Ask the Author: Wendelin Van Draanen
Answered Questions (2)
Wendelin Van Draanen
Hi, Hannah! When I was a classroom teacher I couldn't help but notice that the kids in my classes did the same thing I did at their age: Crush on someone without really knowing them. Despite a teacher's best intentions, there's no coaching rational considerations into kids with crushes. What could we possibly know about how they're feeling, right? And since the best epiphanies come about through experience, I hoped that showing characters experience an evolution from seeing only the surface to seeing what lies beneath it might be a way to encourage thought on what love really is. The rest of the story built up from there. Thanks for asking! (Please visit my website if you're interested in knowing more--there's a lot there on Flipped.)
Wendelin Van Draanen
I didn't notice the seed for The Secret Life of Lincoln Jones being planted. I just visited my mom every day at the care facility where she spent the last two years of her life. I didn't see the story there--it was just something that was private and painful. Over those years I got to know the other residents as well as the caregivers. It wasn't until after my mom passed that I realized how much I'd witnessed, how much I'd learned. And then Lincoln's voice started up. That's what my characters do--one day they'll just start talking. Lincoln was who he was from that first voicing - funny, sweet, smart...and alone. A boy who uses writing as therapy, as escape. A boy who sees one world and wishes for another. A boy who needs to break free of his secrets.
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