The Reluctant Bully follows a group of children who try desperately to make sense of the existing pain caused by bullying that occurred long ago. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The characters were originally introduced in my first book of the trilogy, The Lunch Money Treasure. Without giving away the ending of the first book, I wanted to offer different perspectives on bullying, and my intention was to write a more nuanced story for TRB that demonstrates the different ways children handle the pressures of abuse.

What drew you to include the 1982 storyline alongside the 2006 narrative?

Two reasons, and again, I do not want to give away any surprises in either book. I always planned to provide backstories for some characters from TLMT in future books, and the 1982 storyline drives adult decisions in the 2006 narrative. In both books, you are introduced to an adult with a calm demeanor. However, as with a river, what you see on the surface might appear calm, but you do not know what turmoil lies beneath.

Did any of the characters evolve in unexpected ways as you were writing?

Lynn, better known as Smoochie, was supposed to simply be a Nancy Drew-type character in my stories. However, as I was writing TRB, I decided that she would also become a more hardened character and occasionally demonstrate “bull-in-a-china-shop” traits.

What do you hope young readers take away from Lynn’s journey?

That the impossible is possible. I want readers to believe that they can determine their own endings, because they can.

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