Giveaways Inspirations and Influences

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Cornelia Funke on Reckless & Collaboration

Today we are thrilled to be the next stop on the official Reckless blog tour. We have Young Adult author Cornelia Funke over for a guest post to talk a little bit about collaboration and writing.

Please give a warm welcome to Cornelia Funke, ladies and gentlemen!

A novel is written by one person.
Of course it is. We all know the myth of the lonely writer at his or her desk, all alone with the words and, at the start, the empty page…

For me, the truth has always been quite different. First of all, I am constantly surrounded by my characters and so I don’t feel lonely at all. In fact, I can often feel overwhelmed by the many personalities that the words summon to my desk! But let’s forget about the literary companions. What about creative companions, of flesh and blood like ourselves? Writers’ biographies are full of these creative companions: friends, lovers, wives and husbands, secretaries, sons or daughters, other writers – no Moby Dick without the friendship between Hawthorne and Melville.

Collaboration, however, is a little different. Scriptwriters are quite used to collaboration, novelists aren’t. People who inspire novels are usually referred to as ‘muses’, and very seldom as ‘collaborators’ or ‘creative partners’. Very often they are treated like a dirty secret, because it might harm the notion of literary genius to admit that there was another imagination involved, another spirit, even another voice.

I found a creative collaborator – and yes, he was a true collaborator and partner-in-crime and, for sure, not simply a muse – because Lionel Wigram brought the idea of Reckless to me: He brought me characters and a story that will probably define my writing life for a decade, at the least.

Of course, I could have stolen that world! As Philip Pullman says: ‘Writers are magpies’. But the world Lionel inspired was so much his that in the first few months he often had to show me the way in this new adventurous labyrinth behind the mirror. When I wondered what a landscape looked like, or wasn’t sure about the colour of the shirt that our hero, Jacob Reckless, was wearing, I only had to ask Lionel. It felt like he had been born behind the Mirror. He had been there earlier than me, that’s for sure.

For the first book we exchanged ideas every single day for months; we had daylong discussions about the heart and soul of our hero, his obsession with treasure hunting and his love for his brother. We fought about whether the Red Fairy is in love with Jacob or not, whether we like the Goyl better than the Empress, how bad Valiant the mean dwarf really is etc, etc, etc. What an adventure, to suddenly have these discussions out loud not just in my head! How inspiring to have both a female and a male perspective on it! I still did the writing, but the imagining and plotting was done by two brains.

Now we are working together to prepare the edit of book two in the Reckless series. The second book has been quite a challenge, as Lionel has had to take care of his other creative child: the second Sherlock Holmes movie.

We worked on Skype and, in London, we worked in cafes and, in LA, at the Warner Lot – we constantly changed our rhythm. We worked for a few weeks together – plotting and exploring, finding and killing ideas – and then I went off to write for two months. My cousin, Oliver Latsch, translated the draft for Lionel (I still write in German) and we met again for a few weeks to prepare the next draft. By this time we knew our world and characters so well that we didn’t need the constant back and forth and it gave me the freedom to follow some crazy ideas. Sometimes I missed Lionel’s input though, so we got on the phone to discuss important decisions. Neither of us could wait for the next draft to be done, to get back to the fierce debates and to continue travelling side by side in the world we created together.

It seems that I will be mostly on my own for book three, as Lionel will be busy working on several movies. But Reckless will always be his story too and I am sure I will miss his ideas very much whilst I am behind the Mirror – and so will Jacob, Fox and all the others.

About the Blog Tour:

Make sure you stop by to check out the other stops on the wonderful blog tour:

Giveaway Details:

We have ONE copy of Reckless with an autographed bookplate up for grabs! The contest is open to residents of the UK, and will run until Saturday July 9 at 11:59PM (PST). To enter, simply leave a comment here letting us know what your favorite Cornelia Funke book or character is. Good luck!

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24 Comments

  • Katy
    July 4, 2011 at 8:05 am

    The Thief Lord is my favorite

  • Stephanie
    July 4, 2011 at 8:05 am

    I really want to read Reckless! I loved The Thief Lord when I first read it in sixth grade. The characters were wonderful, the setting was so alive, and the mystery of Scipio entriguing.

  • Heather (Proud Book Nerd)
    July 4, 2011 at 10:05 am

    Favorite … I don’t know I could pick a favorite. I really, REALLY liked Inkheart. So, I guess that’ll be my pick. There were a lot of awesome characters, too, so there’s no way I could pick a favorite character.

  • Chelsea
    July 4, 2011 at 12:33 pm

    My favorite book series is the Inkheart trilogy as my favorite character comes from there: Dustfinger. 😀

  • Cherry Mischievous
    July 4, 2011 at 12:53 pm

    I haven’t read a Cornelia Funke yet so can’t say which book or character I liked best yet… but I would say I would like to start with Reckless 🙂

  • Neal
    July 4, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    My favourite would have to be Dragon Rider! I loved the adventure of it and all the mythological creatures they met along the way, oooh now I want to re-read it…

  • Irene
    July 4, 2011 at 1:10 pm

    My favourite Cornelia Funke character is Dustfinger from Inkheart without doubt. 🙂

  • notunlikely
    July 4, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    My family and I adore The Thief Lord. Venice <3!

  • Mel S
    July 4, 2011 at 1:40 pm

    I have to confess to being another Thief Lord fan. 🙂

    Reckless sounds great – and that cover is so creepy!

    notanotherbookblog(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk

  • Tatiana C.
    July 4, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    I haven’t read any of Cornelia Funke’s work, but Reckless has been on my list to read for a while.

  • Alexandra
    July 4, 2011 at 2:50 pm

    I liked the Thief Lord.

  • Julie Witt
    July 4, 2011 at 7:12 pm

    I haven’t read any of her books yet, so I don’t have a favorite right now, but I am certainly going to read them now that I know about her!!

  • Julie Witt
    July 4, 2011 at 7:13 pm

    I forgot to mention that I’m not from the UK so don’t enter me in the contest, please! Thanks!

  • Amanda
    July 4, 2011 at 8:44 pm

    Oooh! I loved the Ink World Trilogy. I really liked Inkheart, but I think Inkspell was even better. Can’t wait to get my hands on this one!

  • Alpa
    July 4, 2011 at 11:36 pm

    I loved Inkheart and Dragon Rider. This is definitely my must read book this year

  • Katie Hackett
    July 5, 2011 at 4:21 am

    Dragon Rider was my favourite as a kid 🙂

  • Jen B.
    July 5, 2011 at 3:05 pm

    I am so sorry that I missed most of the tour. I would love to win this book. I am always looking for reading material for my kids. I am not familiar with any of Cornelia Funke’s books.

  • Hannah
    July 6, 2011 at 12:15 pm

    It feels unoriginal to say so, but my favourite is probably always going to be Inkspell. <3 I love it so much, it's everything I look for in a book with the focus being upon books and resourceful young girls and fabulous fantasy and family and basically just being brilliant. But I may come to love Reckless as much! Thanks so much for holding this giveaway and also for the awesome post, very interesting stuff!

  • Lena G.
    July 29, 2011 at 7:21 pm

    I loved this book, am looking forward to the next few!!! 😀 XD

  • sam vogel
    January 18, 2012 at 3:25 pm

    My favorite character would have to be Valient because he is hillarious and seems like a smart guy. Please pick me for the contest or I will say YOUR secret name!

  • Jaime
    September 2, 2012 at 7:02 am

    when is the second reckless book coming out? I rrally hope soon!

  • Jaime
    September 2, 2012 at 7:02 am

    when is the second reckless book coming out? I really hope soon!

  • wyatt
    September 23, 2012 at 11:16 am

    my abbsolute favorite character is fox from reckless she is awesome:p

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