Creative Inspiration, Erin Gordon

As my YouTube viewing history proves, I’m fascinated by van/RV life so I knew I wanted my next novel to be about a middle-aged woman who takes a cross-country road trip.

In developing my story, I thought back to my favorite journey stories, especially The Wizard of Oz and Cheryl Strayed’s Wild. I quickly realized those two iconic stories were, essentially, the same: one is about a young girl and the other is about a young woman; they both take a road (the Yellow Brick Road and the Pacific Crest Trail, respectively) on a journey to find themselves; they both meet people along the way who help them complete their journey and find their place in the world.

PEEPS is an homage to those favorite journey stories – my version features Meg, a middle-aged woman who takes the interstate to achieve the same story goals as Dorothy and Cheryl. In fact, discerning readers will spot many name checks and symbols pulled from those beloved stories.

All of my novels feature deeper themes that I’m personally exploring at the time: Cheer is about parenthood; Heads or Tails is about friendship; and Beshert is about faith. Like me, Meg is middle-aged and sorting out what the second half of her life will be so this time the deeper theme is about identity and self-discovery.

Meg’s podcast Peeps, in which she asks everyday people the same seven questions as a way to uncover shared humanity, is the podcast I’ve always wanted to listen to. Around the time I was plotting Meg’s journey, I was also exploring whether I should start a podcast like Peeps. I realized podcasting would actually be a perfect career for Meg – she could interview people as she traveled – so I gave it to her. Including the podcast “transcripts” was a great way for me to enhance the themes of the book and to intersperse fun, short-story-like elements into the broader journey story.

When it comes to executing my vision, I’m a huge plotter – the outlines for my novels typically run about 60 pages! Although outlining the whole story enables me to know how it will end, I do allow for shifts and changes if new ideas emerge during the writing process. I also have a wonderful cadre of beta readers who provide recommendations for changes to the early drafts so sometimes I pivot then too.

Now that PEEPS is out in the world, I’m in the discovery phase for my next novel. This exploratory phase of novel-writing, in which the themes, characters and settings begin to gel, is my favorite.

About Erin:

A Bay Area native, Erin graduated from UC Berkeley and Loyola Law School. After practicing law for three years, she went back to school and got a master’s in journalism from Stanford. Erin worked for several years as a newspaper reporter covering law firms and then spent more than 20 years as a freelance legal affairs journalist, writing novels in my spare time.

Erin has written seven books (three ended up in the proverbial drawer!) and I’m at work on my next. When not writing, I enjoy knitting, going for long walks in San Francisco, doing yoga, and spending time in Lake Tahoe.

She lives in San Francisco with my husband and teenage children.

About Peeps:

A coming-of-middle-age novel, PEEPS is the story of Meg, a 51-year-old podcaster who’s spent her life afraid of “what ifs.” Single after an unexpected divorce, Meg might finally have the chance for what she calls a Big Life, but isn’t sure she can pull it off. After her mother’s death, Meg gathers the courage to seek answers about her disinterested and cruel mother from her uncle. To get to him, she moves out of her Santa Monica home and drives across the country in a new RV she nicknames Irv.

Along the way, Meg conducts interviews for her podcast Peeps, in which she asks everyday people the same seven questions to “peep” into their lives and uncover shared humanity. Meg’s narrative is peppered with lively “transcripts” of her interviews with the ordinary yet fascinating people she meets. The podcast enables Meg to process the complicated grief and relief related to her mother’s death, her divorce, and her only child leaving home for college.

PEEPS is evocative of The Wizard of Oz and Wild. Like Dorothy and Cheryl – and many middle-aged women – Meg seeks to find her place in the world. Discerning readers will enjoy spotting the subtle references and symbols from both iconic stories.

The latest novel from Erin Gordon, author of Cheer, Heads or Tails, and Beshert, PEEPS is a timely, thought-provoking twist on the theme of self-discovery.

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