A witch meets a mad scientist, and...

When I came up with the big idea of a book about a witch and a mad scientist, and what happens between the two of them, I was kind of thinking of it as a silly romp. The witch and the mad scientist are friends and rivals, and they’re always competing and trying to one-up each other. Maybe they could set traps for each other! Or have battles of wits, or something. I thought of it as a wild and crazy ride, in which the witch and the scientist keep coming into conflict in more and more insane ways. But this book didn’t really click for me until I started to think of it as being about a friendship, and getting into what it’s like to be friends with someone who’s unique in a different way than you are. What it’s like to feel totally alone except for this one other person who doesn’t get what you’re going through at all—except that they can kind of compare it to this equally weird thing that they, too, are going through.

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