I wrote The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green at a time when my first and only unpublished novel was still stirring me at night. I decided to give up on it one day and it was freeing and exciting to open a blank slate. I remember setting out with a patchwork of ideas, like a quote as a chapter, a list of rules, thank you notes, all devices for humor and pathos from this little boy’s brain. The quick pace, ping-pong dialogue and rule-breaking from traditional narrative structure was inspired by the novel, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. When I finished his book I ran to the computer to “riff” just as he seemingly let himself do.