The Legend of Leanna Page follows a servant’s daughter with dream-born powers as she challenges kings, kingdoms, and ancient hatred in a fairy-touched world where magic, grief, and prejudice threaten peace. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

This one kind of hit me out of nowhere. I was reading this 19^th century novel, and in it the author briefly alludes to this even older story, and I didn’t know what he was referring to. I tried to just context-clue it to keep reading, and in a matter of milliseconds I had this whole legend in my head, and I wasn’t sure whether I remembered it or made it up. When I realized it was mine to write if I pleased, I started thinking about the metaphors within the environment of the legend, and I decided it was particularly important in these times to write something that highlighted the absurdity of all kinds of borders and the power people can have to cross them.

Leanna’s bravery is rooted in tenderness as much as defiance. How did you develop her moral center?

I read a lot of philosophy books! I do a lot of work personally on being the morally strongest person I can be, and a lot of that work has been through a study – both academic and independent – of philosophy, psychology, and spirituality. All those studies very directly influence my characters’ behaviors. That balance of tenderness and defiance you mention is particularly missing in the world right now. People tend to lean too far toward one or the other, both to their own detriment and to that of those around them. I know that living up to our own moral codes can be hard work, and I wanted Leanna to embody that constant effort to do the right thing, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

I wanted to explore the question of whether something with a wicked history can one day bring larger goodness. Humanity has done plenty to earn the name wicked. After billions of years of natural harmony, we come along and literally start destroying the earth, not to mention the atrocities we’ve done and continue to inflict on each other. But, through her story, Leanna learns that for something (or someone) to be good, someone else first has to believe they can be so. Can we do that for each other? Can we believe in humanity’s ability to bring about large-scale long-term goodness? If we can start with believing that, then I think we’d really have a chance at proving ourselves right.

How did you approach writing the bond between Leanna and Kennedy, especially within the larger political conflict?

It was vital to me that they brought each other joy. Because they grow up together, there’s a childlike playfulness they share that sustains them even when things get complicated. The very things we’re taught to fret over as adults can look very simple to children, and most often that simplicity is more truthful than any fretted over conclusion. When they’re older, both Leanna and Kennedy become an anchor for the other, and when one starts to fret, losing faith in her own goodness, the other believes in that goodness twice as hard. This relationship more than any other is what teaches Leanna the power of believing in someone. If Kennedy hadn’t done that for her, she might have had a very different path.

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