What inspired me to write Friendship on Fire?

The easy answer: I woke up one Sunday morning and a girl with accidentally dyed red hair was vividly in my head as the school captain of a conservative school who was about to get into big trouble with the principal. I tried to ignore her, saying to myself that I was way too busy teaching to even think of writing a novel. But the first line kept repeating itself in my head – always with the first lines. “You would think that at a school as large as mine, one could go unnoticed and subtly anonymous for one day…” and it snowballed from there. The plot came in such a hurry that I had to plot point straight away and I could have sworn I’d be able to write the story in a week. 

The other bits: I was given a challenge in my mind and I took it. More than that, Daisy’s voice was very strong in her eagerness to have her story told. But it’s more than that. We don’t think to record every idea or thought we ever have. I chose to write my story because I like stories about teenagers finding their own way through life. They are in the throes of learning the biggest lesson of all: life isn’t simple, it isn’t always black and white. It’s multiple and varied shades of grey. If you mix these shades of grey you might end up getting close to black or white, but in the end, it’s the darkening of themselves around the edges and the ways in which they bend and break that will make young adults more wholesome and refined people; people that others will want to be around.

I also love the unabashed honesty of teenagers, the eyebrow-raising comments said with self-confidence and vulnerability mixed equally. They are passionate, opinionated, energetic people, and that is why it was easy to write Friendship on Fire. Teenagers are not only funny, self-deprecating, brave, and resilient, they are also very fascinating and versatile people to write about. That is why I chose to write Daisy’s story, a story to which so many can relate.

Yes my friends, this is the end of author guest posts and interviews, I will be closing April Indie on Monday with a final review, in the meantime please check out all the fun giveaways over 15 to enter and hurry, they close at midnight April 30th!