Viktorija Curlin

What was your favorite book as a child?

I don’t think I had a single favourite book when I was a child. I was an avid reader ever since I learned to read, and there was never a shortage of books in our household. My reading included the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales, the Ancient Greek myths (age-appropriate editions, of course), fables, English, French, and German children’s literature, and Tolkien’s work. If I had to pick a particular book among these, it would be Grimm’s fairy tales.

What was the original reason or motivation why you started writing creatively?

Since early teens, I knew I wanted to write stories. Creative writing, however, ended up at the bottom of my list of priorities throughout most of my higher education. For years I hardly even read fiction at all, so consumed I had been in studying and writing academic papers. But there has always been that impulse for storytelling within me. Then I read Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, and knew that what I truly want to do in life is write books like those. Since then, I have been writing fairly consistently, occasional slumps aside. There is not helping it now; I quite simply must write.

What was the most adventurous or thrilling thing you ever did/experienced?

A few years ago I was a member of a HEMA (historical European martial arts) club, and we used real weapons there, so that was fun and exciting!

Do you listen to music while reading or writing?

I typically do not listen to anything except, at most, ASMR in the background while writing. On occasion, but very rarely, I put on some classical instrumental music. I prefer to write in silence, allowing my mind to sink into the world of the text as much as possible. I find it helps me with establishing characters’ voices. Developing an inner reading voice is an important skill to master as a writer, and it is much easier to go about this when there are no other sounds disturbing me.