When most people think about the Wild West, their head is filled with images of revenge, cowboys, saloons and first-shoot gunfights However, the West can also be unbearably hot... especially, in the summer months. Erin Bowman took the heat --- and blessed the air-conditoning --- to conduct reseach for her latest novel, VENGEANCE ROAD (September 1). Learn more about the book, Erin's sweat-soaked research, and her writing playlist below!
Question: Erin, you live and are from New England. What inspired you to write this book set in the Wild West?
Erin Bowman: I was born in Connecticut, live in New Hampshire and have spent most of my life in New England. However, I've always loved the west.
I grew up reading (and re-reading) the Little House on the Prairie series and SARAH, PLAIN AND TALL. I watched spaghetti-westerns with my father. Our family took two different cross-country road-trips over my seventh- and eighth-grade summers (the perks of having teachers for parents!) and I was completely captivated by the southwest. Back then, it felt like a different world to me; the endless stretch of horizon, the oddly shaped Joshua trees, the rocky outcroppings and plateaus unlike anything back east. It's both beautiful and terrifying; not unlike a lot of the stories I knew set against this backdrop. The west held a lot of promise for Americans in the 19th century. I love the idea of people chasing a dream and trying to carve out a better life for themselves. Of course, the west was also lawless and bloody; full of racism, sexism and a lot of darkness. But these are interesting themes to me, and I've always loved writing about good (well, mostly good) people, caught in bad situations.
Q: You mention the legend of the Lost Dutchman in the back of the book. Can you tell us more about the legend and its influence on VR?
EB: The Lost Dutchman is a gold mine supposedly hidden in Arizona's Superstition Mountains. There are several versions of the legend, but most share a similar thread: a German immigrant by the name of Jacob Waltz found the mine, spent years pulling gold from it and confessed its location to his caretaker while on his deathbed, going so far as to draw her a map. She never found the mine, and while people continue to search for the mine today, it has never been found.
Kate's story is tied up in this legend. While she's aiming to avenge her father's murder, she later learns he was killed for a journal that holds maps to a rich mine in the Superstitions and ends up entangled in an outlaw's quest for gold.
Q: What kind of research was involved in the making of the book? Was most of it done on your tour through Arizona?
EB: So much research! I actually did a lot of it at home, thanks to online resources and old-fashioned books. (I own some odd texts that I never would have expected to see on my bookshelf a few years ago!)
When I traveled to Arizona, I already had the bulk of a rough draft written, and I used the trip as a way to fact-check and fill in holes. I kept a notebook with me the whole time, especially on hikes, so I could jot down sensory details that I later incorporated into the story.
Q: Do you identify with Kate, the main character? What similarities and differences do you share?
EB: Oh my goodness, I am nothing like Kate. She is so tough and brave. Honestly, my entire trip in Arizona, I just kept thinking about how tough all my characters are. It was June, the same month VENGEANCE ROAD is set, and I was five months pregnant. I spent a lot of time hiking in the desert, and I did alright, but I was always back in air-conditioning by noon, where I could avoiding the endless sun and heat. Kate travels through these elements all day. She goes after outlaws I wouldn't want to even spot on the horizon. She says exactly what she thinks, for better or worse, whereas I often bite my tongue. But I do share her love of books. ;)
Q: I hear you have a playlist on-the-go. What songs are on it?
EB: I do! I write exclusively to instrumental music (like film scores and video game soundtracks), but I like to create a playlist of singles for my books once they're finished. You can listen to VENGEANCE ROAD’s playlist here, which I think captures the mood and tone of the story.
After several years working in advertising and designing websites for various brands, she moved from Boston to New Hampshire, where she now lives with her husband and writes full-time.
When not writing, Erin can often be found hiking, geeking out over good typography, and obsessing over all things Harry Potter. She drinks a lot of coffee, buys far too many books, and is not terribly skilled at writing about herself in the third person.
