I WISH question - Will there be a second book?

Will there be a second I WISH book?

Yes, and a third one!

The I WISH series is a trilogy. Book 2, Wishing for You, will release on 13 October 2015 and book 3 in 2016.

I WISH question - Who would be in the dream cast for I WISH?

Who would be in the dream cast for I WISH?

I would love to see I WISH made into a movie, so (naturally) I've thought about who ought to be cast. I'd never be allowed to influence that--but it doesn't hurt to dream!

Here goes. My dream cast.

Lacey Linden

I see Hayley McFarland as the heroine of I WISH. Like Lacey, Hayley looks sweet, fun, and friendly--with a hint of steely resolve when she needs it.

Eli Harper

Eli is Lacey's high-school friend and Henry's soccer coach. Eli is biracial, hot, and athletic. I see Jacob Artist (from Glee) as Eli.









Kimberley Rey



Kimberley is Lacey's best friend. She is Latina and disabled, struggling with lingering issues from childhood leukemia. I think that Christian Serratos would make the perfect Kimberley.






 

Our hero Grant

When I first wrote I WISH, Grant was blond. He stayed that way through multiple drafts, long enough for me to think that he looked like Theo James.

 Then I worked with the cover designer for I WISH. She let me choose the male model whose face we would license for the book covers. (We only used his eye on the cover for book 1.)

Before long, whenever I would think of Grant, I would see the face of the cover model. So I changed Grant to have brown hair. He kept his green eyes, because all benevolent supernatural beings are green-eyed.

When I went out looking for an actor with brown hair and the right height (approx. 6 ft), I found an actor named Grant--and he has green eyes.  Grant Gustin (The Flash) is perfect!

(Images for all but Gustin were found on wikipedia.)

I WISH question - How were the character names picked for I WISH?

How were the character names picked for I Wish?

Picking names for characters in a book is a tough thing to do, especially since I try to avoid the names of people I know. I don’t want them to think that I’m basing a character on them.

I Wish, however, is full of characters named for specific people. I doubt I ever do that again. So here are the names and why I chose them.

Grant – Originally, I named my genie Grant for a weird reason. Genies “grant” wishes. It was just a place-holder until I learned him better and knew what his name should be. But a couple of things convinced me to keep it. Every guy I know named Grant is both cute and nice. I like that track record. Also, I looked up the meaning of the name and discovered that Grant means “great”. It was a perfect fit for the hero of I WISH.

Lacey – In my first draft of the book, the heroine’s name was Molly, which never quite felt right.  My heroine was determined, fiercely independent, and intensely loyal to the people she loved.  That profile described my grandmother.  So I renamed my heroine after Grandmother Lacey, and that felt exactly right.

Henry – I named Lacey’s brother after Prince Henry of Wales. Just because.

Eli – Lacey’s friend (and Henry’s soccer coach) is named after Eli Manning, the quarterback for the New York Giants. I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Mississippi. The Manning family is practically royalty for Ole Miss alumni. (And, yes, I use the name Peyton in another book.)

Kimberley – Lacey’s best friend started life as Adriana. But I ended up not liking the character, so I completely rewrote her. When I did, I needed a new name. About this same time, the receptionist at my family physician’s office asked me to name a character after her, and there you go. We had our Kimberley.

Crystal – Using the Social Security Administrations popular baby names website, I asked it to give me the Top 25 names for the year 1977 (approximately when Lacey’s mom would’ve been born.)  Name #25 is Crystal.

Sara & Sean – the twins are named after my great-grandmother Sarah (but I dropped the “h”) and my nephew-in-law Sean (but an entirely different spelling.)

I WISH question - what was my favorite parts of writing about Lacey and Grant?

What was my favorite part of writing about Lacey? About Grant?


Lacey’s story allowed me to write about so many different kinds of relationships. She doted on her brother. She mourned the loss of one friendship and enjoyed the renewal of another. She found warmth with her friend Eli and something more with Grant. Mostly, though, she gave me the chance to explore the pain, exasperation, and love that can exist between mother and daughter.

Grant’s job, as a supernatural being, is to try to understand humans. He is so logical—almost Spock-like—that it became really fun to see human emotions through his eyes.


[I often get questions about writing.  I'll answer each of the most commonly asked questions in a separate blog post. You can navigate to them from my website, too.]

I WISH question - is there a playlist for I WISH?

Is there a playlist for I WISH?

I didn’t really create a playlist while I was writing I WISH. I like silence when I’m writing. But, as I talked and brainstormed with my daughter about the characters in the book, she would suggest theme songs for Lacey and her relationships. So here they are.

Lacey and Henry
Lacey is a doting big sister for eight-year-old Henry. Her major focus is to keep his home life as worry-free and comfortable as possible (even though that is actually quite hard for their family). Henry adores her back.
“Rather Be” by Clean Bandit

Lacey and Crystal
Lacey’s relationship with her mom is complicated. Crystal’s depression and her seeming lack of interest in getting better are wearing Lacey down. But through all the anger and frustration, they still want to care.
“Shake It Out” by Florence + the Machine

Lacey and Eli
Lacey has known Eli throughout high school, and they’ve always been friendly. But now that he is coaching her brother in soccer, they have the opportunity to spend more time together. And friendly changes to friends.
“Lean on Me” with Glee cast

Lacey and Grant
I’m not going to describe their relationship. It unfolds and changes throughout the book. But I think "Break In" is just perfect for their theme song.
“Break In” by Halestorm

 

I WISH question - what was the hardest part to write I WISH?

What was the hardest part to write about I WISH?

Lacey’s mother, Crystal, is mentally ill. I would’ve liked to let our genie Grant wave a magic wand and make her all better. But that wasn’t realistic. So I had to let her suffer, stumble, succeed, and relapse. And in her pain, Crystal was often casually cruel to Lacey. That was hard to write, but necessary.



[I often get questions about writing.  I'll answer each of the most commonly asked questions in a separate blog post. You can navigate to them from my website, too.]
 

I Wish question - where did the title come from?

Where did the title for I WISH come from?

This is a genie book. The word “WISH” just had to be in the title. Since the story has a major subplot about a daughter caring for her depressed mom, the title had to be wistful, not cute or fun. I tried several ideas. “I Wished” had too much attitude. “Wishful Thinking” was too light-hearted. I went with “I Wish” because it felt just right.



 

I Wish question - what inspired the story?

What was the inspiration for I WISH?

I Wish came about when two ideas intersected.

I knew someone who was paralyzed by mental illness while her children fumbled around, trying to support her. I wanted to write that story—and the idea grew into a major subplot for I Wish. This book is about a depressed woman who wants to be a good parent but just can’t—while her daughter, Lacey, steps into the void to take care of the family.

The intersecting idea was about giving a heroine two guys in her life who were both amazing—but in very different ways. She could pick either guy or decide to say no to both—and all three choices would make sense. The story is not really a love triangle, although too many good options create a huge conflict for Lacey. She has no time for dating—and yet there are two hot guys who might be interested. What does she do with that?

Writing question - what is magical realism?

What is magical realism?

The first two series that I have published are YA magical realism.  In the magical realism subgenre, the main story is realistic in every way except one. There is always one magical element.

In the Whisper Falls series, the magical element is the ability to travel between present-day and a different year in the past. Mark and Susanna (the main characters of Whisper Falls series) encounter a waterfall who permits them to travel between Mark's world (now) and Susanna's life (turn of the 19th century). Otherwise, their stories are realistic for the time in which they ordinarily live. (Some readers might assume that this supernatural element makes this a time-travel book. I think it is better to consider this series to be magical realism with time-travel elements.)

For the I WISH series, the magical element is the presence of Grant, a supernatural being. Like a "genie", he can fulfill wishes, only they must be humanly possible. Grant is the magical element; everything else is realistic.  Part of the conflict in the I WISH series comes from Grant's desire to use his magic, even though it's not part of the rules.

So, in both series, the point of magical realism is not the supernatural element. It is about how the characters react to, live with, or hide that extraordinary circumstance.



[I often get questions about writing.  I'll answer each of the most commonly asked questions in a separate blog post. You can navigate to them from my website, too.]

Writing question - will you read my manuscript and tell me what you think?

Will you read my manuscript and tell me what you think?

Aspiring authors ask me this question and the simple answer is: No, I can't.

I used to give feedback, before I was published. But it isn't realistic anymore for two reasons:

1. I can't spare the minutes. I want to devote all of my free time writing my next book.
2. America has a litigious society, and there have been too many instances where generously-offered feedback turned into a legal nightmare for an author.

Don't despair, though. There are ways to get honest feedback. You can join a critique group, submit your manuscript to a writing contest, and connect with a beta-reading club. Be persistent and you'll find a way.

[I often get questions about what it's like to be an author. I'll answer each of the most commonly asked questions in a separate blog post. You can also navigate to them through the faq on my website too.]

Writing question - how do you plot a story?

How do you plot a story?

I'll do my best to explain this, with two caveats:

1. The writing process is unique to each author. So my explanation only applies to me.
2. The art of creating a story is both complex and evolutionary. I'll give you a glimpse into how I write, but my description will be far simpler than the actual process can ever be. Also, by the time you read this, my process will doubtless have evolved as I continue my never-ending quest to write better.

I loosely call my process connecting the dots.

• Before I begin to write a story, I've thought about it and gathered research on it for months. I take an idea and throw a lot of What-if's at it. 
• I have four clear "dots" in the story: the beginning, the middle, the climax, and the end.
• I get a rough idea of the type of characters it would take to bind those four plot points together.
• And then I jump in, connecting the dots, adding more dots, erasing a few, and learning more about the personalities of my characters as I go along. Eventually, the characters take over, and then it becomes my job as an author to get out of the way.

[I often get questions about what it's like to be an author. I'll answer each of the most commonly asked questions in a separate blog post. You can navigate to them faq on my website too.]

Writing question - where do you get your ideas?

Where do you get your ideas?

Ideas are everywhere. I can get them from reading in the newspaper, watching TV shows, or listening to people talk. Ideas can also come from my own experiences or those of the people around me, but I never make a precise copy. Each glimmer of an idea from real life must always be followed by multiple what-ifs.

• What if I pawn something at the flea market to help pay the bills?
• What if the booth owner throws in an old music box?
• What if the music box has a resident genie?

The first what-if makes it interesting. The next what-ifs makes it a story.

[I often get questions about what it's like to be an author. I'll answer each of the most commonly asked questions in a separate blog post. You can navigate to them in the faq on my website too.]

Whisper Falls question - Why 2016?

Why did you set the book in 2016?


In the Whisper Falls series, the waterfall requires that the calendar date must be the same in either century. When Mark and Susanna meet, it is May 30th in Susanna's world and in Mark's world. Over the course of the series, Whisper Falls allows the year to change in the past, but the date must always be the same.

The day of the week is also important, especially in Susanna's world. Her weekly schedule was fairly rigid. Wednesday is baking day. Sunday is the Sabbath. As I wrote the first book, I had to stay aware of the weekday, for Susanna's sake.


Because I had to remain conscious of dates and weekdays, I decided it would just be easier if Mark had the same calendar as Susanna. I looked in wikipedia for a modern year whose calendar matched 1796.

As it turns out, 1796 was a leap-year that started on a Friday. That leap-year part narrowed the options dramatically. For the 21st century, my choices were 2016 or 2044. So, 2016 won!

Setting the modern-year of the book ahead did require some additional care as I wrote. Technology is changing constantly. Would we still have "smart-phones" in 2016? Would the NC legislature make new laws for how schools operated? Might a fire or catastrophic weather event alter Raleigh or Umstead Park?

I was willing to take those risks.

Now that I've written the other two books, I'm really glad I made the decision to have a matched calendar for book one.  For the later two books, I had many years to juggle. Book 2 is still in 2016, but the past includes 1796 through 1801. Book 3 takes place in 2017 while the past includes 1801 through 1805. It was difficult to keep up with multiple sets of weekdays/calendars for Books 2 & 3.

For instance, in book three, I had to rewrite a large portion of the middle of the book when I realized that I'd set Mark's prom on a major religious holiday in 2017--all because I was paying attention to the weekday in the past and not the weekday in the present.

So there you go. The simple answer is: it made book one easier to write.

[I often get questions about the Whisper Falls series.  I'll answer each of the most commonly asked questions in a separate blog post. You can navigate to them in the faq on my website too.]

Whisper Falls Question - How does the waterfall work?

How does the waterfall work? What are the time travel rules?

The simple explanation: The waterfall serves as an express elevator between years.

I based "time travel" in this series on an ancient theory of time known as spiral time.  In this theory, time is not linear. It does not move in a straight line (linear). It spirals--like a coil, spring, or "slinky."

Another way to model time in the Whisper Falls series is to view it like a round building. Each floor represents one year. (Or--each floor is 365 days in circumference.) In the first book, there are 220 floors stacked on top of each other. The bottom floor is 1796. The top floor is 2016. 

There are 6 rules that the waterfall follows to allow Mark and Susanna to travel through time.

1. Travel always occurs on the same day between centuries. If it's July 4th in 1796, then it is July 4th in 2016. You can think of it as an "express elevator" in the round building metaphor. If you get on the December 9th elevator in the 19th century, then you get off on December 9th in the 21st century. 
2. Time progresses at the same pace between centuries.  If Mark visits 1796 and stays for 24 hours, then 2016 has moved forward 24 hours as well. For instance, if Mark traveled to the past on June 2nd and stayed one full day, then he'll need to ride the June 3rd "express elevator" back up to 2016.
3. Present-day is always the destination of any travel to the future. Susanna cannot choose to travel to a future year other than Mark's world. In the round building metaphor, Mark's life always awaits them on the top floor. For books 1 and 2, that is 2016. For book 3, it's 2017. The express elevator only travels up to the 21st century.
4. The waterfall allows Susanna to suggest a year in the past that she wants to travel to. Susanna can ask the waterfall to change the "bottom floor" to years later than 1796.  For instance, if she asked to go to 1800, Whisper Falls could take her there.
5. The waterfall can refuse to take Susanna somewhere if it deems that too dangerous. If she wanted to visit the American Civil War, for example, the waterfall would've refused.
6. Once Susanna has visited a date in the past, she can't go further back.  She can only ask for dates  that are moving forward.  For instance, if she visits October 1, 1800, she may never again travel to a time that is earlier than October 1, 1800.

[I often get questions about the Whisper Falls series.  I'll answer each of the most commonly asked questions in a separate blog post. You can navigate to them in the FAQ on my website too.]

Whisper Falls question - Why is Mark so nice?

Why is Mark so nice[, boring, immature, ordinary]?

Many reviewers have noted in their reviews that Mark is not a typical YA hero. He's not a super-hero, a super-jock, a super-geek, a super-bad-boy, or a super-star.

Mark is a nice, ordinary teen guy. He'll change, of course. Over the three book series, he'll mature, particularly toward the end of the final book. But I had to create him as average because that is exactly what Susanna needed.

A super-anything guy wouldn't have been interested in Susanna, and she would've been put off by him. She needed someone who was kind, polite, and curious. She had to be paired with someone who, when the situation called for it, was able to draw upon his reserves of strength and become more than he could've possibly imagined. Mark fits that description.

Here are some things to keep in mind about the hero of  the Whisper Falls series.

1. It isn't fair to compare Mark to Susanna. I doubt there are many teens in contemporary America who could ever be as mature as Susanna. She was forced into servitude at ten. She's been a working adult for 8 years. No modern teens biking through Umstead Park USA could approach her maturity.  If you must compare Mark, compare him to other guys his age.
2. Susanna is a good judge of character. She sees into the core of Mark's being and recognizes his innate decency. Sure, he makes mistakes. He regresses when he gets back to school and starts hanging out with his classmates. But he's still just a genuinely good guy waiting for the right catalyst to draw the greatness out of him. Susanna will be that catalyst--eventually.
3. Mark's growth is slow and steady. He's a late bloomer. Until he met Susanna, he had little reason to be amazing. Although he did live through bullying in middle school, he's had no real opportunities to excel at anything that matters...until Susanna. Over the length of the trilogy, Mark will mature. He'll cycle through periods of setbacks and growth. Yet, by the end of the series, he will be so much more than when the story began.

I wrote Mark because teens should know that it's fine to be (so-called) average. They don't have to be the best at any of the things that society (or high school) deems important. All they have to be is good people; the rest will follow. I hope they see themselves in Mark, a character who demonstrates that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things.


[I often get questions about the Whisper Falls series.  I'll answer each of the most commonly asked questions in a separate blog post. You can navigate to them in the FAQ on my website too.]

Whisper Falls Question - What subgenre do you write?

What subgenre do you write?What subgenre is the Whisper Falls series? 

The Whisper Falls series is magical realism.  In the magical realism subgenre, the main story is realistic in every way except one. There is always one magical element.

For instance, a story could be contemporary in every way except the hero can read minds. A historical novel can be completely immersed in 19th century South America, only the heroine can see glimpses of the future in Europe.

The point of magical realism is not the supernatural element. It is about how the characters react to, live with, or hide that extraordinary circumstance.

In the Whisper Falls series, the magical element is the ability to travel between present-day and a different year in the past. Mark and Susanna (the main characters of Whisper Falls) encounter a waterfall who permits them to travel between Mark's life (in 2016) and Susanna's life (in 1796). Otherwise, their stories are realistic for the time in which they ordinarily live.

Some readers might assume that this supernatural element makes this a time-travel book. I think it is better to consider this series to be magical realism with time-travel elements.

The point of Whisper Falls is not the time-travel, it is how Mark and Susanna react to and deal with the fact that the distance between their homes is measured in years, not miles.

[I often get questions about the Whisper Falls series.  I'll answer each of the most commonly asked questions in a separate blog post. You can navigate to them from my website, too.]

Whisper Falls Question - Is Neuse Academy fact or fiction?

Is Neuse Academy fact or fiction? Did you use a specific private school in the Raleigh area for Mark’s high school?

Neuse Academy, the fictional private high school that Mark attends, is a composite of three local private schools.

There were several attributes that I wanted for Neuse Academy. I couldn’t find one school in the area that had all of those attributes, so I visited the web sites of several local private schools and found 3 that seemed to have the academics, activities, sports, extracurriculars, and atmosphere that I wanted for Mark. He gets the best of the best in his school.



[I often get questions about the Whisper Falls series.  I'll answer each of the most commonly asked questions in a separate blog post. You can navigate to them from my website, too.]

Whisper Falls Question - What do you know about teens?

I often get questions about the Whisper Falls series, writing YA, researching history, or what it's like to be an author.  I'll answer each of the most commonly asked questions in a separate blog post and include them in the FAQ on my website too.

What do you know about teens? What qualifies you to write Young Adult (YA)?

I have two kids in college, so I’ve lived through the process of parenting teens. I do recognize, however, that my daughters and their friends might not be typical of American teens in every region of the country, so I’m grateful to have an editorial staff that brings different perspectives to both my books as well as the dozens of other YA books they edit. 

My junior editor is in her early twenties (recent college graduate and former teen). My senior editor teaches social studies to eighth-graders, so he’s surrounded by teens throughout the school year. Even my 18-year-old reads all of my books multiple times to ensure that I’m keeping things realistic. I’m lucky to have such a solid team of people to find and point out my mistakes.