Sin of the Saint

SIN OF THE SAINT Q&A

Hi! I've wanted to do a Q&A section of this book to let the readers in on my process and maybe answer some questions they may have had while reading Sin of the Saint. So, without further ado...here we go!;)

lizwarb: Where did you get the inspiration for your characters in the book? (Any inspiration from people you know?)

CRII: I spend a crazy amount of time developing and fleshing out characters before I even write the first word, so I end up with very unique people to work with in the beginning. The situations I put them in are what define them in the end. But I get to know them very well in this early process, and I would say that there are certain traits of people I know that are sprinkled in here and there with these characters in this book. One person I know doesn't directly translate into one of my characters, but parts of their personalities might:

My choir partner from my sophomore and senior years of high school would resemble Axel the most as far as personality goes, but Axel had a lot of unique traits that set him apart. I think a lot of his personality wound up in Axel's character because I admired his grace.

I will say there was a certain football player who was also musically inclined that I had a MAD crush on and literally never told him (I'm married to the love of my life now so it doesn't matter), but I would say that Auden's character fit that guy pretty well.

Imogen represents a lot of women put in a difficult position, and her maturity and abilities to stay focused are something that I always hoped I would one day have, especially as a young mom.

And one last thing...I'll respectfully say that there were a few students, whom I didn't personally know (but my brother played a sport with one of them), that lost their lives on the train tracks near my high school. One of them was with a friend who lived through the accident, and I strongly empathized with that. Out of respect for both of them, I used that as an inciting incident for my main character because I knew for myself how strong Liv would eventually become, and I wished that kind of strength for that girl. I wished it so much. But I never knew her. And I wish for the girl who died to rest in peace, though I never knew her either. It can be heart-wrenching to take writing inspiration from events that occur around you, but in my line of work, you're taught to write what you know. The confusion and the secondhand pain--it's all real, because it happens.

RachelRushtonWaetchl: What is your writing process? Do you start at the beginning or the end?

CRII: Amazing question. I begin, of course, at the beginning. But after the beginning, I write the end, then write crucial scenes between before connecting them all. My philosophy is that you have to know your destination before you begin. Because the end is all subject to change by what happens in the beginning and middle, but if you have a concrete idea for an ending (often for me, it's an ultimate feeling or message I want to leave my readers with), you can make plot and character decisions in the beginning and the middle that teach and reiterate that feeling or message. The end dictates everything, but at the same time, the beginning and middle dictate the end as well. So I tend to have all three before I truly begin to "write". They're always subject to change depending on which characters I put where and which decisions I have them make. It's tricky business, but at the same time it's fun.

lizwarb: Is the high school basically the setup of [our high school]? Because that is 100% what I imagine.

CRII: Ha! First, I'm gonna preface my answer with informing readers that this reader and I went to high school together. And, though that is a fair assumption, St. John's Private High School is shaped like a plus sign with the commons sitting in the center. I never exactly described it, but there's no way Liv could see it from a bird's-eye view, so she wouldn't exactly know that little detail, haha. The commons do look a lot like they did in my high school, but with nicer looking vaulted ceilings. (My high school was OLD SHIZ.)