Tell us about the origins of this book When mg older kids were smal. I read them C.S. Lewis's Naria series and absolutely fell in love witht. spent much of my own childhood reading scence fiction, mostly Isaac ‘Asimov, and had not been exposed tothe great classes of fantasy untl I was a mother What fascinated me most about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the books that followed it was how many big ideas Lewis packed into his story and how easly even my cight-year-ols understood those big ideas. What makes someone good? Whats this idea ‘we call ev? If someone makes mistakes, even sides wit evil can he or she come back from that? We had some fascinating taks about it including about whether Lewis was fair to bis female characters —Susanin particular. Reading those books got me thinking about what kind of story would tel ft wanted to set up a world fl of big ideas and hard questions. 1 decided to try and began by using my Kids’ nightly bedtime story to experiment. imagined a window opening up for them into another world, a world in which the rules are very different from what they are here. They loved the adventure and loved being the heroes ofthe stories. Those bedtime stories gave ime the beginning of Blue Window. What do your children think of Blue Window now that it has been fully written in book form? By the time | actually wrote Blue Window into a book, it was s0 many years since Td told them the stories that they had only vague recollections of them But they were excited to read the new book anyway and really loved seeing how the story had changed, grown, and turned into something much different and bigger than they remembered, They also had lots to say about the characters I'd based on them, I got some laughs of recognition and also some "Well is fantasy, anyway” reactions when they felt lke i moved away from the real people they knew. Which character was your favorite to write and why? | woul’ say had a favorite, because my favorite thing was discovering each point of ‘view and contrasting the various perspectives. Ive always loved the ida that whatever ‘we see as reality is realy very subjective and thatthe same fats wil be viewed by two Afferent people in wildy diferent ways. As a parent of five kids, that's a lesson I'm constantly having t learn and relearn, and writing tis way reminded me of how true it is on every level 0 8A with Author Adina Rishe Gewirtz. 0 Is there one central message that you hope readers wil take away from Blue Window? For me, Blue Window is full of lots of different ideas, so one thing I'd hope readers come «way with isthe idea that people and societies are complicated, Even in societies where there's real evil going on here are good people struggling to be good, and even in societies where things are generally good, there's plenty of room for evi My mother's uncle used to say, “God protect us from the things we can get used to.” And tha’s another idea | was exploring in Blue Window. People get used to things, no mater how extreme, and ‘even make up stories to make it seem that this isthe way it's always been this is the way i's meant to be. Blue Window is also about the stories we tell ourselves and how they play ‘out in the worlds we've bul Has it been, or wil it be, difficult to let a story that has been percolating in your head for so long go out into the world? Or is It a relief? les a very strange feeling, and Im not sure whether that strangeness is ificlty or relief —probably a litle of both, Most of all though, 'm anxious to see what people take from the world of Blue Window. Will hey see it the way do, oF wil they find new things in it Thadh’t even thought of atthe star? Letting a book go is a frightening process, but also a rewarding one, because one of the reasons I wanted to be a writer was to connect with ‘other people tak about ideas and stories and why people do what they do, Blue Window is about all those things, s0 Im looking forward to the conversation. Adina Rishe Gewirtz is the author of Zebra Forest, her critically acclaimed debut novel she coaches writers and spends most of her time at her frst love fetion writing. She lves just ouside Washington, D..