The Hungarian language is hard to understand... but it sounds very interesting and mysterious. This is my interview for the Hungarian fans of Mina. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to my wonderful Hungarian publishing house Főnix Könyvműhely for the great questions and interest in my books and work. An interest they arouse among children in Hungary. If you can handle Hungarian, you can read the entire interview at the link below. If not, here is a small part of it in English:
Do you remember the first story you read and wrote?
I made up my first fairy tale when I was six or seven years old. I went out to our street and told it to the other kids (at that time we were still playing in the street). It was only right to share with them because the story was about our two street gangs and I wanted them to definitely learn it. The "enemies" of my gang needed to hear how they were turning into mud frogs and how we Golden Turtles gang members would always defeat them. Maybe it was right to tell them the story, but it wasn't very smart because the kids from the "enemy" gang got mad at me and gave me the friendliest whacking. It hurt, but that's how I learned that storytelling always has a price. Despite the price though, being a storyteller is the best job in the world.
When I sat down to write my first fairy tale, I was already twenty-five years old and working at the Bulgarian National Radio. Since then, everything I write comes out always and only for children. It's kind of a mystery… I don't think I made that decision, rather writing for children chose me in its own secret and mysterious way. That is why I am convinced that children's writers are born "children's writers". Not that I knew since I was a baby that I would be a children's writer, but something a little funny, a little loving, and a little scary in me chose this very fate. That's why I like to read and write funny-romantic-scary stories. Writing goes hand in hand with reading. Muses have to eat breakfast too, right?