Ask the Author: Erika Johansen
Answered Questions (43)
Erika Johansen
Sigh...I'm trying. I know all my serious fans really want to know what happens to her, but for some reason every time I try to write the next bit for Kelsea I screw it up. I'm going to keep plugging away and hope that something works, but that something won't be published until I'm convinced it's good enough to stand with the other Tearling books. So I have to be honest: it might be a while. But thanks so much for reading, and I'm glad you enjoyed the others.
Erika Johansen
Hi Sarah. I always pictured the sapphires as emerald-cut, actually, and I think I may even have said so somewhere in QOT (not sure; getting old). But I didn't have much say about the US covers of my books. Thanks very much for reading and recommending. I'm still trying (perhaps fruitlessly) to get back to the Tearling while I write other things.
Erika Johansen
Hi there; please don't think I've forgotten you. I've gotten in touch with my publisher and they're trying to figure out who actually owns the rights to the Tearling map and, if it's me, whether we have a decent copy for download. Will be back in touch as soon as I have an answer for you. Thanks for reading!
Erika Johansen
Hi Sean. I think someone asked this same question a few years back, and as I said there, my grasp of physics (especially as pertains to time travel) is essentially nil. My idea at the time was that Kelsea's actions would have caused two diverging realities to go forward from Year 20 in the Town, but even if you're a one-timeline wipe-out-the-past kind of person, I still thought I had the right to go back to a point which did once exist before Kelsea's life and write about what happened "before" she ever took any action. Einstein would surely slap me for it, but I couldn't care less if I think I have a good story to tell.
Hope that helps, and thanks for reading. I hope you liked BTK in the end.
Hope that helps, and thanks for reading. I hope you liked BTK in the end.
Erika Johansen
Bless you, Rod. This actually was a legit page that one of my publishers set up at one point and maintained in my name, but it looks like some jerk has gotten hold of the reins. I'll deal with this ASAP, but thank you very much for alerting me to it; I would never have noticed. In the meantime, please feel free to post on there (in reply or something, I don't know) that this is not me speaking. I'm so sorry for the inconvenience/intrusion for you. Thank you!
Erika Johansen
No, sorry. I think social media is terrible, always have. But I'm always happy to answer questions here.
Erika Johansen
Not tellin'. Not yet.
Erika Johansen
Sofia: No, I didn't. I actually thought of telling Mace's story while writing Fate, but gradually realized it didn't belong there and would have to be its own book. Thanks so much for the kind words about BTK; maybe a prequel is just a hard sell these days.
Erika Johansen
Hi Rhiannon. I'm glad you like BTK; the book wasn't particularly popular, I guess, but I was very proud of it. I've been working on the next bit of Kelsea, but it won't see the light of day until I'm convinced it's good, and I think that's going to be a while; I'd rather never publish the thing than try to continue Kelsea's story and blow it. I do have a new book coming out in November called The Kingdom of Sweets...not set in the Tearling, but (to my mind, anyway) not that distant either. You might like it. Meanwhile, I'll keep on doing my best to get Kelsea back to you all. Thanks again for reading!
Erika Johansen
Hi Destiny. I've been working on the next bit of Kelsea's story for a while, but can't say when (or even if) I'll finish it. If you missed it, I did publish a prequel a couple years ago called Beneath the Keep, which at least might give you a hit of some familiar characters until I get 'er done. Thanks for reading!
Erika Johansen
Boy do I wish I had a secret. The truth is, I'm constantly plotting by the seat of my pants, and rarely have any plan or even idea what I'm doing until at least halfway in. It shows in my pacing, and I wish I was better at it. Still, I'm so glad some fans like yourself can clearly overlook it. I grew up in Marin too!
Erika Johansen
Hi Cait. Truthfully, I loathe social media. I'm on GoodReads because my agent recommended it way back when I was first published, and whatever she says I do. (At the time, I didn't even know what GoodReads was anyway, let alone that it was considered a social media site. :) But in general, I think that social media is just a way to waste time and energy on things that aren't terribly important. If I want to find out what's going on with someone, I can call or e-mail them. I don't need to know what everyone thinks on every topic, or what they're doing with every hour of their day...and for the life of me, I don't know why anyone would be interested in hearing the same from me. I'm even more confused about people wanting to read about the minutiae of the lives of celebrities and other people they don't even know.
Honestly, I don't mind GoodReads, as it allows me to give fans news and answer their questions, and I'm never going to bestir myself to make my own author website or anything like that for the same purpose. But I try to restrict even my own interaction to times when I get asked something interesting (like this) or have something important to tell fans, such as an upcoming publication date...in other words, when there's actually something to say. For me, the 24-hour ability to broadcast everything one thinks and does lends an outsized importance to events - and people! - we used to recognize, quite rightly, as trivial.
Last, I feel like the whole focus on recording everything constantly - with an inevitable eye toward posting it - works to diminish the value of memory. Last time I went to see my favorite band in concert you could barely see the stage because every idiot had his phone in the air. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and all they were worried about was recording it; they also had no problem ruining the show for the rest of us in order to do so. When I read about people taking selfies at Auschwitz, I was appalled, but not particularly surprised. The idea that everything must be immortalized online at all costs is slowly undermining the good old notion that just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you should.
Whew...that was probably way more answer than you wanted. Ask a decent question, get Grandpa Simpson yelling at a cloud, I guess. :) Thanks very much for reading it all.
Honestly, I don't mind GoodReads, as it allows me to give fans news and answer their questions, and I'm never going to bestir myself to make my own author website or anything like that for the same purpose. But I try to restrict even my own interaction to times when I get asked something interesting (like this) or have something important to tell fans, such as an upcoming publication date...in other words, when there's actually something to say. For me, the 24-hour ability to broadcast everything one thinks and does lends an outsized importance to events - and people! - we used to recognize, quite rightly, as trivial.
Last, I feel like the whole focus on recording everything constantly - with an inevitable eye toward posting it - works to diminish the value of memory. Last time I went to see my favorite band in concert you could barely see the stage because every idiot had his phone in the air. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and all they were worried about was recording it; they also had no problem ruining the show for the rest of us in order to do so. When I read about people taking selfies at Auschwitz, I was appalled, but not particularly surprised. The idea that everything must be immortalized online at all costs is slowly undermining the good old notion that just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you should.
Whew...that was probably way more answer than you wanted. Ask a decent question, get Grandpa Simpson yelling at a cloud, I guess. :) Thanks very much for reading it all.
Erika Johansen
Working on it, working on it. :)
Erika Johansen
I hope to tell her life story one day.
Erika Johansen
Well, I love the tropes of fantasy. Thus, in physical terms, the Tearling is pretty easily recognizable as your standard castles-and-swords fantasy world. But fantasy is often wooden; what interests me about the process of world-building is taking these tropes I love and fiddling with them so that they reflect our actual current humanity a bit more. Thus, in a world where there's an overindulged nobility, of course there would be horrors like the Creche. With an enormous impoverished class whose members have no hope of advancement, of course there would be morphia addiction. For me, the standard fantasy world acts as an outline that I try to fill in with human realism. Thanks for reading!
Erika Johansen
By focusing on the story. Whenever I TRY to write about big, important topics, I always fail...the work comes off way too heavy-handed and kind of gluey, like bread with too much flour. I do much better when I forget about what I WANTED to talk about and just keep my eye on the characters and what they're doing. I find that my politics bleed in more naturally that way, though I'm still frequently guilty of heavy-handedness on certain topics.
Erika Johansen
Hi Becky. I make it a practice to recommend Frank Herbert's Dune to any fantasy fan who hasn't read it; it's my hands-down favorite, and I enjoyed the first two sequels as well. My husband has just introduced me to Robin Hobb and now I'm tearing through The Assassin's Apprentice and can already tell I will need to read her entire catalogue. In more recent literature, I also recommend Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni and Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree.
Erika Johansen
You will; off the top of my head, you'll see the Mace, Elyssa, Thorne and Brenna, and (very briefly) Kelsea as well.
Erika Johansen
Hi Caroline. I wanted to tell the story of the Mace's youth, but he didn't seem like the sort of man to ever willingly part with that information to anyone, not even Kelsea. So I realized I would have to tell it myself.
Erika Johansen
The Fetch will be in one more book for certain, but I'm guessing that'll be his last appearance. Never sure, though; it IS the Tearling, after all.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more
Aug 30, 2025 10:13AM · flag