Antieau: I've been writing for as long as I can remember. Before I could write, I drew tiny little picture books. As soon as I could write, I was writing stories. I loved stories. I loved fairy tales, myths, legends. My father read to us nearly every night, so that probably piqued my interest. And my mother really encouraged my writing. When I was just a young girl she told me to write in pen because pencil faded and people would want to one day read what I wrote. That was quite a boost to my confidence to hear that! So I wrote short stories and then when I got to high school, I wrote one book a year. I've been going strong ever since.

ETC: What is it you like about writing?

Antieau: Life seems easier and more manageable when I write. I figure out things about people and the world when I write, and that's a good thing because people are often such a mystery to me. I'm always searching for community, and I feel as though the characters in my books are part of my community. I like the people I meet in my stories. I like people who aren't like everyone else--they don't follow the crowd. I think we need more people like that in this world: People who are willing to be full of themselves.

One of the problems today is that we don't have authentic communities in many places. We don't have ceremonies and rituals to carry us from one stage of our lives to another. We don't have the wisdom of our elders. We don't have the wisdom of the land because we're so disconnected from nature. Children need mentors and wise elders. With that and the connection to place, we grow into our authentic selves: We are full of our true selves. I grow communities in my novels, so perhaps my novels can be fuzzy templates on how to make community. The families in my novels are seldom Mom, Pop, and children all living happily in a family unit. (There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but a lot of people don't have those kinds of families.) My families are often people who aren't necessarily related coming together to create a home.

ETC: You wrote for adults for a long time, but your last three books have been for teens. What made you start writing for a younger audience?

Antieau: I didn't plan it. I don't really think of the age of my audience when I write. At least I didn't when I wrote Mercy, Unbound. Then I was on the coast and this young woman who had come into my imagination several times before began telling me her story. She was 15 years old. When the story was finished, it was shorter than my other novels by about half. I gave it to my agent and he sold it as a teen novel. Then I wrote Broken Moon and then Ruby's Imagine.
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