#featuring evil fairy Cornelia

[renisfan]

Lion King this, Beauty and Beast that, but have you considered:

Snow Dimi and Seven Blue Lions?

[schleierkauz]

Cornelia Funke Q&A - 05.09.22

First of all, the audio quality was horrible this time. I tried my best to make out what Cornelia said but it was a struggle.

The Elephant in the Room/Those new Inkworld Covers

- See this post

- No, really, Cornelia hates them a lot and encourages us to complain to the publisher

The Color of Revenge

- The book is finished

- Direct quote from Cornelia:

"I admit, I'm very in love with this book. It will, in many ways, be different from the other Inkworld books since it takes places five years later and the two main characters are definitely Dustfinger and the Black Prince. 

That means there will be two story lines, two separate efforts to stop Orpheus' revenge. Dustfinger, Farid and Jehan (Dustfinger's stepson) will travel with the Strong Man. 

Meanwhile the Black Prince, along with Battista, will be with a young witch named Driope... who will... hm... probably explain why Fox has a fox pelt. So the fox will be mentioned but not- not in the way the cover seems to imply. The story will be about witches, good ones and evil ones, it will... I had so much fun finally getting more into the Prince's story, I wanted to do that since I wrote Inkspell. And now Nyame, which is his first name I hadn't revealed so far, will really be in the spotlight this time. Colors, too- are pictures more powerful than words? We will see... and I think the answer will surprise us all.

Part of the story will take place around Ombra, which looks a lot like Tuskany, where I live right now. Other parts will take place in South Tyrol, which we already know from Reckless.

I let the story surprise me. It went completely differently than how I initially imagined, that's always a good sign. There were plottwist I couldn't have predicted, I learned a lot, met characters I didn't know very well before... And I hope that I have another book in me because after this, there are still a thousand stories to tell. But that's how all my stories end, so... We'll see. I definitely wrote it with so so so much joy and I hope some of that joy will infect the readers once they have the book in their hands.

Of course (unintelligible) but there's also a lot of beauty and light... and many characters that we love."

(Translator’s note: I’m guessing she said something like “Of course the story will have dark moments”- but everyone talked over each other so I can’t hear her exact wording)

Reckless

- She is preparing Reckless 5, which she calls a huge challenge

- It will involve African fairy tales and Cornelia is realising how little she knows about African history so she's been doing a lot of research. Since she explored the Black Prince's roots in TCoR, she is looking forward to see possible parallels between the Inkworld and the Mirrorworld again

The Wild Chicks

- Cornelia has recently been made aware that The Wild Chicks are trending on Tiktok. She obviously had no idea. She heard that they are seen as idols because even 30 years ago they were growing their own food, saving chickens and featured lesbians

- The idea is to do something with those characters and environmentalism because it would fit very well but there are no concrete plans yet

- Of course there are also those scripts about the characters at 30. Plans have been changed - instead of a movie, Cornelia wants to turn it into a six part TV show. This would give every character room to breathe. Of course, there would be a book to go along with this

Misc.

- Cornelia wishes she was ginger. She doesn't want to dye her hair, she just wants to naturally be ginger. Maybe in the next life

- Cornelia talks about her Christmas project again. She wants all her artists to draw christmas trees which the writer's will then tell little stories about

- One of Cornelia’s next plans is to get environmentalists and artists together and come up with more hopeful narratives about the future of the planet. She is tired of apocalypse stories

- "The Green Kingdom" is finished and will be released next spring

- Cornelia's Italian is getting better and she hopes she will be able to do a few readings in Italian next year. She will be on stage in Germany next month for the first time since covid hit and is very excited about it

- If Cornelia had the chance to sit down and talk to any fictional character, she would like to choose the three musketeers or Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride

- Despite all the wonderful Italian food she's been eating, Cornelia remains loyal to the potato

- In Cornelia's experience, publishers often try to stop authors and illustrators from communicating directly because they don't want them to unionize. She encourages everyone to ignore this and talk to each other

[iturbide]

For the 3H Pokémon AU, I have to ask- Do the Agarthans use snake/dark themed Pokémon (since, you know, “slither in dark”) or do they focus on ice/fairy (since those are strong against dragon)?

I will not stand for dark-type or snake slander in my house blog they already have a bad enough reputation thanks to the games and we all know my feelings about the Dark is Evil trope -- snakes as wicked is equally something I frown on.

(by which I mean to say that I don't think it's really fair to code Those Who Slither with dark types or snakes specifically -- because Those Who Slither isn't their name for themselves, it's what Hubert chose to name them and what the protagonists in 3H take to calling them, in turn: technically they're Agarthans, which is probably how they would refer to themselves. also I love snakes, they're adorable, the Twisted don't deserve them)

Dark, Fairy, and arguably even Dragons (demonic beast analogues) would probably be the best fits for them. High-ranking members probably have things like Grimmsnarl (Death Knight), Mimikyu (Kronya), Glalie (Solon), Hatterene (Cornelia), Druddigon (Thales); meanwhile, rank and file members probably have lots of Spritzee and Aromatisse (because plague masks are a key feature on their mages).