Natalie asked Erika Johansen:

So excited for BENEATH THE KEEP! I love how you deal with timely themes in your books like inequality, democracy, and activism. How do you balance addressing such important topics while writing such a compelling, page-turning story?

Erika Johansen By focusing on the story. Whenever I TRY to write about big, important topics, I always fail...the work comes off way too heavy-handed and kind of gluey, like bread with too much flour. I do much better when I forget about what I WANTED to talk about and just keep my eye on the characters and what they're doing. I find that my politics bleed in more naturally that way, though I'm still frequently guilty of heavy-handedness on certain topics.

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