Gaby B. asked Mary Beth Keane:

I just finished "Ask Again, Yes" and it completely blew me away. Your characters are so real and develop so naturally. Where do you start when coming up with a character? Did you begin writing about them when they were children or did you hop around in time a bit ?

Mary Beth Keane Thanks. I'm glad you thought so. The problem with this book is that I saw all of the characters at all stages of life simultaneously. Kate, I mostly envisioned as a teen, but I could also see her worry for her family and her life later on. Peter, I mostly saw as a grown man, but then I'd see him as a boy trying to figure out how to be. Anne I could see as a vulnerable child in Ireland and then as a young adult, new to America, determined to be tougher than everyone around her. In the drafting process I hopped around in time quite a bit. I began the book in the present day in one draft, tried to compress the action to a matter of weeks, but that required far too much flashback. And so on. This book took many many drafts. And more pages ended up in the recycling bin than ended up in the book. Once I figured out the structure the process became much quicker.

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