Literary Road Trip: Author Dia Calhoun

Michelle at GalleySmith is hosting the Literary Road Trip:

The Literary Road Trip is a project in which bloggers are volunteering to showcase local authors. This showcase can be anything you want to make of it – book reviews, author interviews, giveaways – as long as you’re working with an author local to you.

Dia Calhoun was raised in Seattle, Washington. She studied ballet for many years, and graduated with a double major in English and Book Arts. On top of being an award-winning author (Winner of the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature), she has had a highly successful career as a freelance lettering and logo artist. You know the “Alaska” on the Alaska Airlines’ planes? That is Ms. Calhoun’s work. Ms. Calhoun is also one of the founders of Readergirlz web site. She currently lives in Tacoma, Washington.

Firegold : One morning, while Jonathon Brae is fishing by the river, he spots a girl who looks different from anyone he has ever seen in the Valley. She carries a bow and arrows, has golden stripes in her red hair, and strangest of all, has blue eyes. When Jonathon realizes she is a Dalriada–one of the barbaric mountain people who have magnificent horses, mystical powers, and horns growing out of their heads–he runs away.

Yet Jonathon is also different from the brown-eyed Valley folk. They say he will go insane when he turns fourteen because he, too, has blue eyes. His parents, especially his father who is obsessed with finding the legendary Firegold apples, constantly evade his questions about his impending insanity. Jonathon even begins to wonder if Brian Brae really is his father. He also wonders if the blue-eyed Dalriada girl will go insane–or can the Dalriadas use their magical powers to prevent it? Could the Dalriadas help him? But he fears them as much as he fears his future. When Jonathon is blamed for the blight destroying the Valley orchards, he escapes to the Red Mountains and searches for answers.

Once there, he finds the Dalriadas who, facing extinction, believe that Jonathon has been sent to help them. But in order to stay with the Dalriadas and become an adult, Jonathon must survive the most dangerous test of his life. Only be completing the Ridgewalk can Jonathon discover his true identity and find the courage and the means to save his family, the Valley folk, and the Dalriadas.

White Midnight: Rose Chandler, a fifteen-year-old bondgirl who lives on Greengarden Orchard (in Jonathon’s time called Greengard), fears everything: the dark, the moon, other people, and the Dalriadas from the Red Mountains who are at war with the Valley folk. But Rose especially fears the Thing locked in the attic of the Bighouse, home of Mr. Brae, the master of Greengarden.

Rose loves Greengarden and dreams of saving it from Mr. Brae’s neglect. That love gives her the courage to confront her fears one by one, until at last she comes face-to-face with the Thing in the attic. There, when Rose lights a candle in the dark, a nightmare beyond her worst imagining comes true, and she learns Mr. Brae has betrayed her. Then the Thing–and the intensifying war–present Rose with a terrible dilemma. Will she have to give up the land she loves in order to save it?

Dia Calhoun’s compelling, sometimes mystical story of Rose’s journey from girl to young woman is a mesmerizing prequel to the acclaimed fantasy adventure Firegold.

For more information on her writing and an in-depth bio, visit Dia Calhoun‘s web site.

I was fortunate to be able to interview Ms. Calhoun via e-mail:

I read in your bio that great children’s literature had a huge part in your journey to becoming a writer. Do you still read children’s fiction? And, if so, can you tell us some of your favorites from recent years?

Dia: “Oh yes, I primarily read children’s and YA literature, as this is my field of interest. Some of my favorites are Hattie Big Sky (Kirby Larson), The First Part Last (Angela Johnson), North of Beautiful (Justina Chen Headley), and On Pointe (Lorie Ann Grover). I also read fantasy, being a fantasy author. Recent favorites are The Bell at Sealey Head (Patricia A. McKillip) and Cybele’s Secret (Juliet Marillier).”

You also said that you have two ghost cats. Can you explain?

Dia: “My two ghost cats are the spirits of two beloved cats who lived with me for eighteen years. They are lively little spirits who are with me always.”

For those of us who haven’t read any of your work before, what’s the best book to start with – the “essential Calhoun,” so to speak?

Dia: Hah! The essential Calhoun, that’s funny! I would say my best book, certainly the one I am most proud of having written, is White Midnight. I just love Rose, my heroine. That book was a gift from beginning to end. I wrote the rough draft in six weeks, which for me is lightning fast. But if you are going to read White Midnight, you should probably read Firegold first, as they are companion novels set in the same world.”

Which writers have had the biggest impact on your life and your writing?

Dia: “Ursula LeGuin and Tolkien have my absolute highest adoration, for the beauty of their prose, the mastery of their storytelling, and the breadth of their vision. If I were flying away to colonize Mars, and could take only one book, it would be The Lord of the Rings. I reread it every two years or so.”

What is the best book you’ve read this year so far?

Dia: “Oh, that’s an easy one! Definitely Cybele’s Secret by Juliet Marillier. It has everything–fantasy, romance, adventure–and all beautifully written. I wish I’d written it!”

If you could recommend one book that everyone should read, what would it be?

Dia: “I don’t believe “should” and “reading” go together. I think people should read for pleasure and enjoyment. One of the books I have enjoyed most in my life, and have read over and over again until it is Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword. When I read the same book over and over again it is because it provides some sort of essential satisfaction and even comfort. I would very much like to do that for my own readers with my work.”

Thank you so much to Dia Calhoun for the interview. To visit other blogs participating in the Literary Road Trip, click on over to GalleySmith.