- The novel, as of 11/12/2013, is completed at approximately 62,000 words. It is far from perfect, and I plan on revising it before thinking of a possible future.
- Iris, Keith, Grace and Ben --all four members of the Sawyer family-- are people who I see aspects of myself in. Maybe that's why this story felt so personal.
- The people who're holding something back are the best artfisits. This was kind of an inspiration for the story.
- Another common theme is how Grace is dismissed for her age. Twelve years old is a difficult time (for me anyway) because you still look young, but that's when everything changes and you learn to adjust for the first time ever (I moved schools when I was 12, and though it's nowhere near the same as Grace's mother's disability, the same emotions applied.)
- I have been told many times that Grace is too mature for her age. Although I understand how this may seem so, in comparison to middle-aged books written with a central twelve-year-old character, I'm a firm believer that age can't demonstrate maturity. A traumatic accident, in this case, is all that's needed for Grace to reach the beginning of her maturity.
- This book isn't middle-aged and it's not young adult. It's the furtherest from adult fiction. And I can't put any labels on it, which is frustrating because to me, it's a simple coming-of-age story. Unfortunately, that's no real category in fiction --yet-- so I'll have to find some other category for it to fit in. So I suppose literary fiction, in a way, might contribute? Well, more so than any other genre.
- You'd be surprised how mature some of the twelve-year-olds are in this time and age. They've been through a lot, understand a heap more than you'd expect and some of them are actually more mature than my classmates. This does not look good for humanity.
- It's my first novel that I absolutely love writing. But lemme tell you, it's a challenge.
- Third person seemed like the best way to write this story. I've read stories where the main character suffers a tragic past and they keep referring back to it throughout the course of the book. The best way to avoid this happening, I found, was to write from a detached point of view. And it works! I'm able to show Grace's journey without the continuous reference back to her past.