Naomi tells us how her love of fantasy and science fiction was born when her mother read Polish fairy tales to her, such as Agnieszka "Piece of the Sky". At the same time, her parents were reading the Disney picture book version of Peter Pan to her, along with Tolkien's The Hobbit, and other works. She tells us how the Polish stories helped create a bond between her and her mother's past, and how her love of Disney's version of Peter Pan got her started down the road to creating her own stories... or, at least commissioning them at that point.
We also talk about the evolution of Naomi's relationship with fan fiction, from reading it in university, to her early days as a writer when she began creating it, to her eventual decision that it was too constraining for a story she wanted to tell: the story of Lawrence and the dragon Temeraire in her breakout Temeraire series of novels. And she talks about how, even after building a career around her own unique stories, she still enjoys writing fanfic.
Naomi also tells us about feeling liberated when the Temeraire series came to an end. And she discusses the importance of having control over a story's ending, right from the start.
Our conversation took place in the impromptu studio of bloginhood in the Dublin convention centre last summer at Worldcon.
To learn more about Naomi and her stories, visit her website:
www.naominovik.com
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Let the Invasion begin!
