I could believe that everything would turn out okay even if I wasn’t always perfect.
From the very beginning, I knew that my main character would be imperfect. I think it makes characters so much more interesting and authentic to read about than if they never make mistakes and just happen to have the bad luck to end up in terrible circumstances. As a writer, you're always taking a risk when your character does things that are confusing or frustrating (I know I was frustrated with Dodie a number of times in the book—just talk to Shep already, geesh!) or unkind or selfish. But if I wanted Dodie to be as real as possible, she would have flaws and faults. My hope was that readers would like her and root for her enough to stick around to see if she overcame them and grew through her experiences. Thank you to all the readers who did, and all of you who spent some of your precious reading time in Dodie's world!
