Or possibly before, I’d have to check the timeline for WINTER TOWN, but it was the summer of 2011 that I was toying with three book concepts, a ghost story, a band story, and this comic book reading kid. I started it in 2011, shortly after WINTER TOWN came out. How long did you work on BRIGHT LIGHTS, DARK NIGHTS? He really needed to let it all out and say some things that wouldn’t be fun to hear. I did draft after draft of Walter facing his father and I kept making it too nice, too easy. It’s hard to write ugly words and have these characters hurt each other. You love these characters and you want them to be sweet and romantic and thoughtful and nice. There’s a lot of fighting in this book! The fighting was hard to write – particularly between Walter and his father, and Walter and Naomi. What scene was really hard for you to write and why, and is that the one of which you are most proud? Or is there another scene you particularly love? I had to cut a lot of material out and start again with a much more interesting story to tell. I tried for a while to make the two stories mesh but it became clear one story was much more interesting and the other was just a fun gimmick.
As I started churning out chapters, it became clear I was writing two books, one about a kid’s comic book fantasies, and one about the real world reactions to this interracial relationship.
Naomi was part of his story, Jason and Lester were involved, but it was more about a kid dealing with growing up in a unique way. The initial idea, or story gimmick I had, involved Walter being a comic book fan and viewing his world through comic book tropes.
Elements of the final book I saw right from the start, but so much of the story developed from spending time with the characters and world. Writing what eventually became BRIGHT LIGHTS, DARK NIGHTS was a very organic process.
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