CELIA REES
 Quite a lot of questions flooded in from young people in Bulgaria and Wales for the chat with Celia Rees in early October 2004. This is a list of those questions with Celia's answers. You can read more about Celia Rees on our Contemporary Writers website.
Rossitsa: Which is according to you the 'witch child' of today's world?
CR: It is difficult to make exact comparisons, but I'd say anyone who feels or believes themselves to be different and experiences difficulties in being accepted. In Mary's case it was because she was labelled a witch in a society which hated and feared witchcraft. Maybe you can think of your own parallels…
Dena: Why were people in the past afraid of witchcraft and nowadays they call it nonsense? Did witchcraft disappear?
CR: People at different times believe in different things – belief in witchcraft flourished at a time when people could think of no other explanation for misfortune often based on natural phenomenon – disease, extreme weather, crop failures, and so on. The belief tended to disappear with the growth of science and rationalism.
Dena: Is there difference between 'having faith' and 'being religious'? Why does Mary from Sorceress believe in God and in the same time she calls herself a sorceress?
CR: There are many different religions and systems of belief, but at the heart of them all is a human need to believe in something. Mary could see no difference between God and the Native American belief in a Great Spirit. I'm not sure that Mary called herself a sorceress – it was a term used by others – even if she did, it just means a person who has spiritual power.
Dena: Why did you choose to present the relationship grandmother–granddaughter as stronger than the mother–daughter relationship?
CR: Because in the book Mary's mother is absent. Her primary carer is the person she knows as her grandmother. Children tend to develop their strongest bonds with their primary carer.
Katerina: In your books you treat the problems that special children and teenagers face when adapting to their surrounding – family, school, friends. Surviving and finding one's place is getting harder in the hostile world of nowadays torn by conflicts and terrorism. How do you think the fragile universe of adolescents is marked by this tension? Do you consider reading and writing a cure that can preserve their world and be an inspiration?
CR: Reading and writing cannot 'cure' anything, but they are important ways in which we can share experience and understand the world. Growing up has always been hard. Reading about the challenges others have faced and how they coped with them, can help young people realise that they are not alone, not the only ones to feel that way, or to experiences problems. This in turn can help them cope better with the challenges that they are facing.
Irina: What motivates you to write about children ?
CR: I began to write while I was a secondary school teacher and I wanted to write the kinds of books my teenage pupils would want to read.
Irina: Do you had a prototype for any of your characters in The Bailey Game?
CR: The Bailey Game is based on my experience as a pupil, teacher and parent. All the things that happen, really happened and the characters are composites of people I encountered.
Irina: What do you think are the factors that develop such type of peer aggression as the described in The Bailey Game in the young people ?
CR: Fear, insecurity, prejudice, ignorance, cruelty, peer pressure, herd mentality, difference, jealousy… I could go on – maybe you could add some more, too. A poisonous brew of negative forces and emotions that are, unfortunately, all too common.
Irina: How can children develop tolerance to the differences of their classmates, especially in school?
CR: By learning to put themselves in another's place 'walk a mile in their shoes' ro paraphrase Harper Lee.
Irina: Lauren's parents have not had an idea what was happening with her?
CR: Parents are often the last to know that their child is being bullied. Children are very protective towards their parents – not wanting to hurt, upset, or worry them, particularly when the parents have other worries – Lauren's Dad has a job that takes him away a lot, and Lauren feels her mother has enough problems coping with that and starting life in a new country. Also, Lauren has never been bullied before, so it would be easy for her mother to miss the signs, just put it down to adolescent moodiness, difficulties settling in, etc.
Irina: Do you think that it is difficult for parents nowadays to find the right approach to their children's lifes? Why?
CR: It has always been difficult, but a good parent has to find time to tune into their children's lives, listen to them, share in their lives but also see them as separate people and allow them to grow towards independence.
Alex: First of all, having in mind that teenagers are connected to computers, Internet and TV more than anybody else, do you think that such issues should play a major role in the modern teenage literature?
CR: It depends on the book. If these things are important to the characters, they will figure in the book.
Alex: Secondly, do you agree with the statement that the key to understanding modern literature lies in the good knowledge of the classics?
CR: It depends. For the academic study of literature, of course, one should know what has come before, but you do not need to know about 'the classics' to enjoy reading, In fact, it might be the other way round – read what you like first, and one day that will lead you to the classics.
Anita: Why was William reported missing? Why did you decide to leave his death unrevealed?
CR: Which William? The twin in Truth or Dare? He was buried under a landslide – his body was never found.
Anita: Why have you left the book slightly open for reader's imagination to continue the story as it will, why haven't you described Patrick's comeback to the family?
CR: That part of Truth or Dare is written from the point of view of Joanna as a child. Patrick didn't return as such, he was taken away and put in a mental institution. The children are told that he had died there.
Maria: How much of the author's personal life do you think is 'appropriate' to be included in a novel?
CR: It depends on the novel. Some novels are more autobiographical than others – but the author's personal life, history, beliefs, agendas should never come before the story.
Maria: How important is factual data and research to your writing?
CR: Again, it depends on the book and what I need to know in order to write it.
Maria: What are your tips for writing a good dialogue?
CR: Keep it real – but make it work.
Maria: What are your tricks to keep the plot (and the reader's interest) going?
CR: Don't give too much away. Seed questions in the reader's mind – once you answer those, pose more for them to puzzle out. Keep them guessing.
Maria: What are the worst pitfalls you have come across while writing?
CR: Stories that don't work. Characters that won't come alive. Staring something that seemed like a good idea at the time…
Maria: How long did it take you to persuade the people around you that you definitely plan on becoming a real serious writer (I'm asking this
because I know most of us have experienced our parents' reaction to such ideas).
CR: I was an adult when I began writing, but my advice is don't tell anyone – just do it and see their faces when you succeed!
Stoyan: What are your main literary and non-literary influences?
CR: Everything I've ever read/seen/heard/experienced – a writer is the sum of everything they have ever done.
Stoyan: Where do you get your inspiration for characters and plots?
CR: All around me.
Stoyan: At what moment in your life did you make the definite decision to become a professional writer?
CR: When I was force to re-assess my career as a teacher.
Stoyan: Most writers write about characters of their age since that is the age they naturally know best. Why did you decide to write about a 'previous version' of yourself? What inspired you to write about and for teenagers?
CR: I write for children and adolescents – how many children's books can you name that have been written by authors who are the same chronological age as the characters? I was a teacher and wanted to write books my students would read. Personally, I get my greatest writer's blocks when I am truly happy. Recently, that has been a frequent phenomenon.
Stoyan: Do you have any advice on how to get inspiration from other things than the tragedy of my own live?
CR: Try to divorce the process of writing from your personal life. Happy, sad, whatever – just write.
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