Shaina Cilimberg, Author, shares about the Deep River High series
“Perfect Forgiveness” is about some possible causes of school shootings and the consequences of a school shooting. It is also a story about love, hope and forgiveness. I feel that with all this bullying going on, there needs to be an awareness and prevention. I lost a friend to bullycide when i was in eighth grade . That was in February, 2002. It’s not a good thing to experience and you end up wishing you did something to prevent it. I
This book is about a school shooting. I’ve never experienced a school shooting when I was in high school, so I did a lot of research. I heard about Columbine when I was eleven and was shocked. Throughout the years, I’ve heard bullying as the reason. I agree that bullying is a factor in school shootings. I also think there are other factors, because I was bullied and never shot up a school. Lots of people were bullied and never shot anyone.
However, my book focuses on bullying. Two of the other shooters in my book also bully my main character, Kirk. There are times when he wants to back out of the school shooting, but is either scared into continuing with the plan or finds a reason why he thinks he should do it. Peer pressure is another factor and we see lots of this in Devin and Henry. They are the other two shooters and are toxic friends for Kirk. A lot of this is based on Columbine and the Santana High school shooting. I researched Santana High. I was amazed that I couldn’t remember it from 2001. I only remember reading about someone threatening to pull a Columbine. I don’t know the guy, never have. However, I researched enough to know he feels remorse and some of the reasons behind the shooting. However, someone mentioned on a site there are a lot of things the news didn’t cover about the shooting. I’m hoping for my next book to be a little more lighithearted than “Crowded” and “Perfect Forgiveness”, but we’ll see. It’s still about bullying.
The shooting from “Perfect Forgiveness” will still impact a character in “To Be Sane.”
Back to “Perfect Forgiveness” I believe children should be tried as juveniles, so I speak some about that as well. Whether tried as juvenile or adult, the person is still being punished. I think there needs to be a lot of treatment for people so that they understand how bad their crime was and do not even want to do it again, if given the opportunity.
I want readers to look at how much Josh Summers has changed. He’s very smart, fun-loving and kind. He is a 180 from his character in “Crowded”. There’s this deepness inside of him and a hint of the innocence you don’t get to see when he was the bad guy in “Crowded”
He changes a lot through “Crowded” as well. I like his calmer character in “Perfect Forgiveness” better and you will too.
So, Kirk has Josh, Emily, Lydia and a new character as friends. They are good friends, the ones people want/should want to have. They are caring, loving, forgiving, fun and honest.
Then, there’s Devin and Henry, who just make Kirk miserable and make him feel lucky to be their friend at the same time. So you will get to see that play out.
Kirk also has a bad home life, another factor in school shootings. I also think a poor mental health system is part of it, but remember this is just reasons. There are people who are bullied, have/had bad home lives, are mentally ill, are insecure and anything else you could think of and they never shoot anyone. I have Asperger’s and OCD, but I would never do something like this. My book isn’t aimed to justify school school shootings. My book is written to create an awareness of what could be possible causes and to create a sense of empathy. You should care about others. Prevention is one reason, but it goes so much deeper than that. God wants us to forgive and care about others. He wants us to love others. It’s something I struggle with and I’m sure lots of people struggle with it. However, it needs to be taught. It’s also a story of friendship and loyalty. There are people who want to be your friends and are genuine, whether you know it or not. That is also what my book is about. Friendship is beautiful and so is love.
I am hoping to finish “To Be Sane” sometime in 2014. If anyone would like to make an input, like my page “Deep River High Series” on Facebook.
The next book is about two Freshmen at Deep River High. The boy is shy and has suffered bullying in the past. Two of his bullies go on to his highschool. The boy I’m speaking of is Andy Young, who readers may have caught a glimpse of in “Crowded” and “Perfect Forgiveness”. The girl speaks Spanglish, has OCD and Aspergers and she gets bullied too. I am excited about it, but might decide to edit it some more. It is in the works, so to speak. This book will be more about cyberbullying.
Bullying can be verbal, physical, mental and emotional.
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