Canadian Fantasy Author Visits BRG 19

Ms K.V. Johansen visited our school on 9th April 2010. The Canadian author read one chapter from Torrie and the Snake Prince, a novel in the Torrie series, to us. The chapter was really exciting because the prince turned into a snake. She told us that she had written four Torrie books. She writes Fantasy books and reads a lot.

As a child, she loved to tell her sisters stories about kidnapped princesses. When she was twelve years old she wrote her first novel.

I think, everyone liked the story and everyone was impressed because no one had seen a real, live author before. We would like to thank her for her book presentation and wish her every success for her future endeavours.

Marie Tlapa and 2B

K. V. Johansen visited our school on 9th April. The Canadian author presented The Shadow Road, the last book in the series The Warlocks of Talverdin to our class, 3B. She read us the first chapter about a boy in a coffin, but her was not dead. We became curious and felt the urge to read on.

Afterwards, Ms Johansen told us that she had always loved telling stories. When she was a young girl she enjoyed making up stories about imprisoned princesses in a fantasy world and told them to her little sister. At the age of twelve she wrote her first novel and that was the beginning of her career as an author.

Whenever Ms Johansen writes a new chapter of a book she has somebody read it through. She welcomes her husband's criticism, because she considers it to be necessary and constructive. K. V. Johansen sends every chapter to a good friend to get feedback. Usually she says it is great, and Ms Johansen appreciates that too, because, in her opinion, every author needs praise.

The author gets the ideas for her fantasy worlds from the places she visits. She said that her next world might include mountains that remind her of Austria. One of her characters is similar to a sister of hers, but most of the time she invents the characters.

Ms Johansen said that it is fascinating how the characters can take over a story. The Shadow Road's main character turned out to be Nevel, who was actually meant to be a minor character. K. V. Johansen was not sure whether the main character should be a boy or a girl. She told us that she did not have an exact plan for a story: an idea comes to her mind and then she just writes it down, and the story develops from a picture in her mind or from a memory of a place.

We learned that writing can have incredible power. K. V. Johansen is an author with her heart and soul. We thank her for presenting her books and giving us an introduction to them.

Anna Sattlegger and 3B