I interviewed Erin Dealey shortly after she returned home from Sugarloaf Fine Arts Camp, where she heads the Theater Dept., teaches Drama, Playwriting, and Creative Writing, and is known by an honorific: Drama Mama. “Camp was so fantastic, but it always is,” Erin says of the most recent year, her 39^th at Sugarloaf. “When you surround yourself with amazing creatives and the wonderful, talented kids of El Dorado County, it’s always magical. Sugarloaf is a unique and treasured part of our summer and I’m really honored to be part of it.”

Before Erin became a beloved children’s book author, playwright, and educator, she was a college student majoring in Math with a love for theater, art, and language, but no expectation of a career in the arts. “None of it was planned,” Erin recalls. “I’ve noticed that something happens—the arts just keep finding you, no matter what you think you’re supposed to be doing, and that has been the case all along for me.”

Erin ended up graduating as an English major and Art minor and soon became an English teacher. At her first school, she was asked if she would consider teaching theater as well. “I said, ‘Sure! How hard can it be?’” Erin laughs. “Well, I started taking classes because I realized that maybe it can be hard.” Those classes—at places like the Ashland Shakespeare Festival in Oregon and Oxford University in England—gave her the tools to help her students “find their creative selves and find their voices,” as she has been doing ever since.

As an author with over 20 published children’s books, Erin’s inspiration comes, first and foremost, from a sense of fun. “I’m fully aware that I’m probably an eight-year-old at heart, or maybe a ten-year-old,” she explains. “If I read something and I’m bored, then I know that kids are going to be bored, too.” When she’s working on a new book, her process starts with pencil and paper. “I’m very visual. I approach writing as a language art—I just play with words instead of clay.” As she revises—which she estimates is about 80% of her writing process—she still works visually, taking a pen to her drafts and covering them with circles and arrows. “It ends up looking like some kind of crazy map,” she says. Finally, the book goes out into the world with the help of a community—through feedback from her writing group, in collaboration with an illustrator, with readings and author talks for children at schools and bookstores.

Erin also writes plays, including a series of one-acts distributed by Uproar Theatrics, a company started by several Sugarloaf alumni. “When you write a play, it’s very similar to writing a picture book, but instead of an illustrator creating the visuals, it’s the theater group. You get to see all of these different variations of the world that you gave them the words to. It’s really fun.” Her theatrical works have become a hit with high schools, providing the material for award-winning performances everywhere from Sacramento’s Lenaea Festival to provinces in Canada; she is also working directly with local high school theater programs on upcoming productions.

Reflecting on her work, “the theme that keeps coming up is kindness and community,” Erin says. “I think my message is for us to make art, whatever that means to you, and share it with one another. That’s how this community will continue to grow.” It’s a theme not just in her life, but in her art. In her most recent children’s book, “Just Flowers” (Sleeping Bear Press, illus. Kate Cosgrove, 2024), a “budding botanist” named Izzy helps the community “blossom with kindness”. At Sugarloaf, as a teacher in local schools, and as an author and playwright, Erin continues to help inspire generations of kids like Izzy—and helps our community grow kinder and more creative in turn.

Erin’s upcoming children’s book, “Squirrel Draws Big Feelings” (Beaming Books, 2026), will hit shelves in April. More information—and a weekly KidLit blog—can be found at www.ErinDealey.com