Jennifer Vido: What inspired your new release, THE MAKING OF HER? Bernadette Jiwa: Writers are often asked where they get their ideas. You’ll sometimes hear a writer balk at the question, but I’m not so sure that it’s a bad one because every book has a backstory. THE MAKING OF HER is inspired by a true story, one that I wanted to rewrite long before becoming a writer. A dear friend of mine was given up for adoption in England by her unmarried Irish mother in the 1960s. Her parents returned to Ireland, got married, and had more children. My friend reunited with her parents in the 1990s, but her siblings still don’t know she exists to this day. Like many Irish families back then they were torn apart by a legacy of shame and secrecy. I also wanted to preserve something of my Irish grandmothers’ stories lest we forget the plight of women of their generation. Without access to contraception, both grandmothers gave birth to eleven children. They had too many mouths to feed, and there was never enough of anything to go around. Their bodies, their hearts, and their souls took a hammering. Some women, like my grandmother,…