Living through COVID-19 made it absolutely necessary for me to tell this story. We are all being impacted by the very best and worst of human behavior right now, and the consequences will be felt for decades. I would like to believe that humanity will ultimately choose unity in an apocalyptic situation, if only to increase our chances for survival, but human history contradicts this. Even now, people still refuse to take the necessary steps to ensure their safety and the safety of the broader community.

I think a lot about the power dynamics of the immortal/human relationships in monster-centric stories. These fictional relationships often have happy endings these days, but not always. A failed romance both guts and fascinates me. For the ice maiden, I wanted to write a figure who was a little too alien to be fully understood by a random human and naïve enough to assume that all humans are fools.

I think the idea of messing with the perception of time grew out of the realization of just how often gialli are reliant on memory; specifically, the protagonist struggling to remember some small detail they’ve seen that will somehow make the solution click into place. So, while they’re a detective story, the solution is often already there inside their head, they’re just trying to find a way to make it come into focus.