“Echo Park is this magical world and I wanted people to get lost in it.”
That’s what author and Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum Amber Benson told me about her new book, The Witches of Echo Park, while signing at Midtown Comics in downtown New York. My life’s scenery has been predominantly New Jersey and its malls, exits, pork rolls, and diners, so I felt compelled to learn a little about the still-foreign land that is southern California, never mind that I have been to Comic-Con.
The first installment of a planned series, Echo Park follows 20-something Lyse who returns home to Los Angeles to be with her terminally ill great-aunt Eleanora, the woman who raised her. With her time running out and a looming threat rising, Eleanora brings Lyse into her underground world of magic and sorcery and bestows her leadership of her coven. It’s a total 180 from her comfortable new life in Georgia for sure.
When I first heard of Witches of Echo Park I was kind of unimpressed. It reeked of tween fantasy for a more experienced crowd, targeted to women who grew up reading Harry Potter and are now post-grad/in grad school living on their own. Books are art and art is for everyone, target demos be damned, but I just didn’t think I could relate to it. Still, I kept an open mind as I opened the attached excerpt in my email.
An hour later, I’m frantically hitting the right key refusing to acknowledge I just finished the last page.
Accompanied by my best friend and some new pals I met on line (all of them Buffy fanatics), I sat down with Amber Benson herself, who told me she had a great time doing the Geekscape podcast a few days before. You remember that, don’t you?
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The Witches of Echo Park isn’t your first book, but what inspired your venture into writing? Did you maybe write something as a kid that started those gears turning in your head?
Amber: I wrote a lot of really bad poetry as a kid. We’re talking like, “the flower is dead, just like you and me someday,” just ridiculous, gothic, bad bad poetry. But I was reader. I was a book whore. Even now, I read constantly. Even at 38, I’m still a book whore! But that is what inspired me to write, I would get lost in books. They were magic to me. To sit down and read a book and travel to a new world and meet these characters and feel connected to them just saved me in my childhood and adolescence. That is why I wanted to write, because I wanted to do that for somebody else.
Mind if I ask what your favorite book of all time is?
Amber: Oh my gosh, my favorite book of all time? That’s really not fair!
It’s a hard question.
Amber: That’s a really hard question. I’m a big Dostoyevsky fan. Probably The Idiot by Dostoyevsky is my favorite book of all time. It’s my go-to favorite. I know it’s random, weird thing. [laughs]
What specifically inspired specifically Witches of Echo Park? How did you come to blend fantasy with southern California? And why Echo Park?
Amber: Echo Park is my hood. And I spent a lot of time wandering around. I like to take long, hike-y walks. Hike-y walks. Is that a real thing? A hike-y walk?
I think so. You’ve written enough to invent stuff now.
Amber: [laughs] There’s something just really magical about that neighborhood. You walk down Sunset Boulevard and there’s really hipster coffee shops and sort of nestled in between them are these botánicas where you can walk in and get spells. I’m not kidding you, real spells and saint’s candles, and Aqua Net hairspray, which I never quite understood why that was there.
I remember, you wrote that in the book.
Amber: Mmm mm. And then you walk up and down these stair streets. They’re stairs that have street names, and houses that you can only access via these stairs. There’s no way you can get to them via car. You have to go up the stairs to get through to these adorable little bungalos with magic fairy lights. There’s just something super magical about that place. If you go to the top of Echo Park Avenue there’s this swing. It’s just an empty field, a tree, and a swing hanging from the tree, and it’s like, “This is where memories go.” And it looks out all over Water Village and Glendale and it’s just absolutely gorgeous and magical. And that’s my hood! I wanted other people to know how beautiful and wonderful it is.
How much of the book can you describe as autobiographical? Aside from the obvious witches and fantasy elements, of course.
Amber [laughs] That’s the real stuff! I am magic! Just so you know, Eric.
So this is a memoir?
Amber: This is a memoir. I am magic. I do magic. I give magic. [laughs]
How much is autobiographical in the sense of how much of you is in Lyse or Eleanora?
Amber: It’s so funny. I didn’t realize how much of me was in the book until I was with my therapist. [laughs] And we were talking about it, and she was like, “So basically you’re telling me this is like, a lot of this is your…” and I was like, “Oh, my, God.” I wouldn’t say that I’m Lyse or Eleanora or any of the characters specifically, there are pieces of me in all of them. And a lot of the characters, pieces of them are based on people who lived in my neighborhood. My group of ladies. Not that any of them are them, wholly, but I stole pieces and put them in the characters.
But a lot of the stuff with Eleanora and Lyse and the coming-home aspect, of accepting your fate and figuring out who you are and owning that, that’s a big part of who I am and what I’m trying to do with my life. I see it in the other series, like the Calliope Reaper-Jones books, but there’s a part of me that has to learn to own that I am who I am and I don’t need to hide my light under a bushel, or be uber-humble so people like me or be freaked out by some of the stuff that I do. You have to own who you are. Just because I’m doing this awesome stuff and I’m happy in my life doesn’t mean I don’t want other people to be happy. There’s room in our lives for all of our lives to shine. Me just owning who I am inspires other people to go, “You know what, I’m awesome, and what I’m doing is really cool and I want other people to be a part of that.”
It’s tough being a woman. You’re taught that you’re supposed to be humble and not own who you are. You’re supposed to just be meek. And I don’t want to be that way. I want to go, “You know what? I’m fucking lucky to do what I do, I get to write what I want and I got to be on this amazing show, and I’m just gonna own it.”
You certainly have people who love you for that.
Amber: That was just a meandering way of saying these books are just ripped from my home life, apparently. [laughs]
Lyse is about to have some massive responsibilities dropped on her shoulders. What kind of journey are we about to embark with her? How will she, as a 21st century post-college grad, accept that she is supposed to lead a coven of witches?
Amber: [laughs] There’s a big, over-arching plot line that will play out more in the next couple of books. It sort of involves covens all over the world and this sort of corporate, sort-of religious group called The Flood, basically trying to bring about the end of days. They want to wipe the slate clean, they don’t like the magic and things happening.
Hence “the flood.” Very ominous.
Amber: Yeah. So Lyse is going to play a very big part in that. It just goes beyond a coven, it becomes fighting this sort of corporatized vision of religion trying to decimate the world.
The title is Witches of Echo Park, but how far will Lyse’s journey take her? Will we be seeing ethereal planes, spiritual worlds, or will it all be in Echo Park?
Amber: We’re going to be on the Earth. [laughs] But we are going to be bigger than Echo Park. We’re not going to be going to Middle Earth or anything like that.
You’ve built new mythologies several times, be it Calliope-Reaper Jones or Ghosts of Albion. These are entire worlds and you’re the architect. How do you maintain order in the chaotic creative headspace?
Amber: I walk softly and carry a big stick, as Teddy Roosevelt used to say. [laughs] I keep document files of all the information. I hopefully keep things. I have a great editor who is on top of it and copy editors that make sure I’m doing what I need to be doing and not making gross misjudgments with plot and structure. So, I have a team that help me keep it in order.
A little about Buffy if you don’t mind.
Amber: Sure!
You played a pop culture icon in Tara. You brought a face to LGBTQ youth to the world stage. Even today the struggle for equality continues. How do you feel about being this kind of iconic figure for almost a whole generation?
Amber: I feel like Alyson and I were both really lucky to play these characters and got to bring this relationship to life. I’m not a religious person, but the word “blessed” comes to mind. We opened the door, you know? Not just us, it was a group effort, there were a lot of people working to make this happen, but there needed to be representation in pop culture. The LGBTQ community needed to be represented. Those characters needed to be three-dimensional, real characters. And I think, we, and Joss, opened the door. Or kicked it in a little bit, actually. And I’m so honored we got to do that. I feel very blessed to walk in their shoes.
You’ve also built an audience with modern fantasy. After Echo Park, what other genres are you seeking to explore? For example, would you perhaps pen a sci-fi story?
Amber: I would love to write sci-fi. I’m a big hard sci-fi fan. I’m a big Neal Stephenson fan. I would love to write something of that milieu, that would be amazing.
What is Witches of Echo Park ultimately about, and what is it about to you? What is it about Lyse and her journey that you want to tell the world?
Amber: It’s a prodigal child story, about coming home and owning who you are and accepting that we’re all special. Not trying to hide it, not trying to be humble about it, but saying, “I am special because I am human, because I am here, and I am willing to be open to this world.” And that is Lyse’s journey, to be open to this magical world and willing to become the better version of herself.
Thank you so much. I hope New York treated you well.
Amber: New York is awesome, always.
The Witches of Echo Park is available now. You can keep up with Amber Benson on Twitter, and listen to her on the Geekscape podcast talking with our fearless leader Jonathan London.