Author Interview: Annalinde Matichei

New Interview!!! Yay! Enjoy! :D

Annalinde Matichei, author of The Flight of Silver Vixen

-Try to describe your book in one sentence.

An all-girl hoverbike gang from an all-girl world decides to hijack a spacecraft; to evade capture they fly into a space warp and are transported across the universe where they face terrible dangers and learn a new sense of responsibility.

-Your genre in Flight of the Silver Vixen is young adult right?. You did that on purpose, or you just start writing?

I just started writing. Actually the YA label was applied afterwards by my publisher. My main characters are teens and although I am not a teen myself, my sensibility tends to be perceived as rather young. Whether this has something to do with being an alien I don’t know. I don’t think I could write an adult book as I don’t really understand the adult human mind.

This is not to say I am unintelligent or unintellectual. I don’t think I am (although of course that is really for others to decide) but I don’t very well understand the “emotionally mature” sensibilities of this planet.

-What inspired you to write, you took any ideas from other books, movies etc?

Actually my exposure to other books and movies is surprisingly small. As far as I know there was no direct influence on The Flight of the Silver Vixen. I wanted to write about my own kind of people - all-feminine races - and someone said that I should try science fiction (the reasons for this were quite complex and not just because I wanted to write about all-feminine races).

So I started thinking of starships and such. And hoverbikes. And then Antala FiaMartia leapt into my mind: literally fearless (which isn’t necessarily a good thing), dangerously irresponsible, but a natural leader. So really it was the characters that first inspired the book. First Captain Antala, then the Princess and then the others.

-Did you do any research before start or during of the writing of the books?

Since, in a way, I am writing in a genre of one, there was not much scope for research. I could have looked into other science fiction, but I didn’t. I wanted to create something unique and uninfluenced. I realized that a danger of this might be that I would do things others had done just because I wasn’t aware they had done them. So far no one has suggested this is the case.

Part of what I am doing as the theoretical underpinning of the book is the application of traditional metaphysics to the questions of science. This is the approach taken by the feminine civilizations in the book, and is the fundamental difference between the theoretical basis of their technology as opposed to current earth technology.

I am quite well versed in traditional metaphysics of various kinds and have always been interested in its relationship to modern science, so in that sense I had been researching the book without knowing it for years.

-Which scenes were the hardest to write?

Actually this whole book was quite hard to write, but that really was for reasons of what was going on in my life at the time. There were no particular scenes that I found emotionally difficult, in contrast to my forthcoming book, which comes a lot closer to some of my personal issues.

-How long has it taken you to write a book ?

The Flight of the Silver Vixen has been four or five years in the making, but that is not so much because of the book’s nature as because of the nature of my life over that time. The book grew with me, I think, and much of it has been completely changed from the earliest conceptions of it, as I got to know the characters.

My life is a little less crazy now and my next work should take much less time.

-What’s the best part of writing for you?

Creating/reliving the world I love best!

-Are you reading or writing something else at the moment?

I am hard at work on my next book. Silver Vixen needs a sequel, but I am working on something else. Something that is actually related to Silver Vixen (you will find out more about the events of Vixen in it) but at the same time very, very different.

-Did you have support at the beginning and/or during your writing?

Sun Daughter Press, which is a publishing company formed by a small group of friends, has been hugely supportive. Actually not so much at the beginning but more recently. It was this support that really helped me pull together all the work over the years of Vixen and turn it into a book, and then to keep on writing.

-Did you always had in mind to be a writer or it just happened?

Yes, I always wanted to be a writer. Communication has always been my life-blood. Stories and ideas were always popping about inside me and I just had to tell them!

-How important you find the communication between you and your readers? Do you reply to their messages or read their reviews?

I find this very important. I do read all the reviews and answer messages. I believe my readers are the most important thing. They are why I am writing, after all. I want to know what they think and I am always grateful when they share it with me. I hope to have a strong, living relationship with my readership. This is an adventure we are in together!

-Are you working on any other projects except writing, right now?

I am currently trying to learn two languages with less than moderate success.

-Something special you want to share with us?

I don’t want to be one of these “plug my next book” people, but I am so caught up in it right now that I do want to share how excited I am. Things like “imaginary” places and “imaginary” friends have always fascinated me—but what if they aren’t imaginary? What if the things everyone tells us we imagine are actually real? That is the starting point of my next book.


Now some simple questions and more fun^^

-Your favourite band/singer?

I am afraid I am not familiar with any current bands but I am a fan of Ina Ray Hutton and Hanagumi (search Hanagumi Berubara on YouTube).

-Twitter or Facebook?

I tried both of these because my publisher said I should. They actually both frighten me. Not because I am technophobic (very much the reverse, in fact) but they seemed so strange and alien.

-Favourite place in the world?

Vienna! I adore it! Though I love lots of other places too, Vienna comes first.

-Last movie you watched at the cinemas?

I have only been to the light-theater once this year and that was to see Sucker Punch because a friend very much wanted me to see it. Very interesting to me as it dealt with “dreams” and strata of reality, which is what I am working on in my next book. I couldn’t understand why the critics viewed it so negatively, but then my cinematic experience is rather limited, and I was probably watching it from a somewhat unusual perspective.

-If you wouldn’t be a writer, what you would be?

I’d love to act, though I doubt I have the talent to do well at it.

The Flight of the Silver Vixen is an all-girl space adventure that is at once an action-packed thriller and an exploration of philosophical themes.It begins with a group of wild teenagers from an all-girl planet hijacking a spacecraft and accidentally warping to the other side of the galaxy.It proceeds through deadly battles with space pirates to a landing on another all-girl world where we rapidly discover that something much darker than mere pirates is threatening civilization on many planets.This is an action-packed page-turner starring a young delinquent-turned-captain who literally knows no fear, a princess-turned delinquent, in whose hands lies the fate of millions and many other remarkable characters.

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