10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About My Books

…but you might have suspected

Photo of Author (+ author’s bookshelf)

As the title suggests, here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about my books (but you might have suspected).

1. The Boathouse is based off a real place near Kitchener-Guelph, Ontario — in Canada
2. I created the cover of the book myself using a SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) therapy light (what is a SAD therapy light?) — no joke, here is How I Created the Front Cover and Illustrations Inside My Book Using a SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) Therapy Light
3. The book is made up of a series of independent “what if” scenarios all sorted as scenes from least to most messed up, and woven together into a more coherent plot — this was done on purpose to slowly increase the tension and unease throughout the story (see how I did this in my Horror Writing Prompt post)
4. The 2 twist endings are based off 2 separate dreams I had, and I wrote the endings even before I wrote the rest of the book
5. The acknowledgements are based off an animal totems seminar I attended
6. I started writing my young adult series Scientist & Girl Series in 8th grade, but the idea for it came years earlier
7. Doc’s character is loosely based off Doc Brown from Back to the Future and The Doctor from Doctor Who
8. The entire first third of the book Bad Blood (the first book in my YA series) had to be completely rewritten because it was not realistic (a wanted man would never be accepted as fit to adopt a child)
9. Books 1 and 2 in the series were originally written to be a single book, but I split them up when I decided to make them into a series
10. Books 1 and 2 are similar in tone (innocent, lighthearted, and fun action-adventure), while book 3 is different in tone from the previous 2 books (dark, gritty, more mature) — in part to reflect the main character’s growth, going through a transformation about how they view the world, and in part to reflect the loss of innocence that comes with growing up as well as the nature of the…