Is Kat like you at all?
The only thing that is similar about Kat and me is that we both had to learn how to speak our minds to adults in a firm and respectful way. We both do yoga and I did train and compete in the Danksin mini-tri here in Denver around 2003 or so, but other than that, she’s a lot more talented than me and handled herself better than I would at that age if I had been in her situations.
How long did it take you to write Fact of Life #31?
About two years! This seems to be my timing, though my next book is going faster. It took about 18 months to be published and we had lots and lots of revisions, even up to the last minute!
Where did you get the idea for the story?
I had hoped to have my children born at home with a home birth midwife but the idea kind of freaked out my husband so we compromised–I used nurse midwives and gave birth in the hospital. I loved the process and the approach that midwives have to childbirth–that it’s natural and not a medical condition, which is how a lot of people see it.
I wanted to write about it but wanted to write it for teens. That’s when I came up with Kat, a smart, caring girl who works at her mother’s midwifery (pronounced with a short “i” as in “whiffle”). But as I wrote, the midwifery part became the backdrop to the story, and the real story emerged, which is how Kat comes to realize her strengths and figures out how she can be her own person with a “practically perfect” mother. And of course I have to thrown in some romance!
