f.a.q.

on For Keeps

What inspired you to write For Keeps? The seed for this story (no pun intended) came from a rumor that was started about me when I was a freshman in high school, that I was pregnant and the reason my family was moving from New York to Massachusetts was to cover up this alleged pregnancy. While the rumor was decidedly false (I was a virgin!) the idea that something like this could actually happen to a teenage girl stuck with me.

What if I really had been pregnant? What if I kept the baby, but, because my family moved away, she never got to meet her father until he suddenly showed up out of nowhere?

The idea of writing from the teenage daughter’s perspective while feeling everything from the mother’s perspective intrigued me. Writing this book, I got to be both Josie and Kate.

Do you have a best friend like Liv? No, but I wish I did. I created Olivia Weiss-Longo out of the clear blue sky, attributing to her all of the qualities I would like to have in a best friend.  I think she deserves her own book.

Are Pops and Dodd based on anyone you know? No, but they’re amalgams of some of my favorite people. Dodd is based loosely on my favorite hairdresser in Boston. If I could make anyone a hair cake out of yellow Twizzlers, it would be Eddy.