Almost Fourteen follows a group of middle school students as they navigate the complexities of young love, friendships, and school drama, all while facing real-world dangers and moral dilemmas. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Almost Fourteen is actually a continuation of a series that originally I started for two of my grandchildren when they were in 5^th and 6^th grade (The Mystery of the Old Purse). As a writer I became invested in the two characters (Cali Snipe and Sky McCray), and I began inventing situations for the two characters. Also, as a retired school counselor, I was familiar with some of the school situations that teens encounter and need to navigate as they transition into adults. I try to include those situations in the novels.

I was also interested in showing examples of positive parenting, concerned and functioning adults trying to mentor their teen son or daughter in a beneficial fashion.

There was a lot of time spent crafting the character traits in this novel. What was the most important factor for you to get right in your characters?

I hope the way they converse with each other, the dialog between teen characters, mostly ones who are motivated and have high personal expectations, would be realistic. Unfortunately for a writer, teen-speak changes rather rapidly so it is difficult to make dialog of characters always apropos for the current generation of adolescents. For example, currently (2024-25) most teens communicate largely via phone texts while when I was working as a school counselor most teens communicated face-to-face.

Judy Bloom and S.E. Hinton do this better than me. Their youth characters still register well with modern youth.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book? 

Teen romance, teen friendship, teen rivalries, inspirational teachers/coaches, healthy teen activities/sports, self-reliance when solving challenges.

I hope the series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers? 

As it now stands, the series has followed Cali and Sky and their friends through junior high and into high school. In Forced Apart, Cali and Sky are in eleventh grade. If I do write the eighth volume in the series, they will be in twelfth grade, will have already seen some of their friends graduate and go on to other experiences, and they will also be graduating and moving on to develop new friendships either in college, in the military, or in the workforce.

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