Ask the Author: Erin Morgenstern
Answered Questions (9)
Erin Morgenstern
There are so many! Some new ones: STEEL CROW SAGA by Paul Krueger, WANDERERS by Chuck Wendig & THE UNWILLING by Kelly Braffet (coming in February 2020) And some older ones: THE BLOODY CHAMBER by Angela Carter, INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri & THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson.
Erin Morgenstern
I know this is a really unsatisfying answer but I don’t know. I’m sure people still have meetings about it and I’ve been told there’s been some forward motion recently but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. It might maybe someday be a movie. That’s all I know. It’s rare for an author to be actively involved in the adaptation process.
Erin Morgenstern
There were definitely more tents, I’m not certain how many, I’d have to go back and look at old notes and bits and pieces. Some of them didn’t make it into the book because there wasn’t enough of a moment to anchor an entire section or I couldn’t figure out how to condense a more complicated tent into a manageable size to read. Most of them make an appearance somewhere in the book, I had a long second person ride on the carousel at one point that proved too long for the book but the carousel itself is still there.
Erin Morgenstern
There are more echos of myths than proper myths in there. I wanted it to feel like it had its own mythology that was reminiscent of known myths without being retellings. There are shades of Hades and Persephone and Isis and Osiris, nods to underworld mythologies. The core myth of Fate and Time came from something I read about fate being a consort of time and I became fascinated by imagining that relationship but I purposefully didn’t do any other research on it so I could.
Erin Morgenstern
I love a lot of fairy tales but I am particularly fond of The Snow Queen, I love the atmosphere and the quest-like aspects of it. Little bits of its tone show up in The Starless Sea. (I’m also very fond of Little Red Riding Hood, mostly for aesthetic reasons regarding woods and cloaks and wolves.)
Erin Morgenstern
The theater background influences a lot, particularly how I stage scenes or let action unfold. I always block it out in my head as though it were an immersive stage piece, I get to direct and play all the roles and figure out the lighting design. Because that’s my core background in storytelling I always approach my writing from a visual direction and then I have to find the right words to relay all that on the page.
Erin Morgenstern
I did struggle with the sophomore novel though less in starting it because I already had a few pieces in progress and more in figuring out which pieces to sit with and coerce into book-form. I actually spent a long time working on another piece that just wasn’t coming together before I decided to put it away and work on something else and that’s what eventually became The Starless Sea. It was also difficult because I knew people were waiting for it, but I wanted to get it right.
Erin Morgenstern
I’m either fortunate or cursed with worlds that show up almost fully-formed in my head but I always need to explore them to figure out how they work. For me a lot of worldbuilding is about learning what’s possible and what’s not, I like fantasy that feels grounded in reality so I try to start with a real world feel and layer fantastical elements on top, trying to find the right balance. I had the opportunity with The Starless Sea to establish what a Morgensternian world is, what my particular flavor of fantasy looks like. I think a lot of worldbuilding is about personalization, like finding your voice but for setting.
Erin Morgenstern
Oh, I do love the circus but if I had to live in a space I would choose to live in a Harbor on the Starless Sea, it’s very much my ideal space, filled with books and cats and mysteries and secrets to uncover. (Though technically I could cheat and say “both” because they exist in the same universe.)
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