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Influences

As a child, Kidd, like Lily, also had a nanny who habitually chewed snuff. She attributed a few traits and sayings from her own nanny to Rosaleen. Although the author wasn't forced to kneel on grits as punishment, both she and Lily share the same disaffection for them.

An article by Rita Williams includes the following section of an interview with Kidd:^{[citation needed]}

""Why write about these black women when you're white?" I asked her.

"Because I grew up surrounded by black women. I feel they are like hidden royalty dwelling among us, and we need to rupture our old assumptions and develop the willingness to see them as they are," she replied.

When asked her to tell the origin of this story, she grew pensive, closing her dark eyes almost as if she were meditating.

"As a girl, I lived in a country house where at least 50,000 bees hived within the walls of one of our shut-off rooms," she said. "When I went in there, I could hear humming-honey leaking through the wall and puddling on the floor. That image stayed with me for years before I decided to write it. And then when I finally did begin, I was told it might sell as a short story but not as a novel. I sold the short story but... it wouldn't let me go. Four years later, I had to go back and write the novel."