Tonight I’ve been thinking about the mosaic Hope gave me the night she U-hauled ass out of Pineville.
Before SLOPPY FIRSTS, I’d never written anything longer than a 25-page college term paper. I had a bunch of semi-autobiographical short stories I’d written over the years for various work-shops and was repeatedly encouraged by classmates and teachers to turn them into a novel—something I had absolutely no idea how to do. These stories followed a lot of funny characters making wry observations about the daily indignities of teendom on the Jersey Shore, but lacked an overall plot. More important, there was no emotional core. Why would anyone care about these characters?
In thinking back on my own adolescent life, I could pinpoint THE defining event that changed everything for me: When my best friend moved away mid-way through freshman year. She moved less than 100—not 1,000—miles away. Still far enough to qualify as a long-distance phone call though. And when you’re fifteen years old and don’t have a drivers license 100 miles is a universe apart. My best friend’s departure left me feeling utterly (ahem) hope-less and alone. Over the next three and half years, I made choices—both good and bad—I def-initely wouldn’t have made if she had stayed.
“Write what you know” right? So that’s why we meet Jessica Darling at the post-Hope crossroads of her high school life.
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