And All the Stars began as a discussion on Goodreads about another of my novels, Stray. Two readers, Flannery and Wendy Darling, were particularly taken with the first section of Cassandra's story, and encouraged me to write a survivalist or post-apocalyptic novel. I shrugged and said I don't write survivalist or post-apocalyptic novels...and promptly began thinking about what kind of survivalist or post-apocalyptic novel I would write, if I were ever to write such a thing.