amandaonwriting:

Literary Birthday - 10 December

Happy Birthday, Cornelia Funke, born 10 December 1958

Cornelia Funke’s Top 10 Tips For Writing Ghost Stories

1. Choose your tone. Decide whether you want to go funny or grim. You can of course do both, but you should decide about the general tone of your story. (Which of course may convince you while you are writing that you made the wrong decision…)
2. Choose your ghost. Do you want your reader to love or fear the ghost? Will you be on the ghost’s side or will your hero be the hunter? Answering these questions may reveal a lot about the story you want to tell.
3. Mix it up. We all know the classic ingredients for creating a spooky atmosphere: of course most of the action takes place at night. It is cold and foggy. There are plenty of very old buildings and probably graveyards. It can be incredibly satisfying to use ALL of these ingredients and play with them in your very own way. But if you are tired of these kinds of ghost stories read some tales from the Caribbean or Asia. They will give you some very different ideas on ghosts!
4. Give your ghost a life story. Decide where your ghosts come from. How many are there? Do you tell the story of one or many? Were they once human? If yes, were they He or She? Grown up or child? How did they die? When did they live? You can make them historical characters like I did in Ghost Knight, which is so much fun and vastly inspiring. Or do you deal with a spirit of demonic origins? In short: Give your ghostly hero a biography. Imagine them so clearly that you feel them behind you. What does their voice sound like? Do they have one? Is their breath cold or hot?
5. Set some rules. Rules: yes, even ghosts need them. Fantasy writing is always in danger of feeling quite random and not too convincing when you don’t take the trouble to define the rules of your world and the creatures in it. So what can ghosts do? Can they hurt you? When do they show up? How can you destroy them? 
6. Explore themes. Don’t forget about The Big Themes! A ghost story is very often about death and guilt, about life unlived, about loss. The more you explore these themes, the better it gets. You can ask all the big questions. Where do we come from? Where do we go? If there are ghosts, why do they stay? Does Evil survive Death? 
7. Do your research. Research! Do you know that there ARE ghost hunters? Real ghost hunters! I found it very inspiring to read about them and their theories on ghosts before I wrote Ghost Knight!
8. Create the right writing atmosphere. Write at night… A very easy way to create just the right writing atmosphere. Candles are helpful too. Maybe you could even try paper and a fountain pen. A quill may be too much of an obstacle getting the words onto a page!
9. There’s more to a ghost story than ghosts. Other creatures. A ghost story can of course deal with other haunting creatures too. Maybe you want werewolves and vampires as well? Why not explore the whole kingdom of the Undead?
10. Ignore the previous 9 rules. Break all the rules! Ignore all the advice! Write a ghost story that’s in bright daylight. Make him a ghostly robot. An apparition from the future… You see, I lied about the thousand ways to write a ghost story. There are millions :-)

Cornelia Funke is the best-selling author of the Inkheart trilogy. She has sold more than 10 million books worldwide. Her latest novel, Ghost Knight, is a very British ghost story set in Salisbury Cathedral and Lacock Abbey. 

by Amanda Patterson

From Writers Write

onethousandbooks:

[18/100] [18/1000]

Inkdeath - Cornelia Funke

Life in the Inkworld has been far from easy since the extraordinary events of Inkspell, when the story of Inkheart magically drew Meggie, Mo and Dustfinger back into its pages. With Dustfinger dead, and the evil Adderhead now in control, the story in which they are all caught has taken an unhappy turn. Even Elinor, left alone in the real world, believes her family to be lost - lost between the covers of a book. But as winter comes on there is reason to hope - if only Meggie and Mo can rewrite the wrongs of the past and make a dangerous pact with death.

Inkspell is my least favourite of the trilogy, but it is worth it just to get to inkdeath. The characters have got so much better, especially Dustfinger. He is my favourite character, he’s really grown as a person since Inkheart. I also love how the world takes control of itself, and also of Mo, and you really don’t know how it will turn out. This book has so many twists and turns, that you really don’t know how it will end, and I love that. 

But Farid’s a douche. 

Definitely read again, a million times over (although I have to reach 1000 first) 

The Thief Lord. (Il Re dei Ladri )

First book I have read by Cornelia Funke, and I have loved it from the first page to the last.

  The Thief Lord tells the tale of Prosper and Bo, two orphaned brothers who have run away from their aunt and uncle. When their mother was still alive, she often spoke of Venice as a magical city, and so the two boys decide to flee to Venice. There, they meet the Thief Lord who runs a ring of street children who dabble in petty crimes, in the Oliver Twist style. 

The two brothers become close with the Thief Lord and the other children in his colourful family, but they quickly discover that the Thief Lord has a dark secret. Soon Prosper, Bo, and the rest of the gang are thrown into circumstances beyond their control. They embark on an adventure throughout the meandering canals and narrow alleyways of Venice. 

This modern classic has become one of the most popular children’s novels of the past decade. It has the perfect mix of adventure, mischief, magic, and friendship, and is bound to keep your students turning pages.  

—— ——- —— 

La vicenda si svolge a Venezia, tra palazzi in rovina e canali che offrono un perfetto rifugio ai fuggitivi. Prosper e Bo sono due orfani che, scappando dagli zii malvagi, incontrano una banda di ragazzini che ha il covo in un cinema abbandonato. Il loro capo si chiama Scipio, ma tutti lo conoscono come il re dei ladri, compie furti mirabolanti al fine di garantire la sopravvivenza dei compagni. Prosper e Bo decidono dunque di entrare a far parte della banda, ma i perfidi zii assumono un investigatore privato per trovarli. un misterioso conte affida un incarico al re dei ladri: rubare un’ala di legno che si trova in una villa. nel frattempo l’investigatore Victor scopre che il re dei ladri è solo il figlio di un ricco imprenditore, e che ruba in casa sua. la banda di ragazzi verifica la cosa e decide di compiere comunque il furto…

HANNO FATTO IL FILM E IO L’HO SCOPERTO SOLO OGGI *______* !!!! 

INK HEART BY CORNELIA FUNKE , is the first book of the Ink trilogy. I love Cornelia Funke as a writer, and all her novels.