Available: August 25th, 2015

Who’s your favorite author, living or dead? This is a really hard question. There are so many wonderful authors. When I was in 2nd grade, my favorite was Jerry Spinelli. In 5th grade, Katherine Paterson or Lloyd Alexander. In high school, it was all over the board. Now, I spend a lot of time reading nonfiction, and there are two authors that I read the moment their books hit the shelves: John Krakauer and Jon Ronson. They are both really great investigative journalists and I love their work.

What’s your favorite thing about your book? The riddles and puzzles that hinge history and myth together.

If you could spend one year on a deserted island with one character from literature, who would you choose? Probably Karana from Island of the Blue Dolphins. I think we’d get along great and she could teach me all of her survival skills.

Where do you write?  I like to write alone, for the most part, so I write at home. I have a standing desk in the sitting room. It’s really my old drafting table from my days of theater design, but it works as a standing desk with some books to prop up the monitor. And speaking of books, there are books everywhere. Within my reach: Robert Frost: Collected Works, Thoreau, The Encyclopedia of Archaelogy, The Cretan Runner, The Iliad. And on my desk in front of me, I have piece of inspiration that started me out on the trail of Keepers of the Labyrinth. 

This is a poem by William Stafford My English teacher from high school gave it to me when I went to visit her a few years ago. I was telling her about the seeds of the idea for Keepers, so she made me a copy of it on the spot and I’ve hung onto it through the process. (You can tell by how grubby it is!)

Who is your favorite hero or heroine of history? Rosie the Riveter. And by that, I mean women who role up their sleeves and get jobs done for the betterment of the human race, despite major obstacles standing in their way. I also love artists who change the world.

Take Lewis Hine, for example, who documented child labor to bring notice to the injustice of it. Art can be the most effective way to start a social dialogue. Artists have to be brave to do this. Lewis Hine would often lie about his trade, saying he was a salesman or inspector, to gain access to these facilities and people.

Do you tweet? What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever tweeted? I feel, because of the brevity of twitter, that I have a really hard time expressing myself authentically. Doesn’t that sound so pretentious? In fact, I feel really super inadequate about tweeting. People have fun and clever things to say. Someday, I am going to tweet something hilarious. And everyone will laugh. Or EVERYONE will be like,“ that’s not funny, you idiot,” and pile on like a band of wild hyenas and I’ll be torn to pieces (emotionally, of course)….could go either way, right?

What is your favorite season? Autumn. I grew up in VT and love every little thing about the fall, from the apple picking, to the autumn leaves, to the pumpkin carving, to the smell of the wood stoves starting up.

If you could teleport anywhere in the known universe right now, where would you go? I’d go back to Crete. I’ve got Crete on the brain and I would want to land right at Milia Mountain Retreat. Preferably, somewhere very near their fabulous kitchen, so I could get some good eats, then stare out at the mountain for inspiration.

Do you have any writing rituals? Yes! I require tea, noise cancelling headphones, a quiet room where no one can see me pacing and muttering to myself, and music. I need the music to be loud. Like it’s playing inside my head. I usually listen to music without writing for about an hour. By then, I’m all amped up and jump in.

What is your idea of earthly happiness? Having a little baby snugged up on your chest, sleeping softly and breathing so close–that’s the biggest happiness I’ve ever felt. It’s the type of moment that makes you stop and take stock. Life can get pretty ugly and depressing, and it’s important to find those happy moments (whatever that may look like to you) and snapshot them so you can get to that space again when you need to. You know what I mean?

What is the best concert you’ve ever been to? Trans-Siberian Orchestra. From the performance to the lights to the stage mechanics and pyro-technics…they really know how to put on a show.

What are you currently working on? Oh, I have a few little projects in the works, but most recently my head has been back at Melios Manor and I’ve been typing away on the Icarus Folio, discovering more and more about the mountain, the labyrinth, and its history. And doing some really fun research on women warriors around the world. It’s pretty fantastic.

Thanks Erin! We can’t wait to hear more about your next work!

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