17 August, 2005
Café Des Artistes
Greenwich Village, New York
AL: So, tell me, how it all started?
CC: I started to write DD in the summer of 2000, in June. Or July? It was after the book #4 came out in America, so probably it was July. I wrote it very quickly.
AL: Well, that clarifies a lot of things. And DS took longer?
CC: Yes, much longer. About a year, I think.
AL: How about DV?
CC: Almost two and a half years, and it is not over yet.
AL: Why? Are you busier now?
CC: Yes, much busier. I wasn’t working then I started to write DD. I graduated from college…
AL: Where did you go to?
CC: Barnard College, it’s in Columbia University. So, I graduated, and I had a job for about two years, and then I quit.
AL: What did you do?
CC: I was an editor and a reporter for a local newspaper in LA. I got boss, a new boss, and I hated her. (Laughs) She insisted that all our computers were pink. That was when new colored I-Mac came out, so she ordered a new set of computers and they had to be pink, and then they arrived they were not totally pink, there were some red parts in them. So she had a huge tantrum, and we had to spend the whole day painting the red parts pink. So, I quit, and I decided to do some freelancing instead. So, that was right after I quit and I had nothing to do. I was just leaving on my savings, and I leaved near the beach, and then my friend called me and said she wanted me to write a Harry Potter story for her, when Harry and Draco switch places, and I said okay. She was going to a medical school, and she wanted something to read.
AL: So, it wasn’t you idea originally.
CC: No, it was actually her idea. So, I decided why not, it could be interesting.
AL: Why did she ask you? Were you writing something previously?
CC: Because I’ve always written… We were friends in high school, and I used to write stories for her all the time, mostly about how she’s going out with boys she liked… And she was going to school and she just finished HP books and she loved them and she wanted a story, so I said “all right, that would be easy”…
AL: What did you think about this whole idea?
CC: I thought it was a great idea, because we were talking about Draco… For the entire week prior to that we were talking and emailing each other. She just finished the book — I made her read them — and I asked what she thought, and she said she liked Draco Malfoy. I said “How could you like him? He is this totally unpleasant thing!” And she said “No, he’s rich, he’s blond, he’s good looking”, and I said “Where do you see that he is good looking?” She said “The book doesn’t mention it, but I know that he is good looking! He is not what he seems to be. Actually, this is exactly the kind of guy you might like.” I said “Hmm, well, I am not sure about that”, and she said “No, no, Draco Malfoy IS your boyfriend!” And then I kind of started to see where she was going to. In a way, Draco Malfoy falls into a certain literary tradition. He is a type of hero who can change its nature… So when she said she wanted a story about Harry and Draco switching places, I thought yes, it would be interesting to write a story where Draco finds redemption by temporarily switching places with Harry. So I started to write it, and I wrote the first three chapters in three days, and I sent it to her. She liked it and said I have to put in on fanfiction. net, where she spent a lot of her time reading fan-fiction. I said “I don’t even know if they have HP section there yet.”
AL: What kind of sections they do have there?
CC: Oh, all kinds — movies, television, books… And you can start a new section — like, if I write a Henry James fan fiction, probably there is none at the moment, so, if I put it there I will start a new section. But of course, there was an HP section and there was a lot of staff there. So I posted my three chapters there, and people started to read it and immediately started to give me feedback, and I thought “Oh, GREAT, people like it!” And for some reason, I don’t know why, I decided that I have to write a chapter a day, because otherwise people will loose interest. So, there were eleven chapters DD, and it took me eleven days to write it, and by the end of it I was very tired and decided to take a break. And while I took the break, in between DD and DS, and at that time I joined “HP for grown-ups” group on Yahoo. I spent a lot of time there talking to people, discussing characters and everything, and I saw that people were interested in my fan-fiction. So I started to write DS, but was not for my friend anymore — I am not even sure she read it — but for the fandom, for other people. And I also started to read fan-fiction at that time; I read a lot of it.
So, the answer is, yes, I did write DD, but it was five years ago, and I wrote it very quickly. (Laughs)
AL: Which one you like better — DS or DV?
CC: DV. I like them both in a way, but I think the writing in DV is better, because the more you do it, the better you do it, you know?
AL: In DS, characters’ action come from the logic of the plot, as well as from their emotions, whereas in DV all they do is rooted in their emotions. Don’t you think so?
CC: Yes, DS is definitely more action packed. DV is a romance; DS is action, an adventure. Essentially, DV is a meditation about relationships.
AL: People wonder whether you are tired of writing DV…
CC: Well, DV is just slow, much slower, than DS, because it is supposed to be so. Plus… (Thinks hard) It’s not that I’m not interested; it’s a matter of time. I just don’t have time to do it anymore, but I don’t want to leave it unfinished. Let me put it this way. I have too books, full-size novels, that I have to finish in the next eight months. So, I have to put all my energy, and all my emotional energy into them. So, DV gets only the time I have left over, and it is really not too much time. I used to spend 10-12 hours a week on fan-fiction, and now I spend only an hour, and I hardly can spare even that. It’s also… When you are writing, you are writing it in a certain way; you need to be there, into it. If you leave it, it’s hard to get back, and it gets harder and harder. Fortunately, I have been writing it for so long, I got used to characters, so it is easier for me turn on and off, but still, it is difficult. I want to finish DV, and I want to do a good job, I don’t want it to be a huge disappointment, but I just have so little time. I know people work on two books at a time, but I don’t know how they do it.
AL: What about the books you are writing now?
CC: One is almost finished, and will come out in the end of the next year. The other one is the sequel to the first one, so I have to start it as soon as I finish the first one. Actually, I am going to write three books, it is going to be a trilogy. I sold it when I had only the first five chapters and the outline. I said “This is how it begins, and this is my idea, the synopsis”, and the publisher bought it, so now I have to write it, they told me “this is how much time you have to write the first one, this is how much time you have to finish the second one”. I have five months for the first one and six months for each of the sequels, because they want to put it out fast.
AL: Are you happy about it?
CC: Sure! (Thinks) Sure see, it’s like having a pet, a cat or a dog, and then you have a baby, and suddenly pet doesn’t get as much attention as in the past, sometimes not any attention at all. You still love your pet very much and want to care about it, it’s just at the moment your baby is much more important to you and it takes all your time.
AL: So, what is your book about? Is it fantasy?
CC: Yes, it is urban fantasy. It is called “The city of bones”.
AL: Is it scary?
CC: Yes, a little bit. It is about demons. It takes place in the modern days, in New York, so if you know the city you will recognize the locations. It’s about a girl, whose mother disappears, and she goes looking for her, and finds out that she was a part of underground group of people who traced and killed demons sneaking into our world through the gates between the universes.
AL: Sounds like “Zombie jamboree” and “Ghostbusters” together…
CC: Yes, kind of. It also will probably resemble some vampire stories.
So, DV originally supposed to be 20 chapters, and it will be only 17. I cut out a lot, because I knew I wouldn’t have time to write it. But I didn’t want just stop it, because, you know, people were reading it for five years, it’s a long time… And I don’t want to do it in a rush; I want to do it justice. It was an enormous project, thousands of pages.
AL: Speaking of which… There were a lot of unfinished plot lines. Are we going to find out what Hermione saw in that mirror?
CC: Oh, yes!
AL: And who is the author of the Trousers?
CC: Yes!
AL: And who is the mother of Gareth’s heir?
CC: Yes!
AL: And what happened to the disappeared army?
CC: Yes!
AL: And who gave Harry the runic band?
CC: Yes, you will find out that too!
Actually, there are only two chapters left. One will contain the remaining pieces of action, and we will find out who’s going to die — whether Draco dies or not (he dies and dies and dies, I’m so tired of him dieing!). And the last one will be just relationships — lots of dialogs, no action at all, and we will find out who stays with whom.
AL: Any surprises over there?
CC: I think you will be a little surprised… I’m not sure if you will like it! (Laughs) But there will be a little surprise.
AL: Are you going to follow JKR in Harry/Ginny relationship?
CC: No, no! I can promise — no Harry/Ginny relationships!
AL: Did your audience point our any discrepancies, where you contradict yourself?
CC: Yes, sometimes… If it is anything significant, I’ll go back and re-write it…
AL: Somebody caught that Seamus wasn’t Chaser for three years…
CC: Did I write that? You see, I don’t even remember now.
AL: Or that Harry and Draco can’t be friends for ten months, when they talk around Christmas…
CC: I thought I calculated that one! DD takes place in May, and if they talk in January, that’s ten months, right?
AL: Hmm… Here’s another question. Does Draco look like Korin from Amber chronicles?
CC: That’s an interesting question… Yes, I guess so. There are a couple similarities between the books. One is certain sword moves Draco does, and his entire fighting style… The other one is that like Korvin, Draco is very sarcastic. And also there are demons with long unpronounceable names in both books.
AL: Do demons in your book have similar names?
CC: No, they don’t have names there, they are just… slimy! (Laughs)
So, I think, there is a lot of influence by many different books a series…
AL: You are asked so many questions — in you LJ and other places. Is there a question nobody asked you, which you would love to answer?
CC: Hmm… (Puzzled)
AL: What are you most passionate about, at the moment, besides your writing?
CC: Besides my writing? I don’t have a life! There is nothing for me at the moment besides my writing. Besides my writing, my boyfriend and my family, I feel most passionate about travel. You see, writing gives me money, but I don’t have any time, but if I had time, I would love to go around the world, to different countries, and meet HP fans everywhere…
AL: Do you want to go to New Zealand to see the hobbit village?
CC: Totally, I would love to see the hobbit village!
AL: Talk a little bit about your “Very secret diaries”. Were you trying to write JRT parody?
CC: No, I was only trying to write a parody on JRT slash. After the LOTR movie was out, I was in a chat-room with other HP fans, and we discussed the movie, because the whole geekdom discussed it! And somebody asked if I read any LORT fiction. I said no, I don’t really want to, because to me those books are perfect the way they are. But they sent me the fic anyway, and it was about how Aragorn kept a secret diary, where he wrote how much he admired Legolas, and why Legolas didn’t pay any attention to him, and so on. It was really awful! So, I wrote the first of my diaries, Aragorn ones, just to make fun of it. I put it in my journal, and people said “wow, write more of them”, and so I did. It was funny, because… well, it was based on the movie rather than on the book, and the movie takes itself way too serious. And there is such a distance between the book and diaries, I mean, you can write HP fic in diary form, because characters are 15 year old kids, they can have diaries, but Aragorn, he’s a hero; he has much more important things on his mind.
AL: I was kind of hoping that you would come here wearing your “Pervy hobbit fancier” T-shirt, then it would be easy to recognize you…
CC: Yeah, I still have one but I don’t wear it now.
AL: Talk a little bit how you got into HP books.
CC: I didn’t read them at first, because they were given to me by a friend’s father, who’s got terrible taste, so I thought I am not going to like them; all other books he gave me were bad.
AL: How old were you?
CC: About 22 or something… So, at some point I had nothing to do I gave it a try. In the beginning I thought it is like many other, similar books. But then I like it, as the plot was engaging and characters were sympathetic. It was a lot like… I mean, hundreds of similar books. It is a blend of “boarding school” books, which I read a lot of, which is very standard, when you have bad rich popular guy and a poor good guy and they compete against each other. And on the other hand you have magic fantasy, which is also very popular. So what JKR did, she blended this two types of books together, which is, by the way, also not new, I have read several such books before, one of them was called “School of magic”, I think. So I thought it is like many other books, but I kept reading them, and somewhere around book two or three I though “This is really a great book”. Because it was really… you know, big universe, with a lot of very sympathetic, interesting characters, and a very interesting back-story for Harry. Of course, if you stop and think about it, there are things, weaker spots, like Voldemort, he is laughable, really! He is way too visible to be scary. Think of Sauron — he is not visible at all, and that’s why he is very frightening. But Voldemort — he comes up with those cunning plans, and yet he still can not kill Harry, so we are not scared of him any more… But even then, this is a great book. So then I got to book four, and I totally loved it, and then there was this huge gap between the books when everybody started to think and guess what comes next and fan-fiction really exploded. And then books five and six came along, and I kind of started to miss this state of openness, when a lot of alternative opportunities were open, because with every new book coming out, it cuts off a lot of possibilities. (Laughs) If Harry dies in book seven, I will be very upset.
AL: He has a lot to accomplish in book 7…. Find all those Horcruxes…
CC: Oh, I am sure he will find them (laughs).
AL: We had a lot of discussions about whether HP is an ordinary book or really an exceptional one, and there were people who argued that it’s all marketing fuss, there is nothing new there…
CC: Well, they are not original, but it is not important, it doesn’t make them bad. Originality make be good, it may be a quality to look for, but not necessarily. People tell and re-tell the same stories for ages, so maybe it’s actually familiarity is what makes those books attractive. Plus, I think it is very important that JKR creates characters people really like, that’s an unusual skill.
AL: Characters like Snape?
CC: Oh, I love Snape! Snape is great. And Sirius, and Lupin, and Dumbledore, and all the kids.
AL: Is your Snape different from the original Snape?
CC: Yeah, I have a hard time taking Snape seriously, in my trilogy he is kind of a.. doofus. He is not important. He appears when others need him, or at parties when he sings karaoke, but that’s all.
AL: Why did you make Lupin and Sirius much more important and visible than Spane?
CC: Well, I thought that Lupin and Sirius would be very important for Harry, for his maturation, so I wanted him to spend time with them. As to Snape, I don’t think he and Harry will ever get along… I know there are a lot of people who want them to get along, and who write about them getting along, sometimes too well, but… It’s just not my thing, I don’t believe in it, so I say “Hey, if this is your thing, write along”, but I don’t read such things. I don’t think they ever get along, so why bother making them spend time together’Besides, he is so interesting and charming that he takes attention away from everybody else, so I didn’t want him to be too visible. And now we have the whole book, book six, about him.
AL: Which kind of disappointed me, because, well, there was so much fuss about the HBP’s textbook, but in the end it was much less important than JKR pretended it to be…
CC: Yes, she likes to do things like that, to pretend something is really important and then to forget about it. I had similar problem with book five, with the prophecy. I mean, we knew all along that Harry has to kill Voldemort, otherwise Voldemort would kill him, right? So, the prophecy was like “Hey, it could have been Neville, but it’s not.” So?
AL: Talk a little bit about books in your life, in general.
CC: Well, I read a lot of fantasy… Not too much sci-fi, just fantasy. I used to read classics, but recently, since my book is for teenagers, I read a lot of books for teenagers. All I read recently were books for teenagers. I can’t wait till I finished with my book and can read books for grow-ups again. (Thinks) I think, it is impossible to be a good write if you don’t read a lot. People often write me asking how to become a good writer — I wish I knew! (Laughs) But I am sure you have to read a lot, a lot of good books. When I was in school, I read a lot of classics — Jane Austin, Charlotte Bronte, all Dickens, all Dumas, Stendal…
AL: Ok, switching gears a little… Why you didn’t like Ron?
CC: NOOO! I liked Ron! I wrote the whole fiction about him to prove that I like him! But nobody cared. It’s an awful thing to say that I didn’t like him, because it is not true. I liked Ron in the books, because he is so ordinary, he is like us, he can eat a box of Chocolate Frogs and get sick after… But, you know, some characters drive you and some don’t, and I never was driven by Ron. I would be sad if he died.
AL: That’s up to you, isn’t it?
CC: No, I mean, in the books.
AL: Some people also think you don’t like Hermione either…
CC: Actually, I do like Hermione. It’s interesting, why people think I don’t like her. But I think she has got a lot of attention in the books, so her character was developed already. I didn’t have to spend a lot of time developing her further. On the other hand, I didn’t like Ginny in the books at all, she was always that little squeaky thing running on the outskirts of events… And the other thing is, except Hermione there are no girl characters in the books, at all! I mean, there were not before the book five. I thought it’s sad because I associate myself more with girls and obviously I wanted to see more girl characters. I think Rowling heard that criticism, not from me, but from everybody else, so in book five she put Luna, and then developed Ginny in a much more important character than she was… So, anyway, because Ginny didn’t do much in the books and wasn’t really important, I spent a lot of time developing her character and making her sympathetic, so in that sense I probably neglected Hermione because she is already sympathetic and likable. Hermione is very smart, and very not emotional in the same way as Ginny, very closed-off, a little selfish… So, Hermione is very likable, but just not for everybody, you know. Whereas Ginny, she is very emotional, very proactive, very sweet, very loving…
AL: So, would it be correct to say that in Draco you created the ideal boyfriend, and in Ginny — the ideal girlfriend?
CC: Yes, but only she doesn’t get any love! Poor thing!
AL: Well, maybe it will change in the end…
CC: (Laughs)
AL: How this character — Ginny — was created? What other literary characters went into her?
CC: I don’t know… I was reading other books with strong girl characters and trying to understand what I liked about them…
AL: Like “Pride and Prejudice”?
CC: Yes, exactly, like “Pride and Prejudice”…
AL: Like “Sense and sensibility”?
CC: No, not exactly… Although, yes, if Ginny and Hermione were there, Ginny would be Marianne and Hermione would be Eleanor… “Jane Eyre”, more like it. I didn’t want Ginny to be plain. And also — Laura from Pullman? s books.
AL: Do you read discussions about your writing?
CC: Yes, definitely. I read my reviews and comments in my journal, and also look up staff online… Some of those things are crazy, though.
AL: Do you think your Draco is the same one as in the books, only you just saw and understood him better?
CC: No, not at all. Definitely no.
AL: Whom of your heroes you associate yourself with?
CC: Well, it’s a difficult question, especially if you write fan-fiction… A little bit with everybody, I guess. There are a lot of things in Draco that are like me. Of course, I am not a blond hot guy (laughs), and he is a lot more funny on demand than I am… He is a lot more miserable than I am, and insecure, demanding for love. He falls into a certain literary tradition, where hero is using jokes to fight his own demons, and he is charming, but doesn’t allow anybody to love him because he doesn’t think he deserves it… But there are similar things, like he spends a lot of time standing aside of things commenting about them. I like to do that. And also he is very sarcastic, and so am I. Sometimes when I am being sarcastic by boyfriend says “I am dating Draco Malfoy!”
AL: Where all those jokes you put in Draco’s mouth are are coming from?
CC: Well, everything from other things, like movies or TV shows, is footnoted. As to other jokes, I have a small notebook which I always carry on me, and I put there all things I hear anybody say that are funny, and then I use it.
AL: Why did you choose suicide for Lucius?
CC: Well, I thought that he should die, there was no place for him in the further plot. And none of good heroes could kill him, because Draco would hate this person forever. And as to bad heroes, they are being killed left and right, so I thought that it would be unfair to make them kill each other. I played with the idea to make Wormtail kill him, but then decided to use him elsewhere. Hence, Lucius had to kill himself. I thought it would be more resonant if he kills himself, because there is no coming back for him, after what he has done… You know, I always thought of him as a person who is obsessed with family pride, almost in a samurai way. He has this code of honor, he is an unpleasant person, but he is not a coward, he has this very developed sense of personal and family honor.
AL: How did DT change your life?
CC: I’ve met a lot of people through it, lots of people. And one of my fandom friends invited me to readings, it was down in KGB bar, actually. And at those readings I met a publishing agent, his name is Bernie, to whom I sold my book.
AL: If not HP, what kind of fan-fiction would you write?
CC: None. I know there are people who move from fandom to fandom writing different fan-fictions, but I am not one of them. If HP didn’t exist, I would just move to writing my own books faster. I am moving there anyway. Of course, I will miss people’s support, and the fandom, and chatting… I used to do it a lot more, now I don’t have time for it anymore. It’s like I live in a cage. But even when I am less busy, I will miss it.
AL: Can we hope that you will finish it before the book seven comes out?
CC: Yes, definitely. I want to finish it by the end of year. Then I’ll do a thing on my live journal, when people will be able to ask characters any questions they want to ask, and they will answer. And in the end, I was hoping to do little vignettes, like to show what heroes are doing after it all is over… I am going to let them to get older than 18, so nobody will get pregnant.
AL: Do you consider your books, your original books, as a part of entertainment industry, or as something that hopefully will become classic?
CC: Well, I of course want my book to be successful and stay around for long time, but I don’t think it will be a literary classics. It is an adventure, not a massive literary acclaim. There are books adults buy for teenagers, and there are books teenagers buy for themselves, mine is one of these. I have fun writing it and I hope it will be fun to read. But I have a lot of other ideas, so later I hope to work on more serious projects.
AL: If DT was put to screen, who do envision playing your characters?
CC: I think I answered this one in my journal… I didn’t find anyone to play Harry. Charlie Hunnam could play Draco, Daniel Day-Lewis could be Sirius, and Ewan McGregor could play Lupin.
AL: Did anything funny happen to you while you were writing DT?
CC: Yes, there were many things. Like one woman made the installation of the entire chapter 9 of DV made of Lego, like Lego movie, and sent me photos, it was very funny. Another woman sent me a photo of her wedding silverware, she had lines from DV engraved in it. Many women sent me pictures of their boyfriends whom they made dress as Draco or Harry… Another woman went to a hospital and was very bored there, so she asked me to send her chapters earlier and kind of tell her what happens next. I usually don’t do things like that, but I did in for her. I also did it for another girl who sent it to her sister who served in Iraq at that time. And last Christmas, I asked people to send me a card and put my address on LJ, and I got tons of cards, about 600 of them, it was amazing! People all over the world sending me their cards, photos, pictures of their cities and homes…
AL: People who write real books don’t get this kind of attention usually…
CC: Yes, you have to be VERY popular to get it… Since I started to write my book I feel so much lonelier…
AL: Now that you don’t have to go to the office every day, is it difficult to stay on schedule?
CC: Well, I do have to go the office from time to time when I do some freelance work. But normally, yes, it is difficult to structure your days. Especially for me, I am the kind of person who would like to sleep really late, like today I woke up at 2 pm… And then I stay up long, usually until two or three in the morning. So, my rule is, I have to write five pages a day. And if I don’t, I will have to write it the next day. That’s the only way I can get anything done. (Laughs) My book is 800 pages long, so it is a lot of work.
AL: Do you have any problems with Mac, with compatibility?
CC: No, not at all. I use MS Office, and even though Mac is a little slow, I like it because it is user-friendly and nice. I also have a PC at home. No, no problems with compatibility. So, where was I?
AL: We were talking about your schedule…
CC: Yeah. I have a writing friend. She writes a book and I write a book, so we discuss it and help to keep each other on schedule.
AL: Are you writing together?
CC: No, no we are writing our own books! She is writing the third book of her series, and I write the first book of my series. She has many books out and is an established writer. We just help each other, check each other pages and talk… when you fall behind, or you’re stuck with something… And also you have to do revisions. That one thing you don’t do when you write fun-fiction, you don’t do revisions and they change everything. You put things out, and if you said that something is green, that’s it, it is green forever and you will have to write around it.
AL: What’s you friend’s name?
CC: Actually, that’s Holly Black. She also writes fantasy for teenagers.
AL: Is it her real name?
CC: Yes.
AL: Interesting… And, by the way, how did you get such an unusual second name?
CC: My mother was a big Jane Austin fan, and Cassandra was actually Jane Austin’s sister…
AL: I didn’t know that.
CC: Yeah.
AL: Does it mean that your real first name is Jane?
CC: No! (Laughs) It would be too boring, too… plain. My parents argued a lot about my name, so in the end my mother insisted on “Cassandra” at least as a second name. Actually, Jane Austin even wrote a book called “Beautiful Cassandra” when she was very young.
AL: I see… Ok, let’s see if we have any more questions here… We didn’t talk about Blaise yet. Let’s talk about her a little.
CC: I wanted… I needed a girl in Slytherin. I wanted her to be important and interesting, and I didn’t want her to be Pansy…
AL: But where all that is coming from? How do you decide one day, okay, I need a girl in Slytherin and…?
CC: Well, because there were no girls in Slythrin to speak of… And I wanted to have more girls in the story, because I relate more to girls… And I wanted DV to start six months after DS. I wanted Draco to have a girlfriend. She should be from Slytherin, because, well, if he went out with Lavender Brown it would be a big event, and I didn’t want it this way. So, I checked the canon, and found no Slytherin girls mentioned, except Pancy, and I had another plan for Pancy…
AL: Now we know what it was…
CC: Yes, poor Pancy… She lived very short and sad life. I also wanted to use a name we already now. But on the other hand, I wanted to use a name without any baggage, so we would not be wondering “how did they get together” or something… I went to Lexicon and looked for girls in Slytherin Draco could date, and there was nothing there, absolutely nothing. There was a girl sorted into Slytherin four years younger than Draco, but I didn’t want him to date somebody four years younger, because he was sixteen and she would be twelve, and they cannot date, it would be disgusting. So, I could either come up with a new name or use an existing one, and I decided to use Blaise… We didn’t know whether it was a boy or girl at that time, of course, and I thought we would never find out… I was wrong, now we know that Blaise is hot black guy (laughs). And then I started to think — what I want her to be like? I wanted her to be a little bit like Ginny… for comparison… like Draco said, he has a weakness for red-haired… I wanted her to look cool, to be something. Actually, she looks a little bit like Ginny and a little bit like Harry, because she got red hair and green eyes.
AL: So she got the bet of both worlds…
CC: Yes. And I wanted her to be complicated, and have a reason for that relationship, and be smart… I didn’t plan this relationship to be simple.
AL: Blaise said that she is a female version of Draco…
CC: This is true, yes. Only I didn’t want Draco to date a female version of him. (Laughs)
AL: From time to time I have a feeling that your heroes are much more American teenagers than British. Don’t you think so?
CC: Yes, definitely, because I never was a British teenager myself! I have a beta-reader who is British, and he checks for the language, does it sound British enough. But you cannot check for behavior… I have been in England many times, I read a lot of English literature, but you actually have to grow up there to know all the details. There is a scene where there is a party, and Ginny brings Draco a cup of hot chocolate. So my beta-reader told me that this is wrong, as there is no hot chocolate in England! And she could not bring him tea either, because there is no tea at parties. So if she wanted to get him warm, it should be something like hot spiced wine of something. And I’m like “They can’t drink WINE, they are kids!” (AL: in USA, alcohol can not be purchased by people under 21 year old.) And he’s like “No, wine in England is ok, that’s fine.” And it was so weird to me, because I thought, ok, it’s winter, it’s cold, we all know that they drink tea in England, but tea is too complicated, so I made it chocolate, because it is easer to make. Especially if you are a magician! (Laughs)
AL: Suppose you have enough money and could live anywhere…. Where would you live? New York? London? Paris?
CC: London. I would move to London. I don’t speak French well enough to live comfortably in Paris…
AL: But you could get better…
CC: Yes, that’s right, I could get better. I actually have been in France many times. My parents lived there for five years. I was at college at that time, but I visited them on holidays. It would be nice to live in the country… You know, south of France. But speaking about cities, I would choose London. I like it, it is different, but it is not foreign to me, people speak English there. And I would like to have an apartment here to come to New York several times a year. I wouldn’t like to live here all the time, but I definitely want to come here. I don’t like NY’s climate, especially winter. Actually, out of all American cities, I could live in San Francisco. I am from California, you know, so… When I started to write DV, it was winter here in New York, so DV is full of snow, and cold, and ice…
AL: How about country-side, like Vermont?
CC: I don’t know, I have never been there…
AL: Let’s see… I guess, I run out of questions… Well, thank you very much for your time! It was real pleasure talking to you, and I am sure that all Russian fans will greatly appreciate that you found an opportunity to talk to us. Let’s hope that it is not the last time we meet and talk.
CC: Sure, I was glad to do it.
