When I grew up in northern Virginia, near Washington DC, out in the country, there were a lot of old roads. They were colonial roads, you know, what they called “gullies.” So I would ride my horse Ginger in the gullies and cry “The British are coming!”

I was taught myths about American history, a certain version of American history that came with a certain kind of patriotism. So, I grew up very patriotic, but now my patriotism is taking a different form. I want to tell undertold stories from American history.

So I created a character, “Ann Brown,” a fictional character who incarnates in different periods of American history and sees injustice. She doesn’t speak up about it necessarily, because she’s timid. She knows deep down that she should speak out.

One of the things I’m struggling with is trying to figure out how to incorporate history, African-American stories, Gullah stories, Cherokee stories, and so on, within my own stories, but being respectful that they’re not mine to tell.  I’m learning to do that by imagining Ann Brown’s response to those stories of injustice.