Author Crush Friday: Heidi Heilig
Glitter girls, you have pressing questions for your favorite authors and we have their answers. Welcome to our weekly segment, Author Crush Fridays.
We love asking questions and we love the answers from some of our favorite authors. Today we’re talking to Heidi Heilig, author of The Girl From Everywhere (February 6, 2016; HarperCollins). Thank you for talking to us today, Heidi! We’re honored!
GLITTER: For those who haven’t read your work yet, how would you describe your writing style?
HEIDI: Someone once described my writing as “intricate and unsentimental,” and I hope I live up to it. I enjoy creating complex stories woven of many threads. Sometimes I create what I think of as a Gordion Plot (pardon the word play) but I promise I unravel things by the end!
GLITTER: What is the main plot of The Girl From Everywhere?
HEIDI: The book follows Nix, who has lived all her life aboard her father’s time traveling pirate ship. She’s sailed to far-flung corners of the globe, using old maps to journey to places out of myth and history. Along the way, they’ve picked up items and crew from these legendary places–including a handsome Persian thief named Kashmir. But when Nix’s father gets word of the one map he’s always wanted–a map of Honolulu, 1868, where Nix’s mother died in childbirth–he might sacrifice anything to get it, including Nix’s existence. Torn between searching for the map that could save her mother’s life and fighting for her own, Nix is pulled into a plot against the Hawaiian monarchy involving sugar barons, opium dealers, and piracy–all while trying to figure out her feelings for Kashmir and to hammer out a truce with her difficult and driven father.
GLITTER: What one message would you like readers to walk away with when they’re done reading The Girl From Everywhere?
HEIDI: Our most difficult choices–and even our regrets–may always be a part of us, but we can find love and happiness anyway.
GLITTER: What book of yours do you hope to see on either TV or as a movie and why?
HEIDI: THE GIRL FROM EVERYWHERE would make an amazing movie! The settings–old Hawaii, modern New York, and a time traveling pirate ship–are all so cinematic. And I, for one, love seeing people on screen that look like me and my friends, and the story is full of great starring roles for actors of color.
GLITTER: We also know that you love to travel. Has that inspired your writing in any way and what has been your favorite location that you’ve traveled to so far?
HEIDI: My travels certainly inspire my writing, although it was the one trip I turned down that actually inspired me to write a book where the main character lives aboard a ship! My brother in law captained a yacht for many years, and one summer they were short handed so he invited me to crew for the Atlantic crossing. I had a full time job so I turned it down–I’ve regretted it ever since!
But my favorite place I’ve been was actually in Morocco–a little town called Chef Chaouen, where the houses in the old city are all painted in shades of ocean blue. Second-best was when we left Africa for Spain and took the ferry across the Mediterranean. Dolphins followed us north, and the sun was so bright you couldn’t look directly at the reflection on the water.
GLITTER: Who inspires you?
HEIDI: It may be a standard answer, but my mother does, every day. She’s been a famous artist, a State House Representative, a musical theatre writer, and a good parent. She also fights for what she thinks is right; when I was a kid, the mayor of Honolulu was evicting a bunch of families from a local park, so she invited them to stay on our lawn while she publically shamed the mayor in all the local media until he relented. It was a formative time for me, and I like to think I got my spirit from her.
GLITTER: What is one thing fans might not know about you?
HEIDI: I fell in love at first sight when I was 14 years old. I ended up married to the boy, and we’re still together. Sometimes young love is a passing phase–but sometimes it isn’t. Either way, don’t let people invalidate any of your feelings just because you’re young.
GLITTER: What one piece of advice could you give any teen going through difficult times now?
HEIDI: You’re not weird and you’re not alone. There are other people in the world like you, who will like you for who you are. It may take time to find them, but don’t give up along the journey.
GLITTER: What are you currently working on?
HEIDI: I’m working on final edits for book two in the series. I’m also outlining a new series (this one set on land, thank goodness–I’m running dry on sea stories). It’s kind of fun to have three different projects all in such different stages of completion!
Photo Credit: Adrian Buckmaster
ABOUT HEIDI HEILIG: Heidi grew up in Hawaii where she rode horses and raised peacocks, and then she moved to New York City and grew up even more, as one tends to do. Her favorite thing, outside of writing, is travel, and she has haggled for rugs in Morocco, hiked the trails of the Ko’olau Valley, and huddled in a tent in Africa while lions roared in the dark.
She holds an MFA from New York University in Musical Theatre Writing, of all things, and she’s written books and lyrics for shows including The Time Travelers Convention, Under Construction, and The Hole. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their pet snake. They do not own a cat.
WHERE TO FIND HER:
Editorial Director | Writer | Tweet me @heatherriccio
