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Showing posts from March, 2014

What's Your Story About?

This might be the most painful question ever asked an author. At least it was for me. When well-meaning friends or acquaintances approached me at parties and gatherings with this question, I almost always stumbled to answer. What was my book about? I’m the author—if anyone should know, you’d think it would be me, right? Saving Toby is my debut novel, and when I set out to write it, I wanted to produce a piece of writing I was proud of, to plow my path and firmly set my place in the literary world. So why did my ears burn and words fail me whenever this question arose? It’s because, early in the process, I honestly didn’t know what the book was about. Sounds strange, but it’s true. Starting with a small idea, I wrote Saving Toby from my heart. I never once considered what genre it would be, or how I would market it. The story is contemporary because one of the plot issues is, unfortunately, a current event—a hate crime and the lack of acceptance of diversity. But it’s