Secrets of my craft

Below I answer questions people often ask me in regard to Rose Rapson:

1. Rose Rapson is not me. We share some things in common, but I regard Rose much more as my imaginary third child than my younger self.
2. Some of the characters are based on real, flesh-and- blood people, but others are completely fictitious. Still others originate from mythology, whose features I have crafted drawing on the information available to me.
3. It was my childhood dream to write a novel. The idea of actually doing it came to me while I was having my last ever conversation with my grandfather, just before he died in 2013. The mood of this conversation (though not the exact subject matter) is immortalised in chapter 10 of the book, which was the first part of the novel I wrote.
4. On the same day, randomly surfing the internet, I came across the legend of Lady Rapson, Queen of the Transylvanian Fairies. I took this as a celestial sign, especially as my grandfather’s family roots are in Transylvania, so there was no question that this would be the core around which I would construct my myth.
5. The main plot of the story popped into my mind while I was jogging in the Buda hills, shortly after my grandfather passed away. After that, I didn’t have to worry about what to write, only when I would write it, as I had very little free time. The details, of course, came later, while I was writing – and running.
6. So who is Lady Rapson? She was the Queen of the Transylvanian Fairies, a true matriarchal ruler, who reached far beyond her original position as a spouse after the mysterious disappearance of his husband, who ruled before her. Lady Rapson’s castle is no fiction, it actually exists. Its ruins can still be visited by walking along a tourist trail which starts about 5 miles from Parajd on the road towards Gyergyószentmiklós (today’s Praid and Gheorgheni, Romania).
7. During the writing process I had no conscious awareness of any particular literary genre. I am a lawyer who loves literature, but I’ve never studied the art of writing. I was given a beautiful story, and I felt, from the very first moment, that it had been entrusted to me, and that I should do something good with it and share it with others. The blending of mythology, esotericism and psychology evolved naturally in my narrative, it was not intentional on my part.
8. There is formidable literary talent, past and present, in my extended family, but this is my own first venture into writing, and, truth be told, since graduating law school, almost the only things I’ve read have been books on law and baby care!
9. As a young mother on maternity leave, I had a wonderful chance to write, actually my very first. When my children were born, maternity leave provided “justification” for a “professional sabbatical”. I now had a chance to do something with my brain other than law. Stealing an hour or two here and there to spend with Rose, I still had abundant quality family time. I look upon the last four years of my life – not working in my profession – as the “mystery of birthing and creation”. I gave birth to my son and daughter, as well as to my novel. I am so blessed, not to mention grateful for this opportunity.
10. Do I believe in everything I wrote about, all the things in the book that can’t be grasped physically or comprehended as rational facts? Not long ago, even while writing my novel, I didn’t believe any of it one bit. I didn’t understand why I was the one to be given this inspiration, this challenge, and I worried that I wouldn’t be able to carry it through authentically or consistently. Why? Because when I started to write, I was, if anything, an even more rational person than Rose. Then, a few things happened to me while I was writing the book, and even more so after I’d finished, which made me accept, more than I’d ever done, that so many more things exist in life than those in the material realm. In brief. And although I shaped the book, the book also shaped me.
11. Chapter 13 is my favourite, though it’s linguistically a little “odd” compared with the rest of the book, because it uses the local Siculian (Szekler/Székely) dialect of that part of Transylvania where it takes place. My favourite characters are obviously Rose and her ancestor, Lady Rapson. They are the personifications of the purple-and- red strong-minded and proud women, who don’t care at all about social conventions. My favourite supporting character is the Siculian giant, Bruno, although the truth is that I love all my characters; this explains why I already have a new writing diary filled with the whole cast and their upcoming adventures. That said, the sequel will only come to fruition provided my readers also want to keep Rose Rapson company on her next adventures.
12. What is the book’s most important moral message? There is love and acceptance, fellowship and teamwork, bravery and pride, perseverance and dedication, emotional peace and inner harmony. The empowerment of a fearless attitude towards life, the importance of loving yourself, but most importantly, discovering and living your own destiny. And, obviously, the path to another world, whence we come and towards we are headed. Everyone reading this book will discover, among the matrix of messages it embraces, one that is their very own. My own is, “Let’s wake up and embrace our inner goodness, our own fairy roots, and make the world a better place. If you don’t believe in miracles, then you are not a realist.” It is in this spirit that I am building my charity campaign around this book.

”WAKE UP, MY FAIRIES!”

(For more information, please click on ”CHARITY”!)