Margot MacKay asked Bonnie Garmus:

Yay, love this! Your book is one of the best I've read this year -- and I'm nearly 70 titles in. I'd love to hear about your inspiration for the novel. How did you settle on the storyline and characters, and what inspired you to make Six-Thirty an occassional narrator? (Which, of course, was an awesome decision!)

Bonnie Garmus Thanks, Margot! The story was inspired by a bad day at work. I'd been in a meeting and had endured some standard sexism. Furious, I felt like I needed some reassurance that things for women had improved since the 60s--and they have, but not enough. But I also picked that era because that's when my mom was a mom and the book gave me a chance to look back and see what kind of societal limits she'd endured. (A lot!) As for the storyline, I wrote the first chapter of Lessons in Chemistry that day at work, and I also knew how I wanted it to end. But the rest was a blank. I don't write from an outline; I let characters walk on and guide me. As for Six-Thirty, I didn't know he was going to have a voice. The first time he offered his POV, I wasn't sure I was going to keep it. But he had so much to say! So he stayed. I'm really glad you liked him.

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