We share with you a fascinating interview with Robin Stevens - the author of the books "No Femicide" and "Arsenic for Tea", which will be released this fall!

Why did you decide to write children's books?

I write books for children aged 8 and up, because these are the books I fell in love with myself. Narnia books books by Eva Ibbotson and Enid Blyton were some of my favourites.So when I think about what kind of stories I want to tell, I am thinking of books for this age group. When you write for children, you have to be passionate about everyone in short, because you can't have a page where nothing happens, otherwise kids would just put it down went When the Harry Potter books came out, I bought them because I was a year older than Harry at the time and grew up with the characters of the book.

What was your favorite book as a teenager?

I think it's "The Charmed Life" by Diana Wynne Jones.

How do you invent the plots of your books? All these mysteries, mysterious murders?

I love reading murder mysteries, and hearing or watching them in movies. I'm always looking for more murder books that I can read to use these plots and mix them for my own stories.

When you start work on a new book, do you already know how it will end?

Yes, definitely, I always plan everything before I start. I only start writing when I have all the information to create a mystery

How many drafts do you usually have to do?

I made the first draft for the new book. It took me almost three months, and I wrote about 2,000 words every day. I then sent it to my editor, who came back with lots of revisions and additional ideas. After that I seriously reworked a lot over the next two months. I sent it to her again for review and she gave it to me more corrections.I just sent her a third version that has been edited and will be read later. In general it's usually about four drafts, and it takes me almost a year from the first draft to the publication of the book.

When did you write your first story / book?

I wrote my first story when I was 3, but obviously I couldn't write then. I just wrote on paper convinced that the writing is something that happened through telepathy. And I wrote my first real book when I was young 16, but it was never published. I finished No Femicide when I was 22 or 23, but the book published only four years later, in 2014.

How did you imagine your characters and circumstances?

The idea of ​​two girls solving a mystery in their boarding school actually first came to me when I was taking shower and thought about friends.

Do you take your characters from people you know?

Daisy and Geisel are based on groups of people like my school friends and the adults are a combination of characteristics people I met.

Did you always know what you were going to call Daisy and Geisel?

Yes. Geisel was always Geisel Wong, but I ended up changing Daisy's last name to Wells.

Have you ever solved a mystery yourself?

I solve little riddles. For example, when I was studying at the university, my friend and I discovered that someone had eaten everything our chocolate ice cream. We decided to hide under the table, waiting for the culprit to come to enjoy the ice cream... And us caught the thieves! They tried to explain everything, as if they had mistaken him for theirs, but we caught them. Fortunately, I've never had to solve a murder.

Who do you like better: Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot?

They are quite different, but I love them both. I love Sherlock Holmes as a character and I think he is very similar to Daisy. When I created Daisy, I wanted her to be a Sherlock Holmes character; some really smart, some not cares a lot about people.Hercule Poirot is much more like Geisel; he is pleasant and thoughtful, and his way detection is more like sitting there, eating some cake and thinking about the problem. I think I prefer it Poirot, that's why I like Geisel better.

How do you come up with the titles of your books?

It's so hard. So we usually think about it at the end. My editor and I are now on book nine, and of course we are cannot repeat any headers. It usually takes us months to come up with a name.

The ninth book in the series will be released soon. Why is it the last in the series?

Mostly because Daisy and Geisel are growing up into young women, but also because I spent time with ten years, which is a third of my life. I think I want to finish this series and maybe start something new.

The material is translated from the article- https://www.booksink.io/post/an-afternoon-with-robin-stevens