Elizabeth Knox gives me the goosebumps

I've just read (one of my NZ authorly idols) Elizabeth Knox's latest blog post about her forthcoming YA novel Mortal Fire and ZOMFG am I excited!!!  The Dream Hunter Duet books are quite possibly the best YA fiction I've ever read and I think I would actually kill to have the talent required to produce such astoundingly imaginative and beautifully written stories.  The fact that Mortal Fire is set in the same make-believe world of Southland makes me almost quiver with literary anticipation.

But the thing that leapt out at me most from the post was not the tantalising details of her new novel but the final paragraph which touches a little on the writing/creative/ideas process. 

"I don’t think writers look around for things to put into books, like everyday cooks staring at the shelves of their pantry. I’ve always loved this quote from Emily Dickinson: 'Nature is a haunted house – but Art – is a house that tries to be haunted.' Dickinson gets the sense of there being something wrongheaded in what art wants for itself. I mean, who wants to live in a haunted house? But I know this: though I don’t hold a seance and invite the ghosts, I do let them in when they appear at my doors and windows."

Oophf. That just floored me and yes, made me a little envious. The wannabe author buried (waaaaaay) deep inside me kinda wants to be just a little bit haunted like that.