As for the [quotes Imo­gene spouts], well, I do know a few peo­ple from our past pret­ty well – Eleanor Roo­sevelt, Abra­ham Lin­coln, Amelia Earhart, Ben­jamin Franklin. I tend to quote them a lot myself, so it was just a nat­ur­al exten­sion to drop their words into Imogene’s mouth. Some of the oth­ers – like William Mor­ris and Davy Crock­et – took some pon­der­ing and think­ing. The quotes had to match Imogene’s feel­ings so it wasn’t always easy. Still, the search was lots of fun.

I wish I could say I came up with the idea of a brown-skinned female pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States. While the text did indi­cate that the pres­i­dent was a woman, it was the incred­i­ble Nan­cy Car­pen­ter who made her a per­son of col­or. Bril­liant, right?