Where did you get the idea for this novel?

Q: Where did you get the idea for Blue Mountain Rose?

A: I’ve been an active supporter of the Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival since it began in 2015. It’s northern Arizona’s only professional theater company, and they do inspiring work.

When they began performing in 2015, I helped out behind the scenes at a few performances. The first season was successful enough that founder Dawn Tucker and her company decided to establish a nonprofit so they could continue growing and performing. For that, they needed a board of directors. I became the founding board president, establishing the board and building its policies and processes.

Although I stepped down as board president after two terms, I’m still an active supporter of the company. When I started writing Blue Mountain Rose in 2023, FlagShakes had never owned a stage of their own. (This situation changed in late 2024, and I couldn’t be happier for them.)

In some ways, Blue Mountain Rose is my way of giving them something in fiction that I could never give them in reality: a venerable outdoor Elizabethan stage with a rich tradition. My fictional Blue Mountain Rose Theatre was built in 1947 and rebuilt in 1971. People who have performed there (again, this is fiction) include Derek Jacobi, Judi Dench, and Patrick Stewart.

My inspirations for the Rose were (among others) the Adams Memorial Theatre in Cedar City, Utah; the earlier Elizabethan stages in Ashland, Oregon; and the modern Shakespeare’s Globe in London.

Once I’d created the setting, I peopled my fictional stage with characters who emerged from my imagination. My characters are not drawn from life and certainly not from the people I know at FlagShakes!