(typewriter clacking) (bell rings) (soft music) - [Patty Callahan] I'm Patty Callahan.

This is, "Once Upon a Wardrobe," a story of a sister and a brother in 1950s England, who set off on an adventure to find out the answer to the question "Where did Narnia come from?"

- [J.T.

Ellison] So Megs and George.

George is a sick little boy.

Megs is his brilliant older sister who is going to Oxford, studying physics.

Tell us about them.

- [Patty Callahan] Winter of 1950, a brand new book, burst onto the scene.

It was called, "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe."

And George reads this book day and night.

He says, I know that the author teaches at your university.

I need you to find him and ask him where this magical place came from.

She loves her brother, and so she sets off to find the answer for him.

Then hears her little brother and of course there's C.S.

Lewis, telling her stories about his life.

Stories of dark, stories of light, stories of joy, stories of despair, so that she can see that yes, those breadcrumbs might show up, but there's still something you cannot explain.

- [J.T.

Ellison] They are fictional characters.

But C.S.

Lewis, Jack and his brother Warnie and the Kilns, and what he does at Oxford is real.

- [Patty Callahan] I wanted to take the true things of his life and his brother's life and their childhood.

I wanted to show him teaching.

I wanted to show where they lived.

We wanted to hint at Narnia, but also the book is about so much more than Narnia.

I wanted to play on the idea, that story, that magic word, Once upon a time.

- [J.T.

Ellison] For more of my conversation with Patty Callahan, please visit awordonwords.org.

I'm J.T.

Ellison, keep reading.

- [Patty Callahan] I'm inspired by the truth we tell in a story we made up.

The lie that tells the truth.

I am inspired by the great myths that tell us a much bigger truth than a list of facts.