Goodreads asked Katy Cage:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Katy Cage I'm currently working on The Foul and the Fair, the idea for which actually came to me in the middle of English class during my senior year of high school. We'd been reading Canterbury Tales—more specifically, The Wife of Bath's Tale. Ellesmere—the land where my story takes place—was named after the Ellesmere Manuscript. Chaucer's tale gave me the idea of a really ugly witch falling in love with a devilish rogue. I also incorporated elements of Macbeth (which offered inspiration for the book's title), and I borrowed some of the stereotypical concepts of witches from The Wizard of Oz (green skin, hooked nose, pointy hat).

You could say that this book is very much a conglomeration of other things—Canterbury, Macbeth, Oz, various European fairytales and mythology. I've just added my own spin to it.

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