S.S. Julian asked Ki Longfellow:

What is your research process like, and how do you check your work for historical accuracy? Can you describe an instance when you decided, for dramatic or plot purposes, it was better to overlook historical precedent?

Ki Longfellow I read everything I can find, talk to scholars (one of the reasons Flow Down Like Silver, for instance, has been the topic of scholarly seminars in Argentina and Italy). My library for The Secret Magdalene alone takes up an entire bookshelf. As for Hypatia, only 16 pages of original source material exist - so far as anyone knows. People rely on the Suda compiled a few hundred after Hypatia's time. The Suda was primarily written by Christian apologists not only anxious to deflect blame for the murder of Hypatia, but that also stems from a completely different moral and philosophical world than the one Hypatia knew. They inflicted their moral standards on her as well as their religious beliefs. If anyone overlooked history, it was the compilers of the Suda. This means I had to make a number of decisions about her based solely on her known interests (mathematics, astrology, alchemy, her chosen philosophers), the writings of the one pupil still in existence, and her probable responses to documented events occurring during her life. I didn't have to overlook historical precedent though - there is so little of it. Thank you for asking. Loved answering. I could go on and on.

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