What’s your favorite/least favorite color?

My favorite color is purple, though I also really like light blue and pink. Yellow is tricky for me—I could never wear yellow clothes. But I do love yellow in flowers, fruits, and vegetables—anywhere it feels alive and vibrant.

When and where were you born?

I was born on October 7th, on a Friday, in Bucharest, Romania. Later, I lived in five different places across Transylvania. The last one was the beautiful city of Cluj-Napoca, where I did my university studies.

What was your favorite subject in school?

I loved Romanian and Geometry—somehow, I was good at geometry! Lol. I also loved foreign languages. I remember reading a lot, too. While my sister was outside playing in the snow, I’d stay inside reading. I think it was my way of escaping reality, my own form of coping.

How many languages do you speak?

I speak six languages: Romanian, French, Spanish, English, Italian, and Portuguese. I also studied a bit of Russian, as I was part of the last generation to learn it in school. While I can’t speak Russian, I can read it using the Cyrillic alphabet. Additionally, I learned the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets.

What are some of your favorite books?

As a child, my favorite was Alice in Wonderland. I think I read it in every language I could find. Each version has its own little twist, but of course, the essence of the story stays the same.

As an adult, I love One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. I’m a big fan of magical realism, and I often draw inspiration from it in my short stories. I also admire the fantastic short stories of Mircea Eliade, a Romanian writer who also authored the first significant treatise on the history of myths and religions.

What are your reading interests?

Lately, I’ve read many personal growth books—ones I wish I had access to as a child. Today’s generations are fortunate to have so much information available, not just in books, but also through podcasts and other media.

Besides that, I enjoy reading across various fields—philosophy, art, history, astronomy, religion, mythology, and more. Since childhood, I’ve had an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and I hope to keep that curiosity alive for as long as I live.

For example, the last book I bought was Annotated Art: The History of Art in 500 Works—a fascinating exploration of art history.

Do you think writing is hard?

I started writing when I was around 12. But I made the mistake of showing my first story to my mother’s second husband. He read it and said “Okay” in the most indifferent, expressionless way possible.

Honestly, if he had said, “Your writing sucks,” it might have been easier to take. That total lack of reaction crushed me. It put me off writing for thirty years.

So here’s my advice to young or new writers:
Don’t show your work to people who don’t have the emotional intelligence to support you. Especially not family members—unless they’re truly capable of encouragement. Show your early work only to those who can uplift you and believe in your potential.

That said, even though I stopped writing, I never stopped reading—and I never stopped dreaming of writing. In my forties, the stories inside me became too loud to ignore. My imagination was bubbling over, and I finally started writing again. It felt like coming home.

Why do you write?

I’ve always gotten bored easily—even as a child. And honestly, I still find our reality a bit dull and repetitive. That’s why I love imagining new worlds, with their own rules and unique ways of thinking. I’ve always been drawn to science fiction, and one day, I’d love to write something in that genre.

I believe kids have far more imagination than most adults. Sadly, too many grown-ups impose rigid rules and narrow perspectives on children, pulling them away from their beautiful, limitless inner universes.

So I write to protect that space. I write to explore new realities—and to invite kids (and daring adults!) to come along for the ride.

Do you think writing is hard?

I think nothing is really hard when you enjoy doing it. I don’t see writing as difficult, because I love it, even though I write in my third language, not my mother tongue.
Of course, it’s more challenging than it would be in my native language, but that’s part of the fun. Searching for the right word, crafting a sentence just right—it’s all part of the creative process. And I love challenges. They keep me sharp and curious.

Did you study to become a writer?

My university studies were originally meant to prepare me to become a teacher or translator of Romanian and French.
But I quickly realized I’m not patient enough for repetitive tasks—I’m far more drawn to creative work.

My curiosity led me to stay within the academic world. I earned three master’s degrees, all related to language and literature. My PhD in literature finally gave me some creative freedom: I chose to interpret the dreams of the French writer Georges Perec, as he recorded them in his book La Boutique Obscure.

That said, I never studied Creative Writing formally, like younger generations have the chance to do today. But I don’t think that’s a requirement to become a writer. You can absolutely be self-taught, like I was, and still create powerful, meaningful work.

If you think about it, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Gogol, Kafka, Balzac, Zola, Yourcenar—none of them studied Creative Writing. And they still made it. The key is to believe in your voice, your craft, and your vision.

Are any of your books based on your life?

Not directly. But indirectly, all the characters in my books are versions of myself—who I am, who I hope to become, or who I try not to be.

In the end, I believe every writer is ultimately writing for themselves: to better understand who they are, to entertain themselves while creating, or to feel the deep satisfaction of knowing their work has positively impacted someone else.

I wouldn’t call writing a selfish act, even if it sounds that way. It’s just part of how we’re wired as human beings—we seek personal fulfillment, even when we show kindness and altruism. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Do you ever get writer’s block?

Not in the sense most people understand writer’s block. There was a rough patch I went through after a breakup, and I didn’t feel like writing—I was too busy brooding in the dark. At one point, my therapist asked me, “So what happens when you want to write and you can’t?” And I realized… that’s never actually happened to me. I told her, “It’s not that I can’t write—it’s just that I don’t even try. I don’t feel like writing right now.” She said, “Interesting. Let’s see what happens if you try anyway.”

So I did. I sat down to write, and what had once been a light, joyful story turned into something dark and bittersweet. People reading it even asked if I had turned to satire. That’s when I understood: my inspiration never left—it just shifted to reflect what I was feeling at the time.

Eventually, I recovered and returned to my usual merry-go-round style. But during that emotionally intense period, I ended up writing poetry instead. It helped me process everything I was going through. That poetry became a chapbook, Enlightenment, which was published by Moonlight Arts in Philadelphia.

So no—I don’t believe in using writer’s block as a reason to stop creating. Even if you feel stuck, your emotions and inner world can still spark something new and powerful. You just have to follow where they lead.

Where do you write?

I usually write at the dining table—wherever “home” happens to be. I can’t really write outside; I get distracted way too easily.

So I completely understand Marcel Proust, who lined the walls of his room with cork to create a sanctuary of silence where he could write in peace. Total silence helps me focus too—though interestingly, music doesn’t bother me. On the contrary, it actually keeps me grounded and in the zone.

How many books do you work on at once?

It depends on the genre. When I worked on The Secret Magicians of Rybellia, which took me six years, I took breaks now and then to write short stories and poetry.


These days, I’m focused on children’s picture books, and honestly, I come up with five or six new ideas every week. I try to write at least one of them down in more detail, and I quickly jot down the others—otherwise I’ll definitely forget them. I’ve already forgotten dozens of ideas before I came up with this little system!

If you couldn’t write, what would you do?

I’d paint or do something else creative. I actually went through a painting phase and even sold a piece during an exhibition.
More recently, I started taking watercolor classes and I absolutely love it! In fact, my next picture book will be illustrated with my own watercolors.

What are your future projects?

First and foremost, I hope I can keep writing and painting for the rest of my life—those are my truest forms of self-expression and how I connect with the world.
 Second, I hope I never lose my curiosity and continue to grow and be amazed by new things every day.
 And finally, I hope my work brings a little light to children—and maybe even adults—who read it. I don’t write just for kids; I write for the grown-ups who still carry their inner child close to their heart.