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Goodreads asked Lisa de Nikolits:

What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book?

Lisa de Nikolits In my case, I think the question should be "which mystery in your own life has been a plot for a book" and the answer would be The Nearly Girl!

I'm constantly geographically lost and directionally challenged. I nearly get a recipe right but then I veer off into my own version, convinced it will work better. I hop on a bus thinking, well, it's going south, I should be fine. I thought popcorn chicken actually was popcorn with chicken! So I started making popcorn salads and popcorn pancakes and popcorn broccoli. My husband pointed out the error of my ways but I still think my interpretation had potential!

And it's always been a mystery to me why I'm like this, why I can get things nearly correct but then they go oh, so wrong!

But I am boring and my mistakes are not interesting - failed recipes and learning the hard way that dish detergent really doesn't work to clean a bathtub and that NyQuill doesn't cure a migraine aren't things readers are interested in.

So I took my nearly-proneness and turned it into a disorder that leads to murder and mayhem.

Amelia is much more interesting that I will ever be and I am not ashamed to say that of all my books, I love The Nearly Girl the most because of the characters' eccentricities. Dr. Carroll is just nuts and he was huge fun to write. And I just love Henry, Amelia's father.

So a 'mystery' in my own life led me to write my favourite book and I am grateful for that!

Thank you very much for asking this question!

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