 Fantasy: July 22, 2020 Issue [#10281] |
This week: Are you a Funkie? Edited by: eyestar~*  
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 Hail fellow fantasy lovers! I am happy to be a guest editor and chat about one of my more current favourite authors, Cornelia Funke. 
Cornelia speaks:
"Ideas 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."
To aspiring authors she says: "Read – and be curious. And if somebody says to you: 'Things are this way. You can't change it' – don't believe a word."
"I always wanted to ride a dragon myself, so I decided to do this for a year in my imagination."
"I will try to write books until I drop dead."
“Stories never really end...even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on. They don't end on the last page, any more than they begin on the first page.” Inkspell
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Are you a Funkie?  A reader of the fantasy magics of Cornelia Funke, the girl who once wanted to be astronaut or ride dragons?
 I loved her Inkheart book, the first one of her books that I read to a class. Her love of reading and intent to inspire love of reading shines through the pages. Quotes from her favourite books from childhood appear in chapters and how can one not love that what Mo reads aloud by the main character comes to life? I read that she loves good fantasy like Lord of the Rings, Narnia and Peter Pan!
It is cool that by Barry Cunningham of The Chicken House publishing (who first published JK Rowling) sought her out to publish "Herr der Diebe" in English after he received a letter from Clara, a child in England asked why her favourite author was not published in English. Luckily she was bilingual so she had read the books in German.
It was the first book she had translated and sent out to appeal to wider audience so "The Thief Lord" soon enchanted the young hearts in England, selling out in the first week. Two years later it debuted in America and her work found even greater acclaim. Her American publisher Scholastic released her "Inkheart" book in 2003 and won her the 2004 BookSense Book of the Year Children's Literature award. The second in the trilogy won her a second one.  "Dragon Rider" was another series that engaged young readers and me as well.
Cornelia Funke, sometimes called the "JK Rowling" of Germany, was born in December 10, 1958 in Dorsten, Germany. She studied pedagogy and then worked as a social worker and became interested in children from deprived backgrounds. She trained as a designer and a illustrator of books and when she got bored with those stories, was drawn into the writing world herself and wrote stories she hoped would inspire those children she had worked with. She recognized her gift. Her favourite inspiration was "Pan's Labyrinth", a movie by Guierrmo Del Torro. and at one point she was asked to write the book to go with the movie!  She so loved the tale that she kept as close as possible to his vision.
When she was illustrating rather realistic books, and got the call to write, fantasy was not a popular genre even though Germany had a long tradition of tales going back to Brother's Grimm.
 She became popular as an author in her home country in the 1990's with her series for young people "Die Wilden Hühner" concerning the trials of adolescence and her fantasy "Ghost Hunter" series which were made into movies there. She used to write 3-4 books a year to support her family in Hamburg.
Many of her other works are in film version and she herself was a co-producer on "Inkheart".
In 2010 she began her "Mirror world" series and her next one is due out in October. She also, surprisingly, is going to publish another in the "Inkworld" series. Apparently characters showed up in her paintings and she saw that a new Inkheart book was birthing. It will be called "The Colour of Revenge" dealing with what is stronger: word or image! and she likes to take suggestions from readers!
In 2005 she moved with her husband Rolf Frahm and two children Ana and Ben to Beverly Hills, one of her dreams. Her husband died of cancer a year later. In 2017 she followed her dream of living in the country when she bought an avocado farm in Malibu.
Cornelia believes in giving back and passing on experience, so she hosts an Artist In Residence program from her beautiful space where artists/writers can gather and share. She is back to painting as well and always open to adventure.
 The themes in her tales are dear to her heart as she hopes children will relate and be inspired by them. Adults too are engaged. She was amazed early on that while her books tend to be German and American based, young people and young adults in places like India, Indonesia, etc. relate to the deeper messages. Popular world wide, her 70 books in 50 languages are over 25 million in copies.
 In "the Thief Lord", the theme of family with a different definition shows how Love is the key as sometimes blood family can let us down. Themes of friendship, identity, youth and aging and how it effects responsibility are elemental in this story of intrigue, mystery and secrets as a group of orphans stick together on adventures in Venice.
"Inkheart" series deals with Family as well, Pride, Power, Memories, Lies and deceit, literature and the importance of words. It also shows the danger of fascism in a symbolic fashion. She uses literal allusions even if beyond a child's understanding and yet writes with knowing and warmth. She knows children know more than we think and fantasy can be a way of showing some harsh truths they may be living with..a safe step apart..and with hope of a way through.
She uses fantasy to ask the big questions: what is good, bad, issues of our world and earth. What is lasting. She is a detailed researcher, which brings rich background and reality to her works. She works in a wonderful large space where she has all her books, images, notes posted, artifacts, gifts from readers all around her as inspiration. A passionate writer, artist, she follows her muse and even has taken suggestions from her readers. Apparently One young reader asked why she did not have a girl hero and so... Meg became the hero in the Inkheart series!
At age 62, still sharing her joy of writing, living
Cornelia Funke, pronounced Foon-kah,
is really living out her brilliance! Her last name means "Spark"!  And that she is!
Thanks for reading! I am looking forward to reading more of her magic!
How about you?
eyestar
Cool places:
https://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ca-Ge/Funke-Cornelia.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelia_Funke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1o7ywCv5b4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt5Ge9itttU
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Enjoy!
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Cornelia says her ideas for stories come from everywhere all the time? Where do you get your ideas?
Do you have a favourite book by this author?
Thank you so much for your responses to my last newsletter "Fantasy Newsletter (June 24, 2020)" !
StephBee 
"When my son was younger he loved Magic Treehouse and the Percy Jackson series. Great books to help inspire the imagination! Nowawdays, he's more into youtube and video games."
BIG BAD WOLF is Howling 
"For a given value of Fantasy, as there must have been something in that old hat, "Frosty the Snowman".
Beholden 
"Thank you so much for including my story, The Troll's Guide to Solving a Crisis, in your Editor's Picks.
I'm pretty sure the first true fantasy book I read as a child was The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The rest of the Narnian books followed in quick succession. My favourite of that series is still The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Yes, I still read them and have done so all my life. I'm 72 years old."
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