After a lifelong obsession with books, Erica Cameron spent her college years studying psychology and creative writing, basically getting credit for reading and learning how to make stories of her own. Now, she’s the author of several series for young adults including The Ryogan Chronicles, the Assassins duology, and the upcoming Pax Novis trilogy. She’s also a reader, asexuality advocate, dance fan, choreographer, singer, lover of musical theater, movie obsessed, sucker for romance, Florida resident, and quasi-recluse who loves the beach but hates the heat, has equal passion for the art of Salvador Dali and Venetian Carnival masks, has a penchant for unique jewelry and sun/moon décor pieces, and a desire to travel the entire world on a cruise ship. Or a private yacht. You know, whatever works.
Her debut novel, Sing Sweet Nightingale, released March 2014 and it was the first volume of The Dream War Saga. In May 2015, Erica and her co-author Lani Woodland launched the Laguna Tides series with Taken by Chance. Riptide’s new YA imprint Triton Books will release both books in the Assassins series, Discord and Nemesis, in 2016. The Ryogan Chronicles, a fantasy trilogy set to launch through Entangled Teen, launched in 2017 with Island of Exiles, a Kirkus-starred, Junior Library Guild Gold Standard novel. Next up, Erica will be working on a young adult science fiction trilogy pitched as Star Trek: Voyager meets The Expanse and Battlestar Galactica; Pax Novis, book one of the Pax Archives series, released in November 2019.
Additionally, writes about asexuality and the asexual experience. Several of her articles and essays are linked from Asexuality Awareness page of the site, and she is open to writing for magazines or online publications about various aspects of asexuality, representation in literature, and other topics. To reach out, please either use the contact form on this site or connect directly via email.
For a press kit and high resolution images of Erica and her book covers, please visit the Press page of the site.
Erica is represented by Eric Smith (@ericsmithrocks) of P.S. Literary.
Erica Cameron writes series for young adults including The Ryogan Chronicles, which Kirkus starred and called a “rare gem” filled with “magic, action, and intrigue on the edge of a knife” and The Pax Archives which NYT Bestseller Jonathan Maberry described as “A head-on collision of insightful science fiction and today’s woke culture.” Erica currently lives in Florida.
Born in New York but raised in South Florida, Erica Cameron is a lifelong bookworm. From the stories her parents read to her to the novels she devoured on her own, stories were always a large part of her life. Stories—and songs, to be fair—stuck in her mind far better than almost anything else, and it should have been a big clue that books would remain an important part of her life. Throughout her childhood and teen years, though, dance and musical theater played a more prominent role. She attended performing arts programs in her area and danced competitively, but never with the kind of skill that would carry her into the professional realm.
Erica’s first attempt at creative writing was in middle school. In eighth grade language arts, a teacher gave her class an assignment: break into small groups to write and illustrate a picture book. Instead of following directions, Erica asked if she could work alone and then proceeded to write a 40-page mystery novella. Because she’s weird like that. Looking back on it now, she blames the influence of her dad’s James Patterson novels (that, yes, she was possibly too young to be reading).
It wasn’t until a few years later that she tried again, this time trying to create a fantasy world and a story to follow through it. Despite attempts, it didn’t go well. She didn’t know what she was doing and had to give up the thread partway through. The worldbuilding had been fun, but it felt at the time that she wouldn’t ever be able to finish an entire novel.
Another couple of years and it was time for college. The problem was that she didn’t have any idea what she wanted to study or do with her life. Through trial and error in her first two years of classes at FSU, slowly eliminating cultural anthropology, education, and history, she ended up double majoring in creative writing and psychology. Up until her senior year, though, Erica planned on following the psychology route. She joined a lab that took on undergraduate research assistants, worked part-time for a reading research study, attempted to develop an honors thesis (that didn’t work out so well), and became an officer of her school’s Psi Chi chapter—the psychology honor society. Senior year, she was even co-president.
It was in the middle of all this lab work and attempted thesis development that Erica realized something: she was really ready to be done with school and also pretty sure doing research for years ad infinitum would drive her crazy. Around the same time, her middle sister gave her a copy of Twilight, making her read it without telling her what it was about. The book not only reengaged her desire to read—something four years of college coursework had drained—it introduced her to a wonderful online community.
And fanfiction.
It was Twilight fanfiction that finally taught her how to complete a novel. In a few short months she finished three novel-length works and one short story. They were mostly not great, but they were finished. Both the completion of these works and the response she received from readers online encouraged her to attempt original fiction again. They also encouraged her to complete her creative writing major instead of graduating with a psychology major and an English minor.
She graduated in 2007, but it wasn’t until 2014 that her debut novel released. Sing Sweet Nightingale began The Dream War Saga, and it was followed the next year by Deadly Sweet Lies. In 2015 she also launched the first two Laguna Tides novels with her friend and co-author Lani Woodland. Discord, the first of the Assassins duology, released in 2016, and the series concluded a few months later with Nemesis.
In February 2017, Entangled published Island of Exiles, the first book of the Ryogan Chronicles. Island received a starred review from Kirkus and was a Junior Library Guild selection. The second book in the series, Sea of Strangers, is due out at the end of 2017 and the third book of the trilogy will follow.
Erica is represented by Eric Smith (@ericsmithrocks) of P.S. Literary.
Please direct all blurb requests or general subrights questions to:
Eric Smith
P.S. Literary Agency
2010 Winston Park Drive, 2nd Floor
Oakville, Ontario
L6H 6P5 Canada
Phone: 416-907-8325 (Toronto)
Phone: 212-655-9276 (New York)
eric@psliterary.com
Assassins series:
For all rights, contact:
Ethan Ellenberg
155 Suffolk Street, #2R,
New York, NY 10002
Phone: (212) 431-4554
agent@ethanellenberg.com
Ryogan Chronicles & Pax Novis series:
For print, foreign, and audio rights, contact:
Rebecca Mancini of Rights Mix
43 Linden Ave
Verona, NJ 07044
Phone: (973) 900-7876
rightsmix@gmail.com
For production/commercial rights, contact:
Eric Smith
P.S. Literary Agency
2010 Winston Park Drive, 2nd Floor
Oakville, Ontario
L6H 6P5 Canada
Phone: 416-907-8325 (Toronto)
Phone: 212-655-9276 (New York)
eric@psliterary.com