The “Green Ember” stories are called “classic,” and “vintage.” How do you breathe new life into “old” tales and why did this become important to you as a writer?

These are new stories with an old soul. A friend described them as holding classic virtues that feel old-fashioned and like museum pieces—trapped in amber—because they are so strongly associated with the past in classic literature. But these books have modern pacing and are out “in the wild,” so families are having a kind of Jurassic Park-like experience. Something they thought belonged only to the past is rampaging through their imaginations and it’s exhilarating. In an age that is often grotesquely inhospitable to children, they feel almost transgressive. I’ve been delighted to find so many other families who share my own family’s love for these kinds of stories.