I became fascinated with the idea of using a loom room as a setting in my story after I stumbled upon several references of this place, this space where expectant women and elderly slaves spent their time weaving when they were no longer as productive in the fields. It was this latter group in particular that stimulated my imagination. Who are these folk and what would they feel knowing that their arrival to The Room indicated their days on earth were few? What was shared in this place for the dying? I was simply intrigued. In The Loom, I created a place of no escape to add to my main character, Lydia’s, desire to flee the world of slavery.
