Auteur: The Final Word - Galadriel Coffeen Interview

A multi-talented artist with a growing collection of illustrated fantasy novels to her name, Galadriel Coffeen wrote and illustrated the short story The Patchwork Princess in Auteur: Volume One: The Final Word, in addition to painting its cover artwork. Riley G. Boyd has questions for her!

Above: Galadriel Coffeen in the flesh (and remarkable headwear).

Tell us a bit about yourself, your creative background?
I’ve been writing and creating art for as long as I can remember. I’ve always been a voracious reader, which is the most important study for any writer. I’ve taught both academic and creative writing and written a variety of sci-fi and fantasy fiction, some of which I’ve even managed to publish. 

How did you first get involved with this project?
Aristide Twain reached out and invited me. I’d never even heard of Auteur at that point, but I loved the concept and was delighted to familiarise myself with the old villain and join the project.

What makes Auteur such an interesting character and playground for a creative to work in? 
Two main things set this project apart. First, it’s a rare idea to build an anthology not around a common theme or a central hero, but around a shared villain. That allows an unusual variety of protagonists and story types to share space in a single book. Second, Auteur’s status as a “sub-author” of his own stories allows writers to play around with structures and tropes in unexpected ways. I’ve encountered other works where characters are aware of their status as part of a story, but Auteur’s ambiguity as both a character who breaks the fourth wall from inside and a narrator who breaks the fourth wall from outside is unique as far as I’ve seen.

What excites you most about being part of such a collaborative anthology? 
It’s not the way I usually work, so it’s been a new and interesting experience. I rarely write short stories, and my long fiction tends to be part of even longer ongoing plans for interconnecting plots and series. It’s very different contributing only a small piece to someone else’s long-term plan.

Auteur is a character tied to authorship, art, literacy — did you tie into those themes with your work?
Art is ultimately about hope and agency. People write and create and read stories to find a sense of control, release, or joy in even the darkest times. So I like to think a villainous artist would be defined by stealing that agency from others. He claims authorship of someone’s life and robs them of their self-determination; he turns someone into nothing more than the canvas for his art and robs them of their own creativity. I wanted to address those themes by presenting Auteur as a sort of parasite, so that as he takes more control of the story, the main character becomes less central or distinct.

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Above: The textless artwork for Galadriel Coffeen's sensation ‘The Final Word’ cover artwork!

What can you tell us about your experience creating the cover artwork?
The cover art was an absolute delight to create; I really love painting dark, moody scenes with splashes of bright color or light. Auteur himself was pure fun, though it took a few iterations to get the skull to show a villainous expression without significantly altering the bone structure! The background was more of a challenge, since I mainly paint portraits, and I had a few frustrating moments while working on the repetitive stone patterns for the tower. The clouds were also a bit of a challenge, but way more enjoyable than the tower, and I'm super happy with how the colors and lighting came out in that part of the image. I think the measure of a good cover is that it serves as an eye-catching illustration on its own but doesn't feel quite complete until the text is added. Personally, I think I hit that note with this piece and ended up with an image that looks best with the title incorporated, but I'll leave the final judgement to the readers!

If your story was someone’s first encounter with Auteur, what would you hope they take away from it? 
I hope I’ve managed to capture the malleable nature of reality in Auteur’s universe. Anything can be rewritten; someone is always watching and editing the details of life; and this leads to both farce and horror. Whimsy isn’t my strong suit, so I focused on the horror aspect, but I hope I’ve also given readers at least a few hints that Auteur is, for all his terrifying abilities, a panto villain at the same time.

What’s your next creative project and where can our readers find you next?
I’d be interested in contributing more to the project, though I don’t have any specific plans for future Auteur stories. I’ve been working on a gaslamp fantasy series that consists of a trilogy of murder mysteries interspersed with shorter stories focusing on some of the side characters who mainly deal with coming-of-age and social justice issues. Life has gotten in the way of writing a lot the past few years, but I’m hoping to get the next few short stories finished and published this year. You can find information at galadrielcoffeen.com or look up my books on Amazon.

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