And the choices you make as your player character affect how the story is going to unfold, affects what's going to happen. And the thing that captured my imagination and the sort of games that I was playing were these big role playing games where they're very choice driven. I think they're doing really interesting things with narrative. “I think some of the most interesting storytelling I've experienced in the last few years has been a video game. On how the book is influenced by video games But I wanted to figure out what the mysteries were behind it and what the story behind the space was.” “It's this library-esque space filled with books that sort of felt like it was a labyrinthine kind of tunneled space where you couldn't really see where each of the hallways went and maybe you could see a cat peeking around a corner. I'm always a little averse to calling it a library because it doesn't really have librarians. And so I had this space that felt sort of like an underground library. I had this place in my head, and the writing process for me involves a lot of exploring this imaginary space and trying to find the story within it. “And then I started pulling in the video game influence, which really helps to kind of give it that layer of something that felt very modern and very new, layered over those classic influences.” Interview Highlights I wanted to draw on those sort of very classic fantasy, classic fairy tale inspirations, but also make it my own,” she says. “I really wanted to write something that felt old and new at the same time. The references to video games help put a modern twist on classic fantasy themes in “The Starless Sea.” The writing on the walls in this world is a reference to the video game Dungeon Crawl Classics, Morgenstern says. “I'm either blessed or cursed by having a lot of imaginary architecture that lives in my brain.” “This is a place in my head,” Morgenstern says of the book’s otherworldly setting. How did his story end up in a book? To find out, he tumbles into an underground world with stories written on flower petals and walls, and couches and pillows and lamps for reading. Then as a young man, he comes across a book that tells that story. As a child, he was tempted to open a mysterious door in a wall, but he didn’t. The story stars Zachary, a graduate student who studies video gaming but loves books. 1 bestseller, translated into 37 languages and adapted into an upcoming movie.Įight years later, Morgenstern is back with a new novel, “ The Starless Sea,” which is already on The New York Times bestseller list.

Her readers fell in love with a dream-like big top that served as the playing field for a contest between rival magicians.

(Allison Hagan/Here & Now) This article is more than 3 years old.Īuthor Erin Morgenstern made a huge splash in 2011 with her debut novel, “The Night Circus.”

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