Dafna Lazar asked Julia Glass:

Given that the whole part relating to Malachi Burns in this book has a fairly precise replica in "Three Junes", are these characters, Mal, Fenno, Lucinda and the bird Felicity actual characters in reality? Their story faithful to actual events?

Julia Glass What you mean, I think, is that the portrayal of these characters in "And the Dark Sacred Night" is faithful to and consistent with their portrayal in "Three Junes." I certainly hope so! In fact, since I wrote these books a decade apart, I had to reread "Three Junes" carefully to be sure I had the "facts" right the second time around. Sometimes I was surprised. For instance, I thought I'd made Malachy the oldest of three children, but he was the middle child. In some ways, that irritated me, since he seems so much like an oldest (or so I think, as an oldest myself). But I couldn't change it. And I'm terrible at even the most basic math, so making sure I had everybody's ages, etc., correctly aligned with the established past was a bit of a nightmare. An eagle-eyed production assistant at my publisher caught a small but significant error of chronology when the book was almost in print! Fortunately, I had time to fix it, and it didn't create plot problems.

Are these people "actual characters in reality"? No. Sometimes I create characters that I know are inspired by people I've met or know, but not the characters you name. I invented their lives and stories, though some details of their lives owe a debt to firsthand knowledge. Lucinda is like no one I know in real life, yet the Vermont dairy farm where she lives--and where Malachy spent his childhood--is a place I created in part from memories of visiting my grandparents' Wisconsin dairy farm, where my mother grew up. Fenno--a character who came to me almost fully formed, a true gift--is also a product of my imagination. (I sometimes joke that he's the big brother I wish I had.) Nor do I have a Malachy in my life, but my volunteer work in the AIDS community back in the 1980s is experience I drew on in both books, especially in portraying Mal's illness and decline. I remember having to find a new home for a parakeet whose owner had HIV; it's true that birds carry certain pathogens that are dangerous to anyone with a weakened immune system. As for Felicity, at the time I wrote "Three Junes," I'd encountered only one of these birds, briefly, as a pet belonging to a roommate of my sister's. (They were both veterinarians with an expertise in exotic birds.) I was enchanted by that parrot; she was a bit "nicer" than Felicity.

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