Staff – Get to Know Erik

What’s your favorite genre of book and/or movie?

I adore speculative fiction: sci-fi, fantasy, alternate history — if it’s a little weird, I’ll probably love it.

What hobby would you get into if time and money weren’t an issue?

Welding/metal sculpture. I have a dream of being the Dean, the junkyard owner from 1999’s The Iron Giant.

What are you interested in that some people may not have heard of?

The Voynich manuscript and other inscrutable ephemera. Weird weather throughout history (the Little Ice Age, the Year without a Summer). The failure of the rigid airships.  

What form of transportation do you prefer? (air, boat, train, bus, car, etc.)

Choo-choo! 

Where is the most interesting place you’ve been?

Edinburgh during the Festival Fringe – plays and other performances happen in every place that could possibly hold an audience, all set among the broody moors and the backdrop of a medieval castle and Roman ruins.

What fictional place would you most like to go?

Hogsmeade, to sit in The Three Broomsticks on a snowy day and have a butterbeer.

What book impacted you the most?

Ben Jeapes’ His Majesty’s Starship (UK) / The Ark (US). Raised on Star Wars, this book took me by complete surprise, with its realistic space combat and its thoughtful, fully-realized aliens. Hyper-political and technically complex, I have no idea how this ended up in my 4th grade classroom, but I’m so glad it did.