How “Wicked Girls” Inspired Wayward Children and Other Answers from Seanan McGuire

With the arrival of In an Absent Dream, the fourth book in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series, readers will have passed through what feels like dozens of portal worlds by now: the Halls of the Dead, Confection, the Moors, and many more yet to be explored. With all of the adventures in and out of magical doorways, we can hardly remember a time before Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.

But do you know what inspired Every Heart a Doorway in the first place? McGuire has taken to Twitter for a brief but insightful FAQ about the Wayward Children series, answering the who, why, where, and what is up with that weird narrative structure.

Good news all around!

The next strand in that braided rope is Lundy, the rather unusual therapist first introduced in Every Heart a Doorway. You’ll get to meet a younger Lundy again (or, depending on your reading order) for the first time tomorrow, January 8, when In an Absent Dream is published!

Lundy is a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should.

When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she’s found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the Goblin Market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well.

Read the first two chapters here. You can also catch up on our Wayward Children reread!

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