Author Spotlight: Heidi Heilig & Her Favorite Myth

Hello there!

Today I have the amazing debut author Heidi Heilig here. Her book "The Girl from Everywhere" was one of my most anticipated books of this year, and though I still haven't read it, I've heard nothing but great things about it.

Heidi was kind enough to tell us her favorite myth.

Are you ready? Check it out!

The Author

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, whose wings will likely grow in any day now.
 Follow her: Website/ GoodReads/ Twitter

Heidi's Favorite Myth

My favorite myth is the epic of Gilgamesh, which is an ancient Sumerian poem that is often thought of as the earliest piece of great literature. 

When I was a kid, my father read me all sorts of myths and legends, and when he picked up the Gilgamesh, I was shocked that the introduction was longer than the actual story! 

 Now that I'm older, I appreciate all those extra pieces of information about old legends, and try to work them into the stories I tell myself. 

Her Book

 The Girl From Everywhere

GoodReads/ Amazon/ B&N/ TBD

 

Nix has spent her entire life aboard her father’s ship, sailing across the centuries, across the world, across myth and imagination.

As long as her father has a map for it, he can sail to any time, any place, real or imagined: nineteenth-century China, the land from One Thousand and One Nights, a mythic version of Africa. Along the way they have found crewmates and friends, and even a disarming thief who could come to mean much more to Nix.

But the end to it all looms closer every day.

Her father is obsessed with obtaining the one map, 1868 Honolulu, that could take him back to his lost love, Nix’s mother. Even though getting it—and going there—could erase Nix’s very existence.

For the first time, Nix is entering unknown waters.

She could find herself, find her family, find her own fantastical ability, her own epic love.

Or she could disappear.