Goodreads asked Shannon L. Peel:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Shannon L. Peel When my son was 8 years old I was emceeing a fundraising event. The first speaker was a lost boy of South Sudan and his story about surviving in a war torn region by himself, at the age of 8. The story pulled at my heart.

The more I learned about the Lost Boys of South Sudan the more I wanted to write a story about their experiences, however, I soon found out that it was not my story to tell. The words came, the storyline was laid out, chapters complete, but it was set in a place I'd never been and most in the Western World couldn’t identify with. As soon as my words moved to the African setting it removed the reader from empathizing with the characters, as it was ‘other.’ It was Africa. Things like war happen over there all the time, it had little to do with the North American experience.

Although inspired to write, I felt frustrated because I had no idea how to achieve my goal, until one day while on a walk in my South Surrey Neighbourhood, an idea came to me -- Why not bring the war to Canada?

The more I thought about it the more it made sense. An invasion resulting in a totalitarian government in Canada would change everything and make the story more relevant to my intended audience.

At the time the idea to bring the war to Canada came to me, I was struggling with my son's desire to be more independent at the age of 13. My struggle to come to terms with the drastic change in him is a universal struggle all mothers have as their children grow.

THIRTEEN draws from these two conflicts to create a fast paced action story about a mother and son at odds with each other and stuck behind enemy lines. They find themselves caught without power, communication, technology, and transportation. The mother’s focus is on care and survival. The boy is motivated by a sense of justice along with the need to locate his father.

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