Goodbye Earl(116)

I always want to make sure I’m being extra sensitive to those topics when they appear in my work…and I try very hard to leave/make room for a lot of big feelings. I was very careful to avoid any sort of victim blaming, and even in the moments when Caroline wanted to blame herself I had her girlfriends correct her very quickly. And later, when other women blamed themselves for something a man had done to them, I always had a character remind them that it wasn’t their fault. That was important to me because these are the characters and the world I created, and it’s not the real world, so I could make a gentler, more understanding space for them, so I did it. The world is the world and I cannot control the world, but I do get to control what happens in my books.

More than anything else, I wanted to convey how big and important love is (no matter what kind of trauma a character has been through)…how healing love is…how real love doesn’t give up on people…how people can heal and hope. Those things are possible. I don’t think I could sit down and write anything (or remain a well-adjusted human) if I didn’t believe those things, even if just a little bit.

What’s next for you as a writer?

Some rest and hopefully a lot of traveling! And after that, Book Seven and beyond…More books filled with intimate human connection and wonder and beauty. I’m looking forward to all of it!