I DO LIKE USING FAIRY TALES AS
PARTS OF MY WRITING: AN INTERVIEW WITH SALLA SIMUKKA, AUTHOR OF BESTSELLING
SNOW WHITE TRILOGY
SNOW
WHITE TRILOGY is an international bestseller from Finland written by Salla
Simukka, and I'm thrilled to have Salla here to tell me more about it.
First
of all, I would like to thank you for Lumikki Andersson. When I was a teenage
girl, I couldn't find any female character I could identify with. And I found
the perfect one as an adult woman. What about you? Did you find one when you
were a teenager? Or maybe you couldn't find her and that's why you decided to create
Lumikki?
It's lovely to hear that Lumikki resonates so well
also with adult readers! I think that I did find some female characters I could
identify with when I was growing up. As a child I really adored Astrid
Lindgren's Ronia, the Robber's Daughter. A bit older I found myself in Jo from “Little
Women” and Emily of The New Moon (both characters who write obviously). As a
teenager, I read mostly fantasy and I recall that I liked Lyra from Philip
Pullman's His Dark Materials. But it is true that I didn't identify so strongly
with female characters of Finnish YA literature at that time. They seemed to be
living a very different kind of youth than me. And I think that might have been
one of the reasons why started writing YA novels in the first place: to be able to
describe characters who were like me and my friends (I wrote the first version
of my first published book when I was 18, even though it didn't see the
daylight until I was 21).
But Lumikki Andersson is in many ways quite different
than I was when I was a teenager. I had many friends, I was quite talkative
and positive, and had a secure and loving family. We went to the same college
but I think that if in some bizarre, parallel universe we had met there, we
wouldn't have become friends. She would have thought that I laugh too much and
that I am always surrounded by my friends and I would have thought that she is
too dark and broody and a bit scary and just likes to be by herself.
When
did Lumikki come to you for the first time? Is there any prototype of her
character?
The weird thing about Lumikki is that in some way I
don't feel like I had to "create" her. She came to me as a whole
person with past and present and everything she is. Even though she is of
course fictional and isn't based on anyone in real life, not myself or anyone I
know. But it was like I met her and she had said "Would you like to do
three books with me?" and I just jumped at the chance.
I
really like the love story in your trilogy because of two things. First of all,
the story is not that obvious as in the other books for teenagers (no
spoilers!), second of all, I really like that in your book having a boyfriend
is not the most important thing for the teenage girl as it so often happens in
other Young Adult novels. Where did that original idea for the love
presentation come+ from? (BTW, I love the ending of the trilogy!)
I have always written about LGBTQAI+ themes and it was
clear to me from the very beginning that the love story in the novels would not
just be the typical girl meets boy. I believe that representation matters,
especially in YA novels. It's important to see different types of love stories
and also different types of endings. An ending to a love story can be happy or
at least bittersweet in more ways than one.
The
name Lummiki means "Snow White". Is "The Snow White" your
favorite fairy tale? How do fairy tales affect you and your writing? In
my case, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by C. S. Lewis made
me constantly going to the closet and looking for entry to another world. How
was it in your case?
I wouldn't say that Snow White is my favorite fairy
tale. It just so happens that the titles (“As Red as Blood”, “As White as Snow”
and “As Black as Ebony”) were perfect for a thriller trilogy and that's why
that fairy tale became a part of the writing. Before the trilogy, I had just
written a duology (not translated into English, unfortunately) that had the “Little
Mermaid” as one inspiration. So yes, I do like using fairy tales as parts of my
writing. But usually not in a way that would make me rewrite the fairy tale,
but rather use the fairy tale as an association or in the language.
My all time favorite fairy tale might be “The Snow
Queen”. And because that is a fairy tale you can find in the background of
Narnia books, I also loved those. And definitely tried finding a portal to a
magical world inside a closet more than once!
How
does Finnish culture affect your writing? Your books are very universal but at
the same time very special because they are rooted in the realities of Finland.
I believe that because of you many people wanted and still want to go to Finland
and stay there forever. At least, I want to because I love frost and snow ;)
It might affect me more than I even realize because I
live surrounded by Finnish culture. I know that there are some things in the
Snow White trilogy was lost in translation because it wouldn't mean
anything to a person who doesn't know Finnish literature and certain phrases.
But of course, there is the Finnish society, the school system, weather... Sadly
the winters have become warmer also here and sometimes there's hardly any
snow (unless you go to Lapland).
In Finland, people still value reading and writing and
one of the most popular Christmas presents is a book. This awful year has even
had people reading (or listening to) more books than in the past few years
(when we saw a decrease in book sales year after year). I hope that this means
that people are finding the joy of reading again.
You
are not only a writer but also a translator. Your books have been translated
into many languages. Is being an author makes you a better translator? Someone
who might see and do things differently than a person who does not write
creatively?
Yes, I used to be a translator but it has been many
years now since I last did that (I just didn't have the time anymore and
translators are paid poorly). I think that being a writer and a translator at
the same time has both advantages and disadvantages. A writer is
interested in language and usually can understand what the original writer has
meant. But it's important to realize that translation is not your own creative
writing. You shouldn't make it sound like you. You should make it sound like
how the writer would have written it if they had written it in Finnish. You
must put your own writer's ego aside and try to listen to the original writer's
voice as closely as possible.
As a
writer myself I would like to know how do you start your writing? I always
start from the end of the story :)
I
usually start from the beginning but after that, I might jump to the middle or
to the end and write bits and pieces from here and there. It also depends on
the text. Some texts demand to be written from the beginning to the end. Some
let you wander more freely.
Buy Salla's books: Amazon
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