F
antasy book lovers everywhere knowCornelia Funke, the international
best-selling, award-winning author, who has written over 40 fabulous
books, including the amazing Inkheart series. Cornelia visited Australia for
the first time in May 2014, as a guest of the Sydney Writer’s Festival, and
the Primary Perspectives team were very excited to have the opportunity to
talk with her by phone, and find out about being an author, getting ideas, making
movies and beating writer’s block.!
Q
How did you know you wanted to become an author?
I wanted to be an astronaut at the age of 11.
Then I was a social worker for a while. Then
I became an illustrator and only then, when I
was so bored by the stories the publishers sent
me, I started writing. Sometimes the crooked
path leads you to exactly the right profession!
46 SwitchOn
Q
Where do you get your ideas?
My head is full of about 100 voices. But I’ve
just been travelling to New Zealand and to
Australia - so now there are about 10,000
voices in my head telling me all their different
stories! So for me, it’s more like picking the
idea I want to spend 2 years on - because that’s
what it takes to write a book.
Reading Matters on Primary Perspectives