E.M. Anderson: It’s OK if Your Grief Is Complicated

E.M. Anderson (she/they) is a queer, neurodivergent writer and the author of The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher. Her work has appeared in SJ Whitby’s Awakenings: A Cute Mutants Anthology, Wyldblood Press's From the Depths: A Fantasy Anthology, and Dark Horses: The Magazine of Weird Fiction. They have two master’s degrees and a feral passion for trees, birds, pole fitness, and Uncle Iroh. You can find them on Instagram, BlueSky, and Tumblr at @elizmanderson.

In this interview, E.M. discusses discusses writing a soft but gruff main character in her new cozy fantasy novel, The Keeper of Lonely Spirits, their hope for readers, and more.

Name: E.M. Anderson
Literary agent: Keir Alekseii of Azantian Literary Agency
Book title: The Keeper of Lonely Spirits
Publisher: MIRA Books
Release date: March 25, 2025
Genre/category: Cozy fantasy
Previous titles: The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher (Midnight Meadow Publishing, 2023)
Elevator pitch: An old man cursed with immortality hunts ghosts rather than making mortal friends who will die one day. When the residents of an Ohio town beset by a vengeful spirit adopt him as their own, he must decide: leave to protect his heart, or stay to save their lives?

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Virtually all my books are prompted by my need to write character arcs I still need to undergo—maybe one day I’ll actually internalize them! But more specifically, in the case of The Keeper of Lonely Spirits, I really wanted to write a book with a soft (if gruff) old man as the main character.

…and maybe I also wanted an excuse to write a book involving birding and lots of plants.

The very, very vague initial idea for The Keeper of Lonely Spirits came about pre-2020 and was very different. It originally involved a completely different main character. The actual main character of the book, the groundskeeper, was originally envisioned as this gentle person who would help that other character when she accidentally broke the world (or her town, or whatever—I was still up in the air about it at that point). So, that was a massive change, since the final book is the groundskeeper’s story instead.

After a false start in the spring of 2020, I took a break and returned to Keeper in December 2020 with research and planning. I started drafting again in February 2021. All in all, a little over four years from the real start of the project to publication.

Honestly the lack of surprises has been surprising! I was expecting a lot more culture shock working with a big press for this book after debuting with a small press—but in many ways, it’s been similar. In particular, I’ve had great editors for both books. Shawna and Dina both understand what I’m trying to do with these books and are incredible at helping me make the books do it. And the editing process is really an ongoing conversation, which I love.

I wrote the end of The Keeper of Lonely Spirits very nearly first, and it’s almost unchanged from when I first wrote it. While I do usually have an idea of how a book will end before I start writing it, this is the first time I’ve ever had such a clear idea or written the ending before writing the rest of the story.

It was especially surprising because, prior to that point, I had two and a half different endings in mind for the book … and none of them were what I ended up writing as I started my first draft.

I hope The Keeper of Lonely Spirits will be a comfort book. I hope it will remind readers that it’s OK to grieve, that it’s OK if your grief is complicated, and that it’s important to keep loving even if love inevitably brings grief in one way or another.

My go-to advice is always, always, always to find your community. Writing feels very solitary, and in some ways it is—but it doesn’t have to be. It’s important to have people to commiserate with, to celebrate with, and to whack you with rolled-up newspapers when you’re on deadline but very deeply do not want to work on your book.