Virtual Battle of the Books

I don’t say specifically what happened to Styx’s parents, but I envisioned that at least one of them had died. The other might just be having a hard time and not very able to take care of him at the moment. So he is in foster care and finds loving families there who are able to help care for him.

When I was very little, I wanted to be an ice skater. After I went to summer camp for the first time in fourth grade, I wanted to be a camp counselor, and I got to be one when I was in college. Later I wanted to be a doctor or a teacher. I’ve had real jobs as a health educator, a grant writer, a youth worker, and now I’m an author and writing teacher. My fantasy job now would be architect. I think it would be really cool to design buildings!

Styx was in a car accident. There might be several reasons why the accident happened, but I tend to think it’s because Styx got on the moped while he was feeling upset, and he probably wasn’t paying as much attention to his driving as he should have been. It can be risky to drive when you are really sad or mad or having big emotions. It is safer to take time to calm down. Since the accident happened off screen, though, I didn’t decide exactly how it occurred, but usually accidents are a result of a combination of bad luck and perfectly bad timing! As to why I (the author) chose to have Styx get in an accident, it was because I didn’t want him to be able to run away, as he was trying to do. I wanted him to have to stay and confront his feelings and the things that scared him. I felt like something dramatic had to happen in order to cause Styx to be vulnerable enough to be able to reconnect with his former foster dad who loves him.

Well, the inspiration of the baby-sister trading came first, so I knew they had to have a little sister when I started writing. I debated about what age to make her and how to use her character later in the story. I liked the idea of Cory bonding with the baby, but I didn’t feel like she needed to have a huge role in the story beyond that opening. There’s enough of an age difference between the boys and Susie that it wouldn’t have made sense for her to go along on their adventures. I did want to have a girl in the book, though, so that’s how I decided to write Pixie.

Yes, many! There are some scenes that I wrote that didn’t make it into the finished book. Mostly they are scenes with Styx and Caleb and Bobby Gene in the woods that didn’t advance the plot enough. Even though we only see some of their time together, I figure they hung out a lot more.

The ending was hardest to write. Everything after the accident. I changed it a few times, varying whether Styx got hurt, and how the rest of the resolution happened after that. The beginning was second-hardest to write. The first scene I wrote was the one where Caleb and Bobby Gene meet Styx in the woods, and then I told the 4th of July part of the story in flashback. When I had to make the opening chronological, I had to write a new opening page. I was very happy with how I ultimately solved the problem and I like the beginning (and the ending) a lot!