What prompted this author to come up with her own unique version of the afterlife? What led to her writing this book? Where did the character of Erica Flynn come from? Was this an easy book for her to write?
Did you study the different beliefs there are about the afterlife? How did you come up with the mythological version of the afterlife you used?
I’ve always been interested in mythology in general, but I’m most familiar with Greek myths, so it was an easy choice. Most of what I know about mythology comes from casual reading, stories I grew up with (I even had a Greek mythology coloring book as a kid)…nothing formal. My mother, Marian Allen, is an author, too, and much of her fantasy and science fiction is influenced by Eastern philosophy and mythology, which is something I’d like to explore in the sequel to The Life and Death (but mostly the death) of Erica Flynn.
Greek mythology, allaboutgreekgod.blogspot.com
As I remember it, the way I came up with my version of the Underworld was…In the middle of an ennui-inducing rut in my life, I decided to write something entirely for fun, as escapism from the everyday world. I wanted a world where I could play around and have whatever popped into my head be possible within the rules of that world. I wanted modern characters and dialogue, I didn’t want magic, and I didn’t want real life. It clicked into place that if I killed my main character, anything would be possible afterwards. It’s the ultimate unknown: what happens after we die? Once I knew I wanted to kill a character in order to have fun in an afterlife, it became a question of how to make the afterlife a fun place to be. That’s when I came up with all the nice parts of the Underworld: not having to worry about a body or your health, time and space being flexible, reality being flexible, the joy-swap idea, etc. Greek mythology gave me a little structure to hang the pseudo-quantum-physics stuff on, but of course I didn’t stick strictly to the myths, either…the Greek Underworld wasn’t that fun, unless you were one of the elite in the Elysian Fields.
I didn’t want the afterlife to be limited to just one mythology (I didn’t want any one belief system to be “right” or “wrong” according to my book, either). That’s why I have the different cities in the Underworld for a variety of heavens, hells, and afterlife destinations. I never planned on writing a sequel while I was working on Erica Flynn, but now that I’m working on a second book, I’m glad I have that flexibility to work with! My general background knowledge of gods of the underworld and names of afterlife “places” was enough for the first book, since I was working primarily with a mythology I was familiar with…the second book has required a little more research, which I’m still chipping away at.
The character of Erica Flynn – where did she come from? Have you had a near-death experience that gave birth to her?
I’ve never had a near-death experience. I did used to have puberty-related fainting spells or mild seizures from about age 8 to age 15, and I based the description of Erica’s death at the beginning of the second chapter on the way I experienced unconsciousness during those spells.
As for Erica herself…this book actually worked backwards from the way things usually come to me. I had a rough idea of the plot–start to climax–first, and wasn’t sure who the main character should be (I’m a very character-centric writer, so this was odd for me!) Initially, Erica was going to be a male protaganist, but I thought it would be too cliche to have an apologetic husband have to prove himself to his wife through a big adventure. Why should the guys make all the mistakes and have all the fun? So, I turned the tables.
Since I already had a sense of the plot and what type of book I wanted it to be, some of Erica’s traits were born of necessity. She had to be impulsive and stubborn for everything from the initial argument in the first chapter through the later challenges of the Underworld. I chose to make her goal-oriented to the point of being oblivious at times because, as a writer, I have a hard time not delving into side plots and minor characters at every opportunity. Having a character who stayed on target helped me keep the story focused. Of course, once I started writing in her voice, she grew along with the story in ways I hadn’t necessarily planned. The story was always meant to be more adventurous and light-hearted than somber, but Erica’s sassiness and spunk just kind of took over and made the book fun to write.
Erica was an easy character to work with…her strengths and her flaws, the things that make her fun to write about and the things that get her in trouble, are so often the same traits. Her stubbornness works out for her sometimes; her sense of humor hurts people’s feelings and embarrasses her sometimes; her impulsiveness gets her in trouble, but it can also be her ticket out of trouble, too. Once the interplay of these things in her personality was established, she practically wrote herself…which is pretty appropriate to her style. Ha!
Recommended Article: The Life and Death (but mostly the death) of Erica Flynn – a Review
