After years spent writing within the world of her bestselling book, Wonder, R.J. Palacio's new novel Pony is a stunning change of pace. Set in the American frontier in the 1850s, the "quick epic," as R.J. calls it, grapples with big themes like life, death, and family. R.J. tells Zibby about how her own orphanhood inspired elements of the story, why she scrapped the first version of her manuscript after two years of work and began it from scratch, and the role music played in helping her complete the novel.