Thanks to some internet shenanigans, I drafted this connected to a tenuous hotspot, so here’s hoping all of it saved right! (I have checked it, now I have better connection, don’t worry!) Anyway, today we’ve got another interview for you, this time with Merlina Garance, whose newest release came out just recently (15th December!). To find out why you won’t want to miss it, read on!
But first, before we start, you can also follow Merlina on instagram!
Have you always known you wanted to be a writer? How old were you when you wrote your first story?
My mother always said that as soon as I knew letters were a thing, I dropped drawing to start writing anything and everything. One of my oldest memories is writing and illustrating a bedtime story my father used to tell us.
It really started one day in secondary school (I must have been twelve) when I finished an exam early and had to wait to leave the room. I had paper, a pen, and too much time. I never really stopped since then!
I will add nuance there and say I’ve always known I wanted to write. Wanting to become a writer was more of a vague dream, something I thought out of reach until 2023.
What pieces of media would you say were formative for you? Do you see any of their features in your own writing?
I grew up in France, immersed in that particular culture. Now, reading books from many different countries, I see how my culture influenced my writing and how I approach art in general. French cinema loves to make ‘dramatic comedies’ that play with both the humorous and tragic aspects of life. (I could give many examples, but if I need to pick only one to recommend, I’d tell readers to watch Cedric Klapisch’s films, starting with The Spanish Apartment.)
It’s something I find myself doing in my books as well: trying to put as much nuance as I can into my characters’ emotions and their relationships, infusing details into the story to make them feel real. Sometimes that means I end up with a story that doesn’t fit neatly into one category only, but I think I like it that way.
When you close your eyes and imagine an apple, what do you see? An actual apple, a sketch of one, a blackness? Do you think that impacts your writing process?
I see an actual apple, in full colour – red, with hints of green and yellow.
I’m very detail oriented, it’s how I navigate through life: I’ll see the flower before I see the field.
That often means that when I’m coming up with a new story, I’ll imagine a few scenes first, very detailed bits of dialogue, that will gradually come together as I flesh it out.
When I imagine a scene, I need to feel everything that is going on there: know what the surroundings look like, the little things the character can see and hear… And I often find myself making faces at my computer, trying to get their facial expression exactly right!
If you wanted to learn about craft, which three authors would you suggest reading?
My favourite books of all time are by Carole Martinez, mostly her novel The Threads of the Heart, which still haunts me to this day. The universe is so vibrant you never want to put them down.
In a similar manner, Isabel Allende’s books manage to capture me with how well the author manages to distill the complex stories of characters, often whole families, and to speak about violence and tragedy with subtlety.
But the story isn’t all there is about a novel: the rhythm of the prose is also what will make a reader stay or leave. For this, I think I learnt the most from reading and studying poetry. There are thousands of beautiful authors, classics or contemporary, but I’ll always remember the revelation I had hearing Charles Baudelaire’s words and thinking: Oh. Words can be music on their own, too.
When you’re building your world, what do you focus on? How do you try to make it come to life?
Most of all, I want my characters to feel like real people to the reader, ones you could imagine meeting and befriending – or hating!
I have a little ‘character sheet’ that I fill out for all main characters. Physical description of course, a bit of backstory, and who they are now. Again through details: their favourite food, pet peeves, phobias, secrets (big or small)… Some may never end up being used in the story but it tells me more about these people and how they’ll react in such and such situations.
Then of course at some point, characters come to life and make decisions without my input.
What projects are you currently working on? Can you share any details yet?
My next release is a cosy, sapphic seaside romance that comes out on December 15, 2023 and can be found here.
I can say I’ve been working on a fun project that is a collaborative dream journal: throughout 2023, I’ve written one short prose text or poem per week, each based on the dream of a friend, stranger, sometimes myself. I don’t know yet if I’ll ever publish it, but I will definitely share some of them online!
Three pictures that capture the aesthetic of your book?
What would be your dream project?
Honestly, everything I’ve worked on for the past two years has been my dream project. Ever since I’ve made peace with my identity and allowed myself to write about only queer stories and feelings, I’ve felt so good about being creative.
One friend has helped me immensely through this and we worked on a few projects together, and I hope this will continue. Alex is who I needed to boost my artistic ambitions and I can never thank him enough for it. I just want to carry on writing novels and maybe some poetry as well!
Which of your characters would you most want to fight a zombie apocalypse with?
Andy, from book one of the trilogy, and Estelle, from book three. They’re the most confident and pugnacious ones, and I’d trust them to tell me what to do and fight while I’m curled up in a ball waiting for it to be over.
You can collaborate on anything with anyone in the LGBT community: who would it be and why?
I’ve recently become fascinated with Mae Martin’s work. Their TV series Feel Good is exactly the kind of stories I like to hear, and to tell. It’s so full of feelings, doesn’t shy away from showing the darkest ones, and at the same time is so beautifully nuanced that it makes it very easy to relate to the characters. Which is what I hope to accomplish with my writing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I’ve always heard my mother say that as soon as I could hold a pen, I started writing stories. First, transcribing and illustrating the ones that my father had invented for us. Then elaborate back stories for my toys. Then one day, at the end of an exam in secondary school, with too much time on my hands and only paper available, that’s when it really started.
For a long time I wrote romance stories (in French, my mother tongue) and published them on a blog. I started writing in English in 2020, first fanfiction for videogames or tv shows that were dear to my heart and now, novels.
I worked for some years as a social worker, and quit at the end of 2022 to take care of my health and focus on writing.
I still write mostly romance, about characters who are always queer, often neurodivergent – and some poetry on the side. When I’m not writing, I like to spend time in nature, gardening or hiking, or play video-games.
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