Swinging by WORD today is Mariam Maarouf, whose new book Rosie just hit the shelves in Egypt - and the e-shelves everywhere else!
In life, nothing is the same as it seems. People create masks –identities – to hide who they really are –some for noble reasons, or nefarious ones, but only a tiny fraction because they must.
Alessandra and Damien, or Rosalie and Daniel, were once the Princess and Prince of La Pacifica until they were forced out of the beautiful island. Eight months flew by, and they finally began to settle in Alexandria, Egypt, when they found out that they didn’t leave their past behind them, and that they were both wanted urgently.
Dead.
I had a fantastic time talking to Mariam about her books, about random stuff - and about what it's like to live in Egypt!
Nicole: Welcome to WORD, Mariam! What was your favorite part about writing Rosie?
Mariam Maarouf: My favorite part about writing Rosie is that I had all the time in the world. I've always been on schedule - for school, work, articles I sent out to magazines, everything. So writing something that I had the time to alter, re-write, tweak and live in was probably the best thing about the whole experience.
N: Do you have a favorite character or moment in any of the books?
MM: You mean my books? In my books I have two favorite characters: Carlo from Rosie (even though he is a 'minor' character) and Bash from my current WIP. They both have nothing in common except maybe being guys with super special abilities/talents, but they're both equally my favorites. Except that maybe Bash is my favorite out of them at the moment, but that could be because I've been in his head recently.
As for my favorite moment in my books, that would be the scene in Rosie where Damien was half-conscious and dreams got mixed with reality. This scene was so hard, but so enjoyable to write and I still like to read it every now and then.
N: Where did you do most of your writing?
MM: First draft of Rosie was all my bed, and the rest on my favorite couch, haha. But Skyquake, my current WIP, is different: I like to plot all of its events/scenes outdoors.
N: You've been working in a publishing house for a few years. What's been your favorite experience?
MM: The department I work in is specialized in textbooks for children/young adults. It's highly entertaining to watch books for kids getting made - the graphics, the editing, everything. It's just a cute experience. My favorite, though, was getting to translate a series of books that teach Computer Science for kids from Arabic to English. Now, that was fun. (My ideas of fun might differ from those of the rest of the world, by the way).
N: You're currently working on a YA dystopian. How is that different from writing Rosie?
MM: It is very different. Dystopian needs a lot of research and a lot more world-building. Rosie came a bit more naturally to me - the setting is my city, the island they come from is completely fictional, but at the same time a bit stereotypical, to be honest, and family history/roots isn't that hard. But with dystopian, especially that it's in the future, and the background is kind of (actually very) complicated to write (like, I could have the image in my head but getting all the necessary details written down, and creating the same image in the reader's mind is difficult). Also, Skyquake has a lot more diversity in characters - some are Middle-Eastern, some are Europeans, some are Americans, some are Asian, some from the future, some from the past - it's all complicated and rich which is why it's taking me forever to write, haha. I started working on it in October 2010 and still haven't completed a whole draft of the final image in my head. Rosie was first written in October 2009 and took less than a year to get published (i.e get a deal).
But in general, I'm enjoying writing Skyquake a lot more.
N: You live in Egypt! Can you tell us a little bit about that?
MM: Life in Egypt - Hm. You see, I've always thought of Egypt like my (annoying) little brother. I could say I hate it. I could say I want to go out and leave it forever. But there's this part of me who never wants to let go - who loves this country to an extreme. And after the recent events (the revolution) that part of me grew a bit more. I'm starting to realize a lot about Egypt.
Compared to the western societies, you could say life in Egypt is a lot different. Here, family is holy. Family comes before anything and anyone. That family could be your biological family, your school, your work - generally everything you're involved in. It's a bit of a gift and a curse together, because we take a lot of things, including work, personally. I don't think there's someone here who thinks of their work purely as 'business'. The whole 'business is business' thing doesn't really apply here.
Other than that I guess everything's 'normal'. But again our definitions of 'normal' might be a lot different.
N: If you could be transported into any fictional world, where would you go?
MM: I've always wanted to live a Poirot mystery. Agatha Christie is my favorite author and to live a mystery being unfolded by this genius of a man would probably be the best experience of my life.
N: That reminds me of a Doctor Who episode... You have to go swimming in a pool of one food item. What food item is it?
MM: Yumm. I would say chocolate, but that's too sticky. So I'm going to have to stick to marshmallows - of all colors and shapes. Hmm..fluffy.