Goodreads asked Seth Adam Smith:

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

Seth Adam Smith I originally wanted to publish a book about young Ichabod Crane (and in 2013, I actually wrote a draft which I submitted to publishers). One of the characters in that initial story was an older version of Rip Van Winkle. While writing him into the first draft, I contemplated Rip's legendary backstory—and the symbolic themes concerning "falling asleep" and "waking up"—and I realized I had written the wrong story.

In 2014, I dropped the first draft of the book about young Ichabod Crane and started working on a story about young Rip Van Winkle—and I'm grateful I did!

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