Interview: Pearl North

Swinging by today is the fabulous Pearl North, author of the Libyrinth series. The last book in the series just came out and I can't wait to dive into my copy of the first one!

Haly is a Libyrarian, one of a group of people dedicated to preserving and protecting the knowledge passed down from the Ancients and stored in the endless maze of books known as the Libyrinth. But Haly has a secret: the books speak to her.

When an attack by the hostile Eradicants drives her from her home, Haly learns that things are not at all what she thinks they are. Taken prisoner by the Eradicants, who believe the written word to be evil, she sees the world through their eyes and comes to understand that they are not the book-burning monsters that she has known her entire life.

The words of a young girl hiding in an Amsterdam attic and written hundreds of years before Haly’s birth will spark the interest of her captors and begin the change necessary to end the conflict between the Eradicants and Libyrarians. With the help of her loyal companion Nod, a creature of the Libyrinth, Haly must mend the rift between the two groups before their war for knowledge destroys them all. In doing so, Haly’s life—and the lives of everyone she knows—will never be the same.

Nicole: Pearl, you said you set out wanting to write a book about censorship and ended up writing a book about peace. Clearly your own life influenced you; did that worry you at all during the writing process?
Pearl North: Worry me? Not at all. In my opinion, good writing -- writing that makes a reader feel -- always comes from a personal place for the author. My writing is always influenced by my life, and vice versa, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

N: What would Haly's favorite book be in today's age?
PN: She tells us of a few in the series itself. Charlotte's Web and of course The Diary of Anne Frank are examples. But for one that's not mentioned in the novels I'd say Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games. Haly has first hand experience with repressive regimes and life and death situations, so I think she would really identify with Katniss.

N: What are some of YOUR favorite books?
PN: This is a tough one because there are so many. But just off the top of my head: The Temple of my Familiar by Alice Walker, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series, and Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

N: What writing advice would you recommend to budding new writers?
PN: Imagine a book that has all of your very favorite things in it, and then write it.

N: If Haly could hang out with any person, living or dead, who would it be?
PN: What an intriguing question. I went through a lot of possibilities at first: Winston Churchill, a librarian from the Library at Alexandria, President Barak Obama. Then, the correct answer became obvious: Anne Frank.

N: If you had to change one animal to be an absurd color, what animal would it be and what color would it be?
PN: Giraffe, yellow and orange paisleys.




All books in the Libyrinth series are now available! The last in the series, The Book of the Night, released just yesterday