In our November/December issue, reviewer Cynthia Ritter asked Rainbow Rowell about the creating the many narrative layers (real world + fictional world + fanfictional world!) of her new novel Fangirl. Read the full review of Fangirl here.

Cynthia K. Ritter: How much of the eight Simon Snow (fictional series) books and fanfiction did you actually have to write?

Rainbow Rowell: I probably wrote about twice as much — canon and fanfiction — as appears in the book. I tried to tie each epigraph to something happening in Cath’s life, so the epigraphs shifted between drafts. Also, I thought through an outline of Simon’s story, the larger arc of it, and figured out the rules for the World of Mages. I wanted Simon to be enough like Harry Potter that people would recognize that he takes up that space in Cath’s world. But I wanted him to be his own character with his own personality and struggles.

From the November/December 2013 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.