Yes, it was really lovely to be able to echo the books like that! You can really just walk through Mankato and visit all the places: the books take place back when towns had to be walkable, and it makes you feel how much more human and friendly the world feels at that scale.

I love the Betty/Betsy story about your grandmother. Fossil names! Some of my college friends still call me Jen, because I was experimenting with being a Jen at the time, but I could never fully commit to it and dropped it after college.