ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: InGhost,a father tries to murder his wife and their 9-year-old son.
Where did the idea for this story come from?
They got out of the house and ran into a 7-Eleven, frantic and begging.
Credit: Kia Chenelle; Simon & Schuester
I was like, Ive got to put this in a book.
When you borrow from someones life like that, do you ask them first?
Especially if its something this traumatic.
Did you incorporate the actual emotional aftermath of his ordeal?
Its the whole Toni Morrison thing.
When she wroteBeloved, she got the premise from a newspaper article.
But she didnt do any research.
She was like, Let my imagination do the rest of the work and create this story.
My job is to put myself in the situations using my own trauma and my own experiences.
I know the feeling of confusion and betrayal.
I know the feeling of fearing for my life.
These are the things that I tapped into.
The main character in this novel runs track, which you use as a powerful metaphor.
Theres running from thingswhich we learn to do very youngand running towards them.
Running from your community.
Those are all things I wanted to explore.
This is your second middle-grade book.
What sets them apart from writing YA novels?
Is anything too dark for young readers?
Its about how you execute it.
Eleven-and 12-year-olds are aware of things that you and I werent at their age because of the internet.
And we should be there with them and give them a safe space to have a discussion.
