Not Just Another Brick in the Wall! follows two fifteen-year-old students, a boy and a girl (Sky McCray and Cali Snipe), who just started high school and who find out that an older high school girl was kidnapped, raped, and murdered at the school last year. Cali thinks she can help solve the case. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Cali Snipe and Sky McCray had experience being kidnapped (events that happened in the previous three novels in the series). In those stories, a local crime boss had hoped to sell them to sex traffickers for a large sum of money. Using their wits and sometimes with the help of teen friends they were always able to escape, but they are knowledgeable of what fates awaited them if their sale to traffickers had transpired.  Consequently, once made aware of the kidnapping and murder of a classmate, they are determined to expose the guilty perpetrator.

Sky had always been the primary creator of the method(s) for his and Cali’s escapes in the past, so this time I wanted Cali to have the limelight in solving this new kidnapping dilemma.

As in the previous novels, friends become crucial, this time for Cali’s ability to gain insight on the criminal responsible for the crime. However, it is her own courage, ingenuity, and her determination that eventually solve the mystery and helps her bring the pedophile to justice.

Cali and Sky are your typical teenagers when not investigating crimes. Are there any emotions or memories from your own life that you put into your characters’ life?

One emotion would be the pleasure of sharing concerns and humor with close friends. Even sharing homework assignments can be bonding and enjoyable and often outrageously humorous.

One memory of my teen days was mine and my friends’ constant curiosity about our budding interest in sexuality and our confusion regarding our sexuality.  Accurate information about relationships between males and females was not available to teens when I was in high school.  Teens could not even take a book from the local library to read if it contained “adult” material.

I wanted to focus on both these issues for teens in my books. I wanted to highlight the joy of sharing daily experiences, mundane or otherwise, with friends. When we look back on our teen years as adults, we realize how precious and rewarding were those moments. I also wanted to include accurate and timely information on human sexuality that some of my teen readers might be seeking. I also hoped that some parent readers would realize the importance of offering tactful but accurate and enriching advice on sexual issues.

Do you think there’s a single moment in everyone’s life, maybe not as traumatic, that is life-changing?

Absolutely. Sometimes it can be a traumatic or dramatic event like a car or airplane crash or an unexpected health issue or the death of a close relative. Or it could be something as inconspicuous as something someone says to you like a teacher saying you will never learn to write well or solve math problems, or a friend saying to you that it was so out-of-character for you for the despicable way you treated another person. What is then lifechanging is not the event or what was said but how you respond to it. Your positive response to the event is what can become life changing.

What will the next book in that series be about and when will it be published?

The book is already written and published: Facing Revenge. Once again, as in most of the earlier books in the series, both Cali and Sky are instrumental in their own way in facing a challenge, a traumatic event, and finding a successful resolution. Assistance from friends is also crucial to their “survival”.

As in the earlier books, other events typical of teen life occur. Cali, Sky, and friends cope with typical teen situations with humor and with comradery.

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