Weird little things that have inspired The Ever Series

Inspiration. It can come from the strangest places, people we knew when we were younger, a song, a particular incident that stays with us forever. ... Likewise, some scenes and/or aspects of For Ever and Never have been inspired by some very random things:
a-ha's iconic Take on Me music video: If you haven't seen it, search for it on YouTube. Favorite video of all time!

Sonic Youth's The Diamond Sea: Listen to the lyrics! They are so eerie. Love 'em! I had to buy the music video on iTunes because I love the song so much. (If you've read For Ever, what do they remind you of?)

Nearly drowning at West Street Beach in Laguna: I grew up near there.

Growing up in Southern California and moving to Portland, Ore.: Big weather change; love PDX!
 
A high school crush*: He totally had no idea!

The little boy who lived down the street from me: He was really talented (and so cute), but also kind of off in his own world (like Ever).

Falling off a slide in Venice Beach: It was one of those playground slides that twists around. I had been racing my younger brother to the top when I lost my balance. ... I still remember that moment like it was yesterday. Very much like Wren and the drunk driver, I had this crystal clear moment where I thought I could reach up and grab the bar before falling. Then I felt my back connect with the metal slide and a second later my hands slapped the metal as well. OUCH! I had the wind completely knocked out of my when my mother turned around, so all I could do was cry, gasp, and limp toward her (she had been facing the other direction). She totally panicked! I must have looked like a zombie, moaning and gasping. LOL. But this is the one and only time I can remember time actually slowing down in my head, which led me to connect it to the next event, which happened to me in high school before I had my driver's license ...

Nearly getting hit by a car on a city street in Santa Monica, Calif.: My fault, not a drunk driver! My friend and I were about to miss the last bus to her house, and I dashed across the street against the light. A car literally came within a foot of hitting me. Totally thought I was going to die. SO stupid! I always wait for the light now.

The mean girls: Yeah, I went to school with them. Didn't everyone? I have too many bad stories to share here. Wren's run-in with the mean girls was actually pretty tame compared to some of the stuff I saw.

Those guys: You know the ones. They're the guys that you pass on the street. They look at you in a way that makes your skin crawl, and you can nearly see what's going on in their heads. They are the ones that when you see them, your brain screams, "Run!" I had an incident recently where I thought, "If I had been alone like Wren, this would've been bad." Shiver.

Tragic endings across all different genres and age ranges (For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audry Niffenegger, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, Love Story by Erich Segal ... There was even a James Bond novel I read in junior high school that left me crying at the end; I pay a little tribute to it in Never.) My advice? Do not read these without a box of tissue paper!

Long, silly crush-related story ahead ...



* Something my mom said to me in high school: I had it sooo bad for my high school crush. So bad. Ever isn't based on him -- Ever's way hotter in my opinion -- but my crush did have piercing (blue) eyes. Well, one day he showed up in the middle of my U.S. history class to pull me out of class -- because we were both in journalism, and I needed to cover a story. I turned around right after he said, "I need C----," and almost died. Needless to say, that was the one and only time he said "I need" and my name in the same sentence. LOL. And I think my heart actually stopped when he smiled at me. So, you can imagine how obnoxious I was, pining after this guy who was never going to notice lil old me -- not in that way at least. His taste in girls ran far less naive and chaste than I was! After listening to me go on and on, and (I think) trying to spare my feelings, my mom finally floated the theory that the object of my crush was a narc (narcotics agent), and that he secretly liked me, but it would have broken his code of ethics to say so. Hello! So embarrassing! But at the time, it briefly helped ease the pain of going unnoticed.  I totally thought about that when I started Wren's story ... For Ever is just a little more romantic and exciting than my story. ;-)