雪麗‧湯瑪斯「有問有答」Q&A

先前宣傳RA191時,在狗屋/果樹官網舉辦的活動,
感謝部分童鞋的精采提問,雪麗也回答的非常用心與詳細哦!
PO上來給大家參考


Q1.想請作者稍微介紹一下個人背景,如出生於哪裡、為何想使用不是母語的語言寫作……等等,謝謝。

A:I was born in Qingdao, but I am of southern stock: my mother’s side of the family is from Shanghai and my father’s side from Nanjing. My parents divorced when I was very young and I grew up with my mother and her parents. When I was nine, my mother left China to pursue an advanced degree in the U.S. I continued to live with my grandparents, but then my grandmother passed away when I was thirteen, and my mother brought my grandfather and me to America to live with her.

As for why I write in English, it’s very simple. My Chinese is no longer that good after more than 20 years in the States.  I read books in English, watch TV & movies in English, speak in English most of the time. I would probably have to go back to school for years before I dare write anything other than letters & IMs in Chinese. 

A:我在青島出生,但祖籍在南方,我母親來自上海,父親則為南京人。我很小的時候父母就離婚了,我跟著母親及外祖父母生活。我九歲時母親前往美國深造,而我留在外公家。但我外婆在我十三歲時過世,我母親將我和外公接到美國一起生活。

至於我何以用英文寫小說,那非常簡單。在美國生活了二十多年之後,我的中文已經不太好。我看英文書和英文電視,大部分時間說英文,除了寫信和填表格,我可能得回學校再讀好幾年的書,才敢用中文寫其他東西。

 

Q2.請問雪麗小姐寫書的靈感出自何處?

A:My inspiration typically come from reading books and watching movies. Particularly good books and movies will make me want to duplicate the experience somehow, but put my own spin on it.

For example, 《魅惑美人》is my take on Judith Ivory’s BEAST, one of my favorite romances that also has a transatlantic voyage on a luxury ocean liner, and one character who is not seen by the other character for half of the book. But in BEAST the man is not seen, and in 《魅惑美人》the woman is the hidden one.

A:我的靈感很典型地經常來自看書和看電影。尤其是好書和好電影,總是使我想要設法複製這個經驗,但加入我自己的改編。以《魅惑美人》為例,它來自我最愛的羅曼史之一,茱迪‧艾佛瑞寫的《野獸》,它有橫越大西洋的郵輪,也有一個半本書都未現身的角色,但它是男主角,而在《魅惑美人》裡,藏起來的則是女主角。

 

Q3.親愛的雪麗:費茲翰三部曲中每本書都可以看到「單相思」(這是雪麗自己的解釋與翻譯,我說我們比較習慣說「單戀」,但在此保留作者古色古香的原意),其中有什麼特別的理由嗎?

A:Great observation! I actually refer to the Fitzhugh Trilogy as the Unrequited Love Trilogy. I don’t think I specifically set out to make every book in the trilogy a variation on a theme. In fact, for both《魅惑美人》 & Ravishing the Heiress, my original plan did not include any unrequited love.

But all genre fiction depend on having great conflict—without a strong conflict, there cannot be a strong story. By adding unrequited love to the mix, you instantly have much higher stakes in a love story. You have a character who is already, at the beginning of the story, deeply invested, whose emotions run strong, who is easily hurt. In other words, you have a character in pain. And a character in pain makes for a more interesting story than a character who is not in pain.

A:你的觀察真的太厲害了!我的確以「單相思三部曲」來稱呼這三本書呢。不過,我並未在動筆之初便定出這個主題,然後寫出三首變調曲。事實上,《魅惑美人》和第二本「愛情的翅膀」最初的計畫並未包括任何單相思。
但所有類型小說的重點都要有大衝突,必須有強烈的衝突,才可能有強烈的故事。只要加入單相思這個元素,一個愛情故事的風險立刻提高了許多。故事才剛開始,便有一個角色已經把他的心深深地投入,他的感情如此強烈、如此容易受到傷害。換言之,你已經有一個角色正深深受苦,而受苦的角色永遠比不受苦的角色有趣得多。

 

Q4.雪麗小姐的書大多是系列書,然而當靈感來時,是全部系列都已設定好了,或是一本寫完後才增加的其他系列書呢?

A:Actually the Fitzhugh Trilogy is my first series of linked books—and I could only wish I had the ability to plan out everything ahead of time. I find it really difficult to plot a book that I am not actively writing.

When we proposed the trilogy, my agent encouraged me to make book 3’s story arc across the entire trilogy. So I had to weave Helena & Hastings’s story into book 1 & book 2, while not quite knowing what that story is. Of course all those parts in the end had to be rewritten once I actually started working on Book 3. Thankfully, we had the time to make the changes.

A:其實,費茲翰三部曲是我首次嘗試故事彼此相互連結的系列書,而我還真的很希望我能擁有那種「事先把一切都計畫好」的能力呢。但我發現我只能設計與思考當時正在寫的那本書的情節,其他的作法都很困難。
我們提議要寫三部曲的時候,我的經紀人建議我讓三個故事彼此穿插。所以我必須在第一、第二本書便把海倫娜和賀斯汀的故事也編織進來,其實我當時並不十分確知他們的故事會怎樣發展。當然,到我寫第三本的時候,所有的角色都必須重寫。幸好,我們有充裕的時間做各種改變。

 

Q5.雪麗小姐最喜歡自己作品哪一本?為什麼?

A:My favorite of my romances is either 《印度生死戀》 or Ravishing the Heiress. I think it’s because in those two stories, the characters had the most difficult, most heartbreaking journeys. They overcome their obstacles with the most courage and kindness. And I am invariably deeply moved by courage and kindness.

A:我最喜歡的若不是《印度生死戀》就是費茲翰三部曲的第二本《愛情的翅膀》。我認為這是因為,這兩個故事裡面的角色都曾走過最困難和最讓人心碎的旅程,而他們用最大的勇氣與善良,克服了橫在眼前的巨大障礙。而勇氣與善良,向來是最讓我感動的。

 

Q6.請問雪麗……身為華人,寫金髮碧眼的愛情故事會碰到什麼樣的問題嗎?

A:Never any I’ve encountered yet. 金髮碧眼 or 黑髮黑目, as long as a character has a heart that can be broken, I’m in business.  (And the funny thing is, historical romance is currently dominated by American writers, writing stories that are largely set in Britain. British readers often tell me that my characters behave more like historical British people than those penned by American writers. I think it’s because American society is very casual, whereas my Chinese upbringing was more formal.)

A:我從未遇到這種問題。管他金髮碧眼或黑髮黑目,只要這個角色「有心可被打碎」,我就可以寫了。(不過,有件事其實很有趣,以英國為背景的歷史羅曼史,其實都是美國作家在寫。但有許多英國讀者告訴我,我書中角色的行為與思考模式比較像他們以前的英國人,而美國作家寫的比較不像。我想這可能是因為美國社會比較隨意,而我的中國成長背景是比較中規中矩的。)

 

Q7.羅曼史對作者來說,是具有怎樣強烈的魅力,或對羅曼史有怎樣的情感,讓作者即使需要使用字典也要看完《狂野的愛》?

A:I think it’s the book’s portrayal of sexuality. There is something very raw and primal in 《狂野的愛》’s understanding of sexual attraction, something so strong and powerful that you simply cannot escape.

Up until then, the love stories the teenage me had read referred to sexual love very elliptically, if at all. So this book opened a whole new arena for me, a whole new way of looking at the relationship between a man and a woman.

A:我認為那是因為這本書對性的描繪。《狂野的愛》(浪漫經典288)對兩性之間那種本能又原始的性吸引力非常瞭解,那是你無法逃避的、非常強而有力的東西。
在讀到那本書之前,當時仍是青少年的我即使看過任何跟性有關的資料也都是很簡略的,所以這本書等於開啟了一個新的競技場,教我用新的方式去看男人與女人之間的關係。

相關文案: 
部落格分類: 

回應