I’m lucky enough to have the author of House Of Salt And Sorrows on my blog! This book is dark and stormy and romantic and creepy. I loved reading it and I’m honored to have the fabulous author, Erin A. Craig here for an interview!
Before we get into the questions, here’s more about this fantastic book and some helpful links!
Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls’ lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods. Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn’t sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who—or what—are they really dancing with? When Annaleigh’s involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it’s a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family—before it claims her next.
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HOUSE OF SALT AND SORROWS is a 12 Dancing Princesses retelling! What drew you to this fairytale?
I got my BFA in Theatre Design and Production. My concentration was in Stage Management but I LOVED taking as many History of Dress and Costume Design classes as I could. My sketches weren’t particularly strong but it was always so much fun dreaming up gorgeous dresses. You won’t find a fairytale with more dresses than ‘The 12 Dancing Princess!
You have such vivid and lush descriptions of settings in your book. It was like I could taste the salt at Highmoor! Which place is your favorite to describe and which was your favorite to come up with?
I loved creating all of the worlds in Arcannia! Highmoor has so many delicious little details to truly ground it as an island estate but I think my favorite place to imagine was the House of Seven Moons. It’s the chapter that went through the most and biggest changes. So much of the plot there was reinvented and recreated but the abbey itself always stayed the same. I wrote the first version of Seven Moons just a few days after the 2017 Solar Eclipse. We were in the path of near totality in Memphis and I was so enamored with the quality of light that day—the double shadows, the strange gray tones—I wanted to capture the essence of that in my book.
While being a debut can be terrifying, what is the best thing to come out of this experience so far?
I had no idea how giddy I would get seeing pictures of the ARCs out in the wild. For so long the story was in my head and then with just a few select people, critique partners, family, my agent and editor. Knowing total strangers are reading my words and imagining my story is the absolutely best feeling!
There are so many characters in this book and they all incredible! Who is your favorite, besides Annaleigh, and why?
Oooh… I’m torn between Verity and Viscardi. I wrote the first draft while my daughter was very small and so much of Verity’s sweetness came from expressions she’d make in her sleep or little endearing traits. But Viscardi was SO MUCH FUN to write. His lines flowed out easily and he oozes a creepy charisma that I just adored!
Going forward, would you want to write another fairytale retelling? If so, which one would you pick?
There are so many that I’d love to try my hand at! I’ve always been drawn to the more macabre tales—things that could bump in the night just set my imagination racing! Bluebeard, Rumpelstiltskin, and the Pied Piper would all be really fun to spin a new take on.
And here’s more about the author herself!
Erin A. Craig has always loved telling stories.
After getting her B.F.A. from the University of Michigan, in Theatre Design and Production, she stage managed tragic operas with hunchbacks, séances, and murderous clowns, then decided she wanted to write books that were just as spooky.
An avid reader, a decent quilter, rabid basketball fan, and collector of typewriters, Erin makes her home in Memphis, TN with her husband and daughter. She watches entirely too many horror movies.
Her debut novel, HOUSE OF SALT AND SORROWS, will be published August 6, 2019 by Delacorte Press.
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Thank you so much again to Erin for stopping by my blog! I really loved reading her answers (she would write an AMAZING Rumpelstiltskin retelling!) and I hope you did too! House Of Salt And Sorrow comes out August 6th, which is so soon! It’s an amazing book and I can’t wait for more people to read it!
Thank you for reading!
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