When Women Were Dragons(112)

Stories are funny things, though. We think we know what they will be when we begin, but they have minds of their own. They are so like our children in this way. I thought I was writing a short story. I wasn’t. This story very quickly informed me that it wanted to be a novel. Who was I to argue? I thought I was writing a story about rage. I wasn’t. There is certainly rage in this novel, but it is about more than that. In its heart, this is a story about memory, and trauma. It’s about the damage we do to ourselves and our community when we refuse to talk about the past. It’s about the memories that we don’t understand, and can’t put into context, until we learn more about the world. And I thought I was writing about a bunch of fire-breathing, powerful women. And while those women certainly are in this book, it isn’t about them. It’s about a world upended by trauma and shamed into silence. And that silence grows, and becomes toxic, and infects every aspect of life. Perhaps this sounds familiar to you now—times being what they are.

This book is not based on Christine Blasey Ford or her testimony, but it would not have existed without that woman’s bravery, her calm adherence to the facts, and her willingness to relive one of the worst moments of her life to help America save itself from itself. Her actions didn’t work, but they still mattered. And maybe that’s enough, in our fervent hope that the next generation gets it right.





About the Author

Kelly Barnhill lives in Minnesota with her husband and three children. She is the New York Times-bestselling author of five novels, most recently The Ogress and the Orphans. The Girl Who Drank the Moon was winner of the Newbery Medal and The Witch’s Boy was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Awards. When Women Were Dragons is her first novel for older readers.