Debut Author Snapshot: Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Experienced foster mother Vanessa Diffenbaugh has two passions: writing and children in need of a home. Her debut novel, The Language of Flowers, introduces the character Victoria Jones on her 18th birthday. Orphaned as an infant, Victoria spends her childhood bouncing from place to place, never adopted fully by a family. Now she must strike out on her own as a legal adult, bolstered only by an affinity for plants and the Victorian "language of flowers," in which every bloom has a unique meaning.

Diffenbaugh opened her home to foster children in 2005, and over the years she has witnessed firsthand how children "age out" of the system at 18. With little access to support or services, 25 percent become homeless and 25 percent become incarcerated within the first two years. Diffenbaugh's novel shares her in-depth knowledge of a flawed system and her hopes for young people who have never known love or a stable living situation. The author shares with Goodreads a snapshot of her with her husband, PK, and their family.

Goodreads: Who or what inspired the character of Victoria?

Vanessa Diffenbaugh: Though Victoria is entirely fictional, I did draw inspiration in bits and pieces from foster children I have known. One young woman in particular, whom my husband and I mentored many years ago, was fiery and focused and distrusting and unpredictable in a manner similar to Victoria. Her history was intense: a number on her birth certificate where a name should have been, more foster homes than she could count. Still, she was resilient, beautiful, smart, and funny. We loved her completely, and she did her best to sabotage it over and over again. To this day my husband and I regret that we couldn't find a way to connect with her and become the stable parents she deserved.

GR: Why is the "language of flowers" an important communication tool in Victoria's life?

VD: Like many young people transitioning out of foster care, Victoria exists mainly on the periphery of society. So much is out of the scope of her understanding—how to get a job, how to make a friend, even how to have a conversation. But in the world of flowers, with their predictable growing habits and "nonnegotiable" meanings, Victoria feels safe, comfortable, even at home. All of this changes when she learns that there is more than one definition for the yellow rose—and then, through research, realizes there is more than one definition for almost every flower. She feels her grasp on the one aspect of life she believed to be solid dissolving away beneath her. In an effort to "reorder" the universe, Victoria begins to photograph and create her own dictionary, determined to never have a flower-inspired miscommunication. She decides to share that information with others—a decision that brings with it the possibility of love, connection, career, and community.

GR: Have you always wanted to write a novel?

VD: I've wanted to be a writer since I learned how to write. My second grade teacher excused me from spelling so that I would have half an hour every day to write a novel. I curled up in the classroom's loft with a binder full of lined paper and wrote a 22-page epic about twin one-and-a-half-year-old boys who build a boat with bubble gum and scraps from the dump and sail away to an island full of monkeys. I still kind of love my first "novel"!

GR: Please tell us about the recently launched Camellia Network, a nonprofit for young people leaving foster care.

VD: When I sold The Language of Flowers last year, I realized that the book could help rally awareness and support for youth transitioning out of foster care. I cofounded Camellia Network with my dear friend and brilliant strategist Isis Keigwin. Our idea is to try to impact the heart-wrenching outcomes of youth aging out of foster care by activating networks of citizens in every community to provide support for these young people as they go out into the world on their own. There are 20,000 youth facing this transition every year.