Q. Bookners17 asked: You said that DEFY came from losing someone close to you—as far as overcoming certain obstacles during the writing of the book, would you say the loss of that person was inspiring you and encouraging you to keep going?
A. His courageous battle with cancer has definitely been an inspiration for me in many aspects of my life, not the least of which is pressing on when things got tough when drafting this book. Often when I notice I'm feeling down or unhappy with something in my life (not just writing), I'll remember that he would give anything to be here, to be alive, to be experiencing everything life has to offer--the good and bad. That usually reminds me to be grateful and to look for the good. I think this lesson also extended to the drafting of DEFY--and even to the characters. No matter how bad things seemed, they tried to keep a hold of their determination to keep fighting and the hope of a better future.
Q. DorisElysia_ (via Twitter) asked: How did you pick out the names for your characters?
A. A lot of times, I use the same website I used to help me find my kid's names: the social security baby name index. You can look at up to 1000 top names for any given year, even pre-1900s. It's pretty awesome. Sometimes when characters come to me, I just know their names--as was the case with Alexa and Damian. And honestly, sometimes I just make them up.
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DEFY series: Behind the Scenes
Teen FictionI will be doing a series of posts, giving you insider info on how I wrote DEFY, where the story came from, deleted scenes, and more! In fact, I might even post a scene or two from a different POV. Like maybe...Rylan. Or even Damian. Intrigued? Then...
