux en or.

Mais aujourd'hui, deux auteures ont combiné leur talents pour transformer de l'encre et du papier en un or littéraire avec leur nouveau livre, écrit à quatre mains outre-manche : The Secret Fire.

Lisez les interviews ci-dessous ou lisez-les en français sur le blog de Matt, Teen Librarian !

Alchemy… the occult science devoted to matter transmutation, best known for the search for eternal life and the quest to turn lead into gold.

Now two authors, CJ Daugherty and Carina Rozenfeld have combined their talents and turned mere ink and paper into literary gold with their new book The Secret Fire.

The power of two does not end there today two blogs have two interviews about the creation of the novel. Read the first interview below and then follow the link to the second at TeenLibrarian

INTERVIEW OF CARINA ROZENFELD

Pour lire cette interview en français, rendez-vous ici >>>

Hi Carina welcome to the Secret Fire Interview for TeenLibrarian/La Voix du Livre, my blog twin Tom will be interviewing CJ so you are all mine for the duration of this interview (insert menacing laughter). I apologise for my lack of French and hope that questions in English do not pose any problems.

The first question I ask any author that appears on my blog is that they introduce themselves to the audience, could you please let us know something about you?

Something about me ? Well, I’m a French writer. I wrote something like 20 books in French, some for kids, and some for teens and young adults. I’m also a mum of a teen boy who is studying applied arts. I live in Paris with him and my cats, not far from the Eiffel Tower… 

Is The Secret Fire your first collaborative work?

Yes, it’s the first time I wrote a book with someone else. I wrote almost 20 books all by myself and it’s a good change and a great experience to be able to explore other ways to write.

What is it like working with CJ? What were the biggest challenges in writing you faced in collaborative writing?

Working with CJ is great, fun and easy. It could have been really difficult, but at the end, we found a way to write together that worked perfectly. The challenging part was, obviously the language. It is already difficult to find your own voice, own way to write in your native language so you can imagine how hard it was to find it in English. But CJ helped me a lot to write in a perfect English. Thanks to her !

What has been the best part of this writing experience for you so far?

I love (I use the present tense because we’re writing book 2 right now) that we can exchange our ideas. And I love waiting for her to send me her chapters so I can be at the reader’s place, and then taking the place of the writer for her to be the reader. It’s very motivating.

Did you plan out a timeline together to make sure that your characters stayed on track throughout the story?

Not really. In book 1 I wrote a chapter about Sacha, and then she wrote a chapter about Taylor, so we always knew where our characters were in the story. But once in a while we would decide together what was going to happen in the next few chapters.

How did you divide the writing chores? I am guessing that you wrote Sacha’s scenes while CJ worked on Taylor’s part of the story (or am I wildly wrong?) but when they met up how did the writing work?

Yes I wrote Sacha’s parts and CJ wrote Taylor’s parts. When they are together or they are talking together, well, if it was in my part, for example, CJ was free to change things, to go deeper in Taylor’s mind to give her touch to her character, and it was the same for me when she had to write some Sacha’s parts.

I am slightly ashamed to say that my knowledge on non-Anglophone Young Adult fiction is incredibly limited; can you recommend other French & European YA authors that you enjoy?

I’m not surprised. Most of the French writers are not translated in English, so don’t be ashamed. That’s too bad because there is a lot of very good French or European YA authors. I think of Charlotte Bousquet, Samantha Bailly, Yves Grevet, Christope Lambert, Victor Dixen who are French and Cindy Van Wilder who is Belgian. I could mention a lot more of them. French literature is full of treasures.

What did this work bring to you in your personal and professional life?

It’s an amazing experience. In my personal life, I have a new friend, with CJ, and my dream was to have a book in English, because my brother lives in the US and my sister in law and all her family are Americans. I’m happy to know they’ll be able to finally read one of my books. In my professional life, I can see now what it is to be an “English” writer. Things are not the same, the way you work with your editor/publisher, the way your book travels around the world because it’s written in English.

Is The Secret Fire your first work available in English or do you have any other books available for an English-reading audience?

It’s my first book available in English. Hopefully, some English publisher will be interested in translate my other books after this one!

If not are there any plans to offer your works in translation?

Some of my French publishers are in touch with my English one Atom Books. Maybe something will happen one day?

I have had a long-term interest in alchemy due to my gothy leanings as a teen, did you do much research into alchemy for this story?

Most of the researches were made by CJ, because her character is more involved in alchemy. But I read a few things about it.

You decided to create a fantastic plot. Why was it important for you?

Well most of my books in French have a fantastic plot. So I’m quite used to it. CJ wanted to do something more fantastic/paranormal than the Night School series so the story came quite naturally to us.

Do you believe that alchemists could transmute substances from one form to another?

Well, in a way, aren’t we all alchemist when we turn on the lights in our homes? We transform something, energy, electricity into light… 

What are your views on magic?

I love a good story with magic in it. And when I see a magician, I’m always amazed by what they can do, and I want to believe it’s possible! Maybe that’s why I write stories with so much fantasy : I wish everything like magic, aliens, having wings, being the Phoenix could really exist… 

If you have some alchemic capacities, what would you like to do with them?

Help me do to my chores faster? Find a way to travel very fast, like teleportation? Feel the world around me in a more powerful way…

Do you think that the magic realism of your story can help the reader consider the very real problems that young adults face in our world?

I read a lot of YA and I think that in every book, not matter what the style is (fantasy, paranormal, SF, realistic…), you always find a way to deal with the real problems that YA face: becoming an adult with responsibilities, choosing what kind of adult you’re going to be. The relation to the world, to the others, to the parents… The abilities you have to built the person you’re going to be… How to deal with the changes you have to face, the reality of life and death…

Are you allowed to give any hints about book 2?

I’m not sure, but maybe I can tell you that you’ll learn more about alchemists, and you’ll meet more scary creatures… 

INTERVIEW OF CJ DAUGHERTY

Pour lire cette interview en français, rendez-vous ici >>>

Hi CJ, welcome to the Secret Fire Interview for La Voix du Livre/Teen Librarian ! My blog twin Matt will be interviewing Carina (it’s a sort of exchange of our local writers!)

Could you please let us know something about you?

I’m a former crime journalist, and now I write novels!

Is The Secret Fire your first collaborative work?

Yes. I’ve always written solo before.

What is it like working with Carina? What were the biggest challenges? What has been the best part of this writing experience for you so far?

It was great! We really challenged each other. When we first starting working together, we called The Secret Fire ‘The book with two brains’. We decided it would be twice as good as any book we’d write alone.
The hardest part was figuring out just how to do it. Should we Skype together every day? Should we bash out the ideas together before we wrote? But then we figured out a system of writing alternating chapters, and it kind of fell into place.

Did you plan out a timeline together to make sure that your characters stayed on track throughout the story?

Not at first. At first we just wrote the chapters that came to us. But as the plot developed, it became more necessary to plan a little more in advance. So then we would decide together what would happen next, and then go write our chapters. Now, on the second book, we have a full synopsis, and we more or less stick to that.

What did this work bring to you in your personal and professional life?

It took the loneliness out of writing! It meant that I had immediate feedback for my work. I would send Carina a chapter in the morning, and she’d usually give me her thoughts on it within a few hours. And I loved reading her chapters every day. It was like getting a little present.

Did you do much research into alchemy for this book?

LOADS. I read translations of 15th century alchemical books. I studied alchemical inventions, alchemical imagery. Even the title of our book – The Secret Fire – was the title of a famous sixteenth century alchemical text. We just borrowed it.

You decided to create a fantastic plot. Why was it important for you?

I hadn’t written fantasy before, and I wanted to see what it was like when the rules of physics were removed from your characters and you could go beyond the edge. Fantasy is limitless.

Do you believe that alchemists could transmute substances from one form to another?

We do it all the time in modern life. We make steel from iron and ore. We make fabric from plastic. Plastic starts out as crude oil. Put two molecules together and you create something completely different. Combine sodium and chloride and you have table salt. Our world is full of transmutation. Alchemists were just ahead of the game. After all, 90% of alchemy is science. Only 10% is magic. And don’t you believe in 10% magic?

What are your views on magic?

I want to be a witch. Is that too much to ask?

If you have some alchemic capacities, what would you like to do with it?

I’d make things beautiful, make people happy. Give my friends everything they want. Also, make my own house bigger.

Do you think that the magic realism of your story can help the reader consider the very real problems that young adults face in our world?

In the book, Sacha will die when he turns 18. I think it’s fair to say when you’re young, 18 can feel like the end of our youth, and the beginning of an unknown and intimidating life as a grown-up. This book is about wanting to survive 18. Wanting to live. Valuing life. And the amazing possibilities the future holds.

It is also about how science can be awesome. So I’m doing my bit for education.

Are you allowed to give any hints about book 2?

When The Secret Fire 2 begins it’s three weeks until Sacha’s 18th birthday. They’re about to find out who the Dark practitioner is, and why he turned away from alchemy to demonology. Time is running out. But Taylor is getting stronger.

Can you recommend other French YA authors that you enjoy, and other English YA authors?

OBVIOUSLY I recommend all of Carina Rozenfeld’s books – especially Phaenix. She’s an amazing writer!!

I also love Cindy Van Wilder, who is Belgian, and who writes in French. Her books include Les Héritiers and La Reine des Neiges, among others.

Among English and US authors I love Holly Bourne (Am I Normal Yet?), Mel Salisbury (The Sin Eater’s Daughter), and Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments), and dozens of others!