Blueland follows a man, his family, and fellow soldiers after the Civil War as they make their way to Colorado, searching for a chance to build something lasting away from the casualties of war. What aspects of the traditional Western did you most want to embrace, challenge, or reinterpret?

I wanted to embrace the Western’s themes of freedom and the cost of survival in order to achieve that freedom. I also wanted to challenge the notion that the West was simply an open frontier waiting to be conquered. I was more interested in the complicated cost of starting over.

What interested you about exploring soldiers who survive a war but continue carrying its effects into civilian life, and why were Alden’s friendships with Eugene, Jesse, and Charlie so important to the emotional foundation of the novel?

I was interested in how war doesn’t necessarily end when the fighting stops. Memories of war, good (if there is such a thing), and bad, become stitched to the hearts and minds of the people who fought, as though a shadow. Alden’s friendships with Eugene, Jesse, and Charlie reflect those memories and shadows, forging a brotherhood among them because each understood what the others have been through. They don’t have to explain their actions to one another. Each man’s actions is inherently understood and accepted by the others. It’s the understanding and acceptance that help them navigate the transition back to civilian life. Their relationships also show how differently people carry the same experience.

The characters often have to make decisions in places where formal law is weak or absent. What interested you about exploring morality under those circumstances?

I wanted to explore what people do when there’s no clear authority to tell them what is right. In those situations, morality becomes personal, and choices have real consequences. The characters have to decide what kind of people they want to be.

What does the novel suggest about what one generation passes down beyond land or wealth, and what do you hope readers understand differently about the idea of “settling” the American West?

The novel suggests that generations pass down more than property—they pass down memories, wounds, values, and ideas about what it means to belong somewhere. I hope readers see “settling” the West as a complicated human process, rather than a simple story of opportunity and progress.

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