Author E.M. Anderson lives in Northwest Ohio and works as an administrative assistant at a university. She has been writing for about 20 years, but her first book, “The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher,” was published only in last April. She has also had short stories published in SJ Whitby’s “Awakenings: A Cute Mutants Anthology” (March 2022) and “Dark Horses: The Magazine of Weird Fiction” (No. 4, May 2022), and Wyldblood Press’s “From the Depths: A Fantasy Anthology” (April 2023). E.M. Anderson is part of the Toledo chapter of Shut Up and Write!, along with the Northwest Ohio NaNoWriMo group and the Of Rust & Glass Creative Community. When she isn’t writing, she loves birding, gardening, painting, reading, and walking.
Which genres do you cover?
E.M. Anderson: I mostly stick to contemporary or cozy fantasy, but the manuscript I’m working on currently is a cozy mystery!
Which is the latest book you had published, and what is about?
E.M. Anderson: My debut is an adult contemporary fantasy called “The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher.” When you’re a geriatric armed with nothing but gumption and knitting needles, stopping a sorcerer from wiping out an entire dragon-fighting organization is a tall order. No one understands why 83-year-old Edna Fisher is the Chosen One, destined to save the Knights from a dragon-riding sorcerer bent on their destruction. After all, Edna has never handled a magical weapon, faced down a dragon, or cast a spell. And everyone knows the Council of Wizards always chooses a teenager—like the vengeful girl ready to snatch Edna’s destiny from under her nose. Still, Edna leaps at the chance to leave the nursing home. With her son long dead in the Knights’ service, she’s determined to save dragon-fighters like him and to ensure other mothers don’t suffer the same loss she did. But as Edna learns about the abuse in the ranks and the sorcerer’s history as a Knight, she questions if it’s really the sorcerer that needs stopping—or the Knights she’s trying to save.
At which book events can readers find you?
E.M. Anderson: I have several events coming up! On September 3 (rain date: September 10), I’ll be at the Gathering Volumes Parking Lot Party & Author Fair in Perrysburg, Ohio. And on October 14, I’ll be at Franklin Park Mall in Toledo, Ohio, for the Writers Block Book Fair. There’s also a virtual book fair I’ll be participating in in October, so watch my social media for details!
Which book event connecting you with readers is your favorite and why?
E.M. Anderson: This isn’t really for my readers because I write adult, but I’ve volunteered at the new Northwest Ohio Teen Book Festival the last couple of years (and joined the planning committee this year) and loved it! It has the usual stuff you’d expect of a book festival, like author panels and book signings. But it also has fun extras for the kids, like an escape room and the opportunity to play board games with their favorite authors. It also has really fun energy—it makes me wish I wrote for teens! (Maybe one day.) I’d encourage anyone in the Northwest Ohio/Southeast Michigan region with teenagers or tweens at home to look into it.
Do you have any specific messages to your readers and, if so, which are they?
E.M. Anderson: All my messages to my readers are messages I’m still working on internalizing myself. It’s okay not to be okay. It’s okay to ask for help. And even though it’s scary and it’s always possible you can get hurt, it’s important to be vulnerable and open to human connection.
Which writer(s) keep(s) inspiring you and why?
E.M. Anderson: SJ Whitby is absolutely crushing it on the self-pub scene—the Cute Mutants series has been blurbed by New York Times bestselling authors! Their covers are gorgeous, especially for some of their more recent spin-offs and stand-alones, and all their books deal with real issues and tough questions (for example, the first Cute Mutants book wrestles with ideas similar to Philippa Foot’s trolley problem), yet they’re ultimately hopeful and full of the importance of human connection.
Do you have specific writing habits?
E.M. Anderson: On Thursday nights, I attend write-ins at a local cafe! Otherwise, my writing habits and schedule are eclectic: since I spent my twenties working varied shifts and in and out of school, I’ve always written whenever I can find or make the time, and that hasn’t changed now that I have a nine to five. While I often write on my laptop on my couch, I sometimes move to my desktop if I need extra focus—ditto weekend visits to local coffee shops—and if I’m stuck, I switch to a pen and journal. The only consistent thing that can be said for my habits is that I am, alas, never a morning writer.
What are you currently working on?
E.M. Anderson: I’m working on a cozy mystery starring a grumpy old lighthouse keeper on the Great Lakes—the first of two books, where the first will be about found family and the second will be about romance (and both will be about murder).
Which book are you currently reading simply for entertainment?
E.M. Anderson: I just finished Sonia Hartl’s “Have a Little Faith in Me” and hope to finally dive into Al Hess’s “World Running Down.”
What advice would you give any aspiring author?
E.M. Anderson: Find your people! I’m a broken record about this, but it’s so important to find your writing community, whether in-person or online. Writing may seem—and be, in some ways—a solitary pursuit: we picture ourselves hunched over our computers in a room alone, like a particularly eloquent gremlin. But when you consider everything that actually goes into book production, from developmental edits to cover design to printing and more, it actually takes a village! And even long before you’re pursuing publication, if you’re pursuing publication, finding friends who understand the joys and struggles of writing helps keep you going when you face plot holes, writer’s block, impostor syndrome, and existential despair.
You can find E.M. Anderson’s books at Hansen House Books, at Barnes & Noble or on Amazon.
