Heidi Heilig – #TTBF Author Interview 2018

For a Muse of Fire

For a Muse of Fire

Heidi Heilig

Heidi Heilig

If you had to write a musical about your traveling adventures, what would the title character’s big song be called?

To me, the best song titles are lyrical hooks with double meanings or word play. Something like “I Always Want To Go, (But I Never Want To Leave).”

How much did you draw on your own theater background for inspiration as you were writing For a Muse of Fire?

My love for theatre is all over MUSE. It’s there in the obvious things–the way Jetta feels after a strong performance, or the heavy quality of the silence of an expectant audience as the house lights go down. But it’s also there in the format of the book: I’ve used play scenes, songs with sheet music, even a prologue in iambic pentameter to try to bring the stage to the page.

Our festival slogan is “Read Everything.” What book would you like to see on our Read Everything list for 2018?

Can I only pick one?? How about TRAIL OF LIGHTNING by Rebecca Roanhorse? It’s a gritty near future fantasy about an indigenous monster hunter and her companion, an unconventional medicine man, and I absolutely loved it.