When art imitates life

The Day We Are Born - inspiration

How much of what you write is from your own life? I lost my mother to cancer 10 years ago, and even though I was an adult when she died, I knew exactly how Elle, my 16-year-old protagonist from The Day We Are Born, would feel at the thought of losing her mom. There is nothing wrong with her mother; it's the thought that alone that leaves her out of breath.

“It’s like I can’t imagine a world where my mother isn’t one of the first faces I see in the morning and the last one I see at night.”

Makes me sad every time I read it.