How Judith Came to Write this Story: I have done a fair amount of research on my mother’s ethnic family (Germanic) and I have travelled to places they’d lived. The historical context of their lives intrigued me. Unlike most of my other time-shift books, I wanted my main character to experience firsthand the lives of his ancestors in three different time periods yet have a strong connection to his present life as well.

I also wanted to make the story a little more complex incorporating what’s happening in the world in current times, as well as have a strong sub-plot about prejudicial attitudes and bullying against those trying to fit into their new world that is different from the ones they’ve left behind.

There is a common thread between my main character’s family having to move in present time and with those in the past from one home to another, whether it was a short move to another city, region, or one to another country hundreds of miles away. The reasons varied from simple family disintegration and heartaches (like divorces) to devastating changes and hardships brought on by poverty, wars, famine, floods, crop failures, diseases, religious persecution, and cultural oppression. Although I don’t go in depth about some of the more contentious reasons, there is certainly the essence of these issues, which can be explored more by the readers.