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Writer's pictureAdam Gaffen

Adam Interviews...E.B. Finke!

Updated: May 22, 2022


We're halfway through the month?

Who authorized this?

Anyways, today we get to talk to E.B. Finke! She was born in Lübbecke, Germany, to German/English parents; fluent in both languages. After getting her degree in English Literature and History of Art at Bochum University, she spent years working as a research assistant. Final paper on “The Image of Women in Late 19th/Early 20th Century Fantastic Literature”. Since then she's been a freelance journalist, photographer, editor, translator, researcher, and lecturer on the subject of Arabian horses. Articles published in Germany, Britain, Scandinavia, Italy, the USA, Australia, and the Middle East. Co-author and translator of several books. She's a proud member of the German Tolkien Society (DTG) and active in fandom, regularly giving lectures on mythology and fantasy at conventions.


When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?


I grew up reading books and playing make-believe with other kids, so I got into story-telling at an early age. Writing them down was just the next step. I’m naturally creative, so I’ve always been creating things – drawing, sculpting, or writing. As a teen I made a little fake magazine, filled with articles about imaginary people and horses in the style of a magazine I was reading at the time. Eventually I submitted an article to that magazine. They not only accepted it, the asked for more, and it turned into a profession. But I’ve always loved writing fiction and kept doing that as well, although for many years I only shared those stories with friends.

Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?

Anywhere, really. I might get inspired by a face, or a name, or a landscape, or by something I’ve read or seen on TV. It all gets sucked into what I think of as a vast swamp inside my head, where it gets stirred around until it bubbles back to the surfaces in a completely different shape. When I need any factual information, I consult books or the internet.

What is your work schedule like when you’re writing?


In the past, when I was just writing stories for myself and for fun, I often wrote in bed at night – with pen and paper, by candlelight! These days I sit down at my computer after breakfast and write or edit until lunchtime.

When did you write your first book and how old were you?

That depends on how you define “book”. I have written a whole pile of “books” over th