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POE'S
DEADLY DAUGHTERS
Originally
posted August 2007
Erin talks to fellow mystery writer Sandra Parshall about the
writing process,
plotting a mystery, favorite authors, advice to aspiring writers, and
more.
Click here to read
THE
WRITING SHOW
Originally
posted December 2006
In her first ever podcast interview (!) Erin chats with Mick Halpin in
Dublin
about bogs, mystery writing, and things Irish.
Mick Halpin's website - Critical Mick
Click here to read a transcript or
listen to the podcast
COOL
STUFF 4 Writers
Originally
posted November 2005
Erin does a Q & A with Sandy Young of Cool Stuff 4
Writers,
an omnibus resource site for writers.
Click here to read
MYSTERY
WOMEN
Originally
posted March 2005
Erin does an in-depth Q & A with Ayo Onatade of Mystery Women, a
British
mystery magazine.
Click here to read
AUTHOR!
AUTHOR! - HENNEPIN COUNTY LIBRARY WEBSITE
Originally
posted November 2004
AUTHOR! AUTHOR! Erin answers questions from Hennepin County Library's
Sharon
McGlinn, and from curious readers.
Click here to read
"ALL
THINGS CONSIDERED" on Minnesota Public Radio
Originally
broadcast on October 14, 2004
MPR's Greta Cunningham talks with Erin about her return to the bogs in LAKE
OF SORROWS.
Click here to read &
listen
MINNESOTA
CRIME WAVE NEWSLETTER
Originally
posted May 1, 2004
Minnesota Crime Wave member Carl Brookins, author of INNER PASSAGES and
A
SUPERIOR MYSTERY, talked to Erin about writing HAUNTED GROUND.
Click here to read
BOOKSELLING
THIS WEEK
The
weekly publication of the American Booksellers Association
Originally
posted December 11, 2003
David Grogan, senior editor of BOOKSELLING THIS WEEK, talked to Erin
about
Ireland, music and HAUNTED GROUND. The interview also
appears in
the December 11 issue of BOOKSELLING THIS WEEK.
Click here to read
"RATTLEBAG"
on RTÉ (Irish national radio)
Originally
broadcast June 23, 2003
As a guest on this Irish arts radio program, Erin chats to
"Rattlebag" presenter Myles Dungan about the writing of HAUNTED
GROUND.
Click here to read & listen
"ALL
THINGS CONSIDERED" on Minnesota Public Radio
Originally
broadcast May 21, 2003
Minnesota Public Radio’s Greta Cunningham interviewed Erin about the
experience
of writing of HAUNTED GROUND.
Click here to read &
listen
THE
DEAD BEAT
/ Murder By The Book, Houston TX
Originally
posted April 15, 2003
Dean James, mystery author and manager of Murder By The
Book mystery
bookstore in Houston, recently interviewed Erin
about HAUNTED GROUND. The interview also appeared in the
Spring
2003 issue of THE DEAD BEAT, Murder By The Book's quarterly magazine.
Click here to read
THE
INNER SANCTUM, Simon &
Schuster’s mystery newsletter
Colin
Shields interviewed Erin for
the Spring 2003 issue of THE INNER SANCTUM, Simon & Schusters
mystery
newsletter for booksellers.
Q:
I
understand that you sing Irish songs the way Nora does in the novel.
Can you
tell me a little of your personal history?
A:
Singing
has always been part of my life, but it was only in college that I
started
listening seriously to Irish music, and trying to learn some of the
repertoire
of singers I admired, people like Dolores Keane and Cathal McConnell. I
also
got involved in the local Irish traditional music scene—going to
regular
sessions, doing a bit of singing, putting on concerts, and traveling to
Ireland
for music festivals whenever I could. I actually studied theater
production,
and had every intention of becoming a theater director, but ended up
taking a
detour into arts administration that lasted nearly twenty years. So I
learned a
lot of songs while standing over the copy machine at work. Like Nora, I
felt as
if the old traditional songs had stories and melodies I’d always been
waiting
to hear. They’re so plain, so sad, and so true. Once you get them
inside you,
they can’t help spilling out somehow. I still sing everywhere: driving
in the
car, in the shower at the gym—and occasionally out in public.
Q:
How
much of Nora's story mirrors
your own?
A:
To
tell the truth, very little. She’s a pathologist, a lecturer in gross
anatomy,
and my background is probably the opposite end of the spectrum—theater
and
journalism. Nora’s far cleverer than I am, much more driven and
academically
inclined. Her parents are from Ireland; mine are from Iowa. Of course,
there
are bits of me in Nora. We both feel a strong connection to Ireland and
its
music, particularly traditional unaccompanied singing. For a doctor, I
have to
say she’s a little on the squeamish side around living patients, and
that would
be a characteristic we share. Like Nora, I used to brush my younger
sister’s
hair before school every day when we were kids—but I’m very glad to say
that my
three wonderful siblings are all alive and well.
Q:
Did
you actually visit some
Irish bogs and observe excavations?
A:
My
husband is from County Offaly, which has some of the most extensive
boglands in
Ireland, so we’ve always been out in the bogs whenever we visit. The
bog in the
book is similar to the place my husband’s family cut turf by hand;
until fairly
recently, they used turf for heating and cooking year round. While I
was
writing Haunted Ground, I visited an archaeological excavation at an
early
Christian settlement in north County Dublin, a site exactly like the
place
Cormac and Nora are working in the book. And I recently spent time on a
couple
of industrial bogs, places where peat is harvested by the ton, and
where the
next book in the series takes place. The archaeologists I visited were
excavating wooden bog roads—probably built about 2,000 years ago. It’s
fascinating to see wood cut twenty centuries ago still as fresh as if
it was
cut only yesterday, birch bark turned from pure white to a beautiful
metallic
silver. One of the archaeologists I met this summer actually discovered
the
most recent bog body in Ireland—which unfortunately had been almost
completely
destroyed by heavy machinery. But it was a thrill to talk to her about
the
find.
Q:
I'm
told that your husband is a
well-known Irish musician. How did you meet him? Does he play the kind
of music
that Garrett Devaney plays in the novel?
A:
Devaney
plays the fiddle, and my husband, Paddy O’Brien, plays button
accordion, but
they both play Irish traditional music—mostly dance tunes like jigs,
reels, and
hornpipes, but also older harp tunes and clan marches. Paddy’s got an
incredible memory—not just for the notes in a tune, but for the story
behind it
as well. He’s like a walking encyclopedia of Irish traditional music.
And he’s
got great soul as a player—I’ll never tire of listening to him.
The
way we met was sort of an
interesting twist of fate: a year after graduating from college, I
spent a
couple of months in Ireland, doing an intensive Irish language course
in West
Galway and traveling around to music festivals. On the day I arrived
home from
Ireland, my friends took me to a pub in Saint Paul to see a great
traditional
band they all loved—a group that included Paddy on the button box,
along with
fiddler James Kelly and guitarist Bernie McDonald. I’d never met any of
the
band before, but someone must have mentioned to Paddy that I was a
singer. He
invited me up onto the stage to sing for the crowd, and that’s where we
actually met.
Q:
You
have three principal
characters in Haunted Ground. Tell us a little about why
you
chose them. Will they all appear in the future books in the series?
A:
HAUNTED
GROUND is based on a true story from an Irish archaeologist,
about two
brothers working in a bog uncovering the perfectly preserved, severed
head of a
beautiful red-haired girl. When a body is deemed too old to trigger a
police
investigation, then the detective work is left to the archaeologists,
who have
to piece together whatever clues they can about the remains. So it
seemed
natural to feature an archaeologist as a main character in a story
about a body
in a bog. After devising Cormac Maguire, I thought he ought to have a
foil,
possibly an American, and someone who was an expert on bog bodies.
That’s how
Nora Gavin was born. Cormac and Nora will continue as main characters
in the
series. I didn’t intend to create a third principal, but as I was
writing,
Garrett Devaney, the police detective, sort of edged his way into a
starring
role. And since the story involves two mysteries—the centuries-old case
of the
decapitated red-haired girl and another fairly recent disappearance—it
helped
that Devaney, as a professional investigator, had access to information
about
the recent case. Devaney isn’t in the second book, but I like him so
well I’m
hoping to include him again a little further along in the series. I’d
like to
know how he’s getting on.
Q:
Why
did you pick Ireland as your
setting, and how often do you visit Ireland?
A:
I’m
not sure I picked Ireland as a setting; it might be more accurate to
say that
Ireland picked me. I’ve been drawn to it more than any other place in
the world
ever since I was a child. The reasons probably have to do with the
complex and
contradictory nature of the place, its strange juxtaposition of ancient
and
modern culture—all those layers of history, one on top of the other,
that lend
resonance to the stories I want to tell. The Greek ethnographer
Poseidonius
described the Celts in the first century B.C., saying: “They speak in
riddles,
hinting at things, leaving much to be understood.” It’s a
characterization that
still rings true, and remains so full of possibility for anyone who
loves
language. I’ve traveled to Ireland about a dozen times in the past
twenty
years, and hope to spend even more significant time there in future,
finding
remains of stories that might be unearthed with a trowel, and using
imagination
to turn them back into flesh and blood.
(This interview originally appeared
in Simon and Schuster's Inner Sanctum newsletter - Spring 2003 issue.)
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