Erin Bow

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Bri
1,899 books | 548 friends

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Erica
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Steph |...
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Erin Bow

Goodreads Author


Born
in Des Moines, Iowa, The United States
Website

Twitter

Genre

Influences
Ursula LeGuin, Rosemary Sutcliff, J.R.R. Tolkien, Emma Bull, Connie Wi ...more

Member Since
March 2010


TEN THINGS ABOUT ME:

1. I'm a physicist turned poet turned YA novelist.
2. I am world-famous in Canada, which is kind of like being world-famous in real life.
3. I write books for young readers and people like me who didn't grow up. All my books will either will make you either cry on the bus or snort milk out your nose. I am dangerous to your dignity and should be stopped.
4. I needed WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS to have a happy ending, so I wrote a middle-grade book called STAND ON THE SKY
5. I needed a book with a Spock-like hero who was also a queer girl, so I wrote THE SCORPION RULES, and its sequel THE SWAN RIDERS.
6. I think cats can actually talk, but don't find us worthy, hence PLAIN KATE.
7. I hate horror, so I wrote a horror: SORROW'S K
...more

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Popular Answered Questions

Erin Bow Yes! I'm putting finishing touches on a companion book right now.…moreYes! I'm putting finishing touches on a companion book right now.(less)
Erin Bow I'm not great at English-teacher kind of labels, but I am interested in villains who have actual human motivations. Real people don't set out (for exa…moreI'm not great at English-teacher kind of labels, but I am interested in villains who have actual human motivations. Real people don't set out (for example) to destroy a city just for kicks and mustache wax. They have reasons. They are wrong, of course, but they still have reasons.

It's more interesting to me as a writer and reader if the villain's reasons are ones I can relate to. I am not drawn at all to villains like Sauron or Voldemort, who simply want power, or immortality, or to watch the world burn. I like instead villains who can be cast as heroes who have gone wrong.

And so I like Linay. He is motivated by grief, love, and a desire to save his sister, with perhaps a side-helping of madness and revenge. Kate, who also feels grief, love, and the longing for family, connects to that in him. She also thinks he is terrifying and needs to be stopped. What interests me is that those two things are not a contradiction.

(And don't get me started on Talis.) (less)
Average rating: 3.77 · 20,640 ratings · 4,190 reviews · 10 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Scorpion Rules (Prisone...

3.38 avg rating — 6,890 ratings — published 2015 — 30 editions
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Plain Kate

3.76 avg rating — 6,128 ratings — published 2010 — 25 editions
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Simon Sort of Says

4.31 avg rating — 4,455 ratings — published 2023 — 8 editions
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The Swan Riders (Prisoners ...

3.79 avg rating — 1,418 ratings — published 2016 — 4 editions
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Sorrow's Knot

3.77 avg rating — 1,256 ratings — published 2013 — 7 editions
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Stand on the Sky

4.31 avg rating — 487 ratings — published 2019 — 10 editions
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Prisoners of Peace

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings
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The Scorpion Rules; Warrior...

liked it 3.00 avg rating — 2 ratings
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Myth Makers: Retrospective ...

by
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2019
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Myth Makers: Retrospective ...

by
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2019
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More books by Erin Bow…

Oh my oh my oh GG

Here's a round up of photos from one of the most stunning nights of my life -- the ceremony awarding the Governor General's Literary Awards. The ceremony was held at Rideau Hall -- the residence of the Canadian Head of State, the Governor General -- currently Julie Payette, an astronaut. It's an enormous stone mansion with beef eater guards and protocol officers in naval dress uniforms who walk yo Read more of this blog post »
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Published on December 15, 2019 17:53
The Scorpion Rules The Swan Riders
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Walk on Earth a S...
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Shadow Scale
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by Rachel Hartman (Goodreads Author)
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Hearing Birds Fly
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Quotes by Erin Bow  (?)
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“No writing is wasted. Did you know that sourdough from San Francisco is leavened partly by a bacteria called lactobacillus sanfrancisensis? It is native to the soil there, and does not do well elsewhere. But any kitchen can become an ecosystem. If you bake a lot, your kitchen will become a happy home to wild yeasts, and all your bread will taste better. Even a failed loaf is not wasted. Likewise, cheese makers wash the dairy floor with whey. Tomato gardeners compost with rotten tomatoes. No writing is wasted: the words you can't put in your book can wash the floor, live in the soil, lurk around in the air. They will make the next words better.”
Erin Bow

“Hope will break the heart better than any sorrow.”
Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“At night the fog was thick and full of light, and sometimes voices.”
Erin Bow, Plain Kate

Polls

Which book should the YA LGBT Books group choose for our Feb-March 2017 Book of the Month reading.

 
  34 votes 53.1%

 
  19 votes 29.7%

 
  9 votes 14.1%

 
  2 votes 3.1%

64 total votes
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Topics Mentioning This Author

“Hope will break the heart better than any sorrow.”
Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“No writing is wasted. Did you know that sourdough from San Francisco is leavened partly by a bacteria called lactobacillus sanfrancisensis? It is native to the soil there, and does not do well elsewhere. But any kitchen can become an ecosystem. If you bake a lot, your kitchen will become a happy home to wild yeasts, and all your bread will taste better. Even a failed loaf is not wasted. Likewise, cheese makers wash the dairy floor with whey. Tomato gardeners compost with rotten tomatoes. No writing is wasted: the words you can't put in your book can wash the floor, live in the soil, lurk around in the air. They will make the next words better.”
Erin Bow

“Fantasy elevates ordinary and eternal problems of young people into stories via the language of myth. It turns “No one really knows me” into “I’ve got a secret identity.” It turns “I don’t understand why other people act the way they do” into “I’m trapped in a faerie realm.” It turns “my high school must have been built over the mouth of hell” into “my high school must have been built over the mouth of hell.”

There are certain things in life that are glorious, and they are glorious for everyone. There are more that are hard, and they are hard for everyone. We like to see these things retold, but with dragons.”
Erin Bow

“Be brave. Things will find their shape.”
Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“It's true that when you read YA you rarely have to read about middle-aged men having affairs. Personally I consider that a plus.”
Erin Bow

1112 Young Adult Fiction for Adults — 10312 members — last activity 15 hours, 16 min ago
Whatever your age is, if you love reading young adult fiction, then I want to know what you are reading! Let's exchange ideas of good reads, nice idea ...more



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Skirmish Thank you for accepting my friend request :)


message 1: by April

April Hey Erin! Welcome to goodreads :-)


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