Accused of an assault he doesn't remember, Ricky's senior year is made doubly complicated when he falls for the victim's best friend, Olivia - his only alibi.
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Growing up among New Yo...
Hello, readers. Did you actually read the story? Or did you skip ahead to this chapter? A lot of you probably skipped. I know I would. 😆 But! If you read on from here, without having read the book, you will be spoiling it for yourself. Don't say I didn't warn you. 🖐
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BEHIND THE STORY
By now, it's been a long time since I had the inspiration for this book. I knew I wanted to write a story about being a teenager living with the grief of having suffered a loss, as I was a young teenager when I lost my parents. But it wasn't until I broke up with a boyfriend, years later, that the story fell into place.
Ricky's character is partly inspired by that ex-boyfriend (self-medicating/substance abuse/father issues), partly by me (the loss of a parent after a long period of illness/hidden TBI), and partly completely made up.
In the case of Olivia, she is partially inspired by myself too (bullied/clumsy/sudden and dramatic loss of a loved one—and I started using glasses a while into writing the book too 🤓), but she's also partly inspired by one of my best friends (half Italian/photographer). The rest is, of course, created out of pure imagination.
I first started working on the story back in 2009 (on a different computer). Back then, 2004 wasn't that far off. Little did I know the cruel tricks life had in store for me, making it an immense challenge to reach the end of this writing journey.
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This is a screenshot of an early document I still keep, dated December 2nd, 2009. The title is 'Historie forløb,' which translates as 'storyline.' You might be able to detect the bolder text at the very top reads 'September' and 'October' about halfway down.
When I started the book, I knew I wanted Olivia and Ricky to bond over having lost a loved one, as this was my main inspiration. But I thought it would be too dramatic to write about teenagers who had lost both parents—even if it's my story. Thankfully, the number of young people becoming orphans are limited.
To change things up a bit from myself, I decided Ricky should have lost his mother in a way similar to how I lost my father. The description of her in the hospital is based on my dad.
For Olivia, I took inspiration from the loss of my mother; a sudden car accident. But I didn't want both characters to have lost a parent, so I changed it to Olivia's brother. Though, as fate would have it, I lost a younger cousin, who was like a brother to me, while writing this book. And thus, giving me a very real perspective of what it's like to also lose someone dear from my own generation.
The book is dedicated to them. ❤️
At the beginning of writing the book, it went really well. I would get home from school, do homework, and then write into the early hours of the night, go to bed, get up after only a few hours of sleep, and get ready for school. Rinse and repeat.
