The Insanity of a Wallflower

Questions and Answers

Hi everyone,

Yes... I know you all want to kill me. Trust me I do too. Thank you for being patient and sending all your encouraging messages and comments. I read every single one of them and they meant the world to me. Nothing makes me happier than seeing people reach out to see if I was okay. So thank you for that.

I felt it would be a good thing to post today and at least do a Q/A's since my inbox is usually full of them. Thank again for your support, and sorry for not being here. My employer went under, and I was suddenly jobless. Luckily my etsy store kept me afloat all winter, but it was still a chaotic and dark time. Good news though, I went to school for some skill trades (got my welding license too!) and was able to work with that until I landed another job, this time in medical.

So without further ado:

Q/A's:

Q: Where does this story take place? There's never a mention of a state or city.

A: That's because I purposely didn't want to put one in. Pretty lame I know, but as this school is already fictional, I didn't really want to ground it to a real place. I picture it on the west coast, maybe Oregon? But it really could be anywhere. If this story ever gets published I'll put more effort into transitioning it into a real place.

Any ideas would be helpful too. Where did you see it?

Q: Alys talks very mature. Why does she speak like an adult? Isn't it unrealistic?

A: Well, that is actually how I speak/spoke when I was a senior too. And keep in mind, she pretty much is an adult. I began this story when I was a teenager in my sophomore year (20's now), and it never occurred to me that she sounded older. I grew up reading anything and everything, so I suppose without meaning to, my vocabulary is a bit more varied. But looking back to even as a young child, the Harry Potter novels had large beautiful sentences- and a lot of Latin words- and it's a children's book. This story I'm writing is a young adult novel, and I think it should be wrote with varied and vast words.

It stunned me at first that people didn't agree with how she spoke (many comments at the beginning of this story). But what concerned me even more was no one had a problem with how Hayden spoke, which was almost exactly on the same level. It was like, without knowing it, these readers reflected every other novel where a man is known to have a more extensive vocabulary but not a girl. That's not normal in real life, dear reader. I can count on two hands how many commenters were unsure of Alys' voice. I have still never heard anyone question Hayden's. Let me stand on my little soap box, That's not okay.

Boys and girls should have a wonderfully diverse vocabulary. How could we not? We read novels starting from our childhoods that prod our limitations. Allow me to write my favorite quotes simply because I loved them so much. I'm not trying to quote Harry Potter to be cliché (because let's be honest, this is the number one book everyone's already read), I mean to quote it to remind you this worldly renowned novel is a children's book. Death, love, and life all entangled in more beautiful words than I could ever hope to put together, meant for 6 to 13-year-olds.

-"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

-"It is a curious thing Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well."

-"Happiness can be found even if the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."

-"Let us step into the night and peruse that flighty temptress, adventure."