Purely Arrogant | ✓

Q&A

Q&A

What's happening with Rosie's book?
It's not. It's not happening. It's so frustrating to constantly read "please update" or "please publish Rosie's book" when I've said I'm not publishing it. I know it will seem unfair, especially because I know you're already hooked but I've prefaced every update with the fact that I won't publish it. There are several reasons to why: firstly, the characters remain undeveloped and the story remains completely two dimensional. I had so many plans which just completely fell through and weren't written well enough, which skewed the entire direction of the story arch. Another thing is that I honestly just completely lost ideas for the story halfway through, and direction. So even if I did publish it, you guys would get half and that's it. Because I never finished writing it. I don't know if I'll ever pick it up again; perhaps I will after I've finished writing Saving Annalise, but at this point. Rosie's story is NOT happening.

Why isn't Poppy Rosie's guardian?
Poppy and her husband, and Levi and Juliette were asked to be Rosie's legal guardian but all of it fell through for location reasons. Poppy's got a large family across America and couldn't take up moving back to where Rosie lives, but Rosie couldn't drop her entire life to be with Poppy. Levi and Juliette, at the time of Levi's mum's death, were very stable in London, and neither Rosie nor Levi and Juliette were willing to move for this. Ruby was asked and didn't really care as long as Rosie wasn't an actual responsibility, and Ruby was Rosie's only choice.

What happened with Jordan and Eliza?
Jordan and Eliza still live in the area but they have their own lives. Juliette, Eliza, Jordan and Levi remain the closest of friends to this day, being each others' children's godparents (did that make sense?) but they obviously rarely see each other. They visit London every year or so, and they're still a family.

If Levi died, what would Juliette do and vice versa?
I don't want to answer this! I think it would be bad for both of them. Juliette would spiral, I think. She's been through so much with her parents, and she was only 14. She would return to her darkest points. I don't want to go into too much detail because it's quite triggering, but her depression will of course hit her all at once, and her walls will start building up, with her control over her claustrophobia dissipating slowly. On the bright side, however, she's not the same person now as she was at 17. This spiral will be temporary and she will pick herself back again. She has a daughter, and a baby on the way, and Rosie is her responsibility. It will be hard but she'd get through it.

You haven't seen Levi deal with grief. I think he would avoid everything to do with emotions. It would be harder for him because not only did he lose a wife, but he lost his unborn baby. I think he'd throw himself into work, and avoid the realities as much as possible. I think Ariana would be more of Rosie's responsibility. I don't think he'd ever move on because, as we know, Juliette was his perfection, and he doesn't believe he can ever achieve that again. But, he would know that Juliette wouldn't want him to spiral, and so he would pick himself up.

What are each characters favourite colours apart from black?
Juliette: Navy Blue (of course)
Levi: Red
Eliza: All the pastels
Jordan: Does not care.

Why do all characters in your books have single parents?
I grew up with just a mum, I never knew what it was like to have both parents. My cousins and family members who have had both parents, have had one incredibly controlling parent and one very lenient one. I grew up with a parent who was in between. Writing about one parent always felt so natural to me.

Why are all your female characters short?
Because I'm short. I'm only 5 feet exactly, and I usually see my characters as a projection of myself, and so they're short.

What inspired this book?
Honestly. I have no idea. I think this book has a relationship that's a little too perfect. Keeping in mind I was about 13/14 when I was writing this book, I was in a world where everything seemed perfect and all relationships were easy to understand. This is why Levi and Juliette are a little too perfect with each other. The story of mental illnesses, however, I was inspired firstly by my favourite wattpad book of all time, Jefferson Lake. Also, I knew people who suffered from almost all of these illnesses, including myself. I wanted a projection of that in my first story.

What inspired Saving Annalise?
Everything to do with my life. Annalise is completely me. Her struggles with food, her anxiety, her sensitivity, stubbornness, compassion, self-hatred. Everything. She is me. Almost every character in Saving Annalise is a projection of someone in my life. The difference is that Annalise undergoes a character development I hope to go through in the future.

Talk about the prologue.
I know it seems so dramatic, and I agree it really is. There are two reasons for it. The first reason is that I think everyone takes news differently. Some people may think that what Juliette suffers with isn't that bad, but you see in the unfolding of the entire story that it affects literally every single aspect of her entire life, and therefore is a huge deal. Another reason is that it was my first chapter and I really just wanted to show off my (then non-existent) writing skills.

Why are your dates written weirdly?
You guys are so Americentric it's almost funny. I wrote at the start that the dates are written according to the way I would write it, because I'm British. It's also been written in multiple comments. I still see confusion about it. Every time I see someone confused I laugh.

How do you feel about this first book?
It's terrible. Honestly I hate it. I can't re-read it which is why I'm baffled that anyone would want a sequel. It's so dramatic / inaccurate / has a relationship that's too perfect. I hate it.

Did Katherine actually cheat? Talk about her a little bit:
It's never revealed whether Katherine cheated or not. She did not. Levi did. It was supposed to be a tribute to the different sides of people you are shown but I never expanded on it enough. Levi thought Katherine cheated, which is why he cheated. He found out that Katherine didn't but he knew their relationship was too far gone to fix. My biggest regret in this story was that Katherine's anorexia came out of nowhere. I wanted her two be a different version of Juliette, they were both suffering but in a different way. Both were usually skinny but for different reasons. Both handled illnesses in two different ways, but it wasn't written correctly. They were the only two girls Levi dated but they were supposed to be different versions of each other. It just wasn't done properly.

Why does Juliette never push Eliza to do stuff but Eliza always forces Juliette?
Because they're two different people. Eliza is used to forcing Juliette to do things because it's impossible to convince her to do something with once ask. Juliette is less forceful because Eliza usually easily follows her pleads, so if she's denying Juliette one thing, she's serious about it and no amount of pushing will change her mind. It's also that Eliza knows Juliette will never come out of her spiral without help, regardless of how harsh she comes across. The book starts off with a girl who wears all black, but by the end she wears colourful clothes to her graduation and puts her own makeup on. Eliza helps Juliette grow, and Juliette never resents her for it.

Where did the ice cream go in chapter 5?
I have no idea. Bad writing.

Why is everything so cheap in this world?
Because where I live in the UK, things are usually very cheap. Also, I don't really know conversions, so I just assumed $1 was £1. Keep in mind I was only 13/14. It also explains why I got sizing wrong and other things just plain wrong.