Are Authors Total Thieves?

So, you wrote a book.

The first thing every friend, family member, and fan will assume? You stole everything from real life because you're an unoriginal fraud. My response to that, after years of defending my honor, is... 

FINE. 

​I'm calling their assumption and saying yes. I did steal some things. Why? Because I could. Because real life inspires me. Because nothing in this world is truly ours.

You might be surprised at the things I stole and the things I didn't. Allow me to enlighten you.

NAMES:

• Ella Kepler 
  • My favorite childhood book was Ella Enchanted. 
  • I was in Astronomy class in college, learning about Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion, when I first started writing. The name was totally a filler at first, but then it stuck.
• Kara Watson
  • Her name is an altered combo of the female celeb crushes (at the time) of my bestie and me. Hers: Kiera Knightley. Mine: Emma Watson.
• Ethan Sheedy
  • His name was initially Ian, so no: I DID NOT NAME HIM AFTER MY HUSBAND. (Whose name is "Nathan.") Then I learned about Ian O'Shea of Stephenie Meyer's The Host and thought the name & physical similarities were too problematic. So I asked a friend to come up with a different name, and she suggested Ethan because it's not far off from Ian. (Thank you, friend.)
  • At the time, I babysat for a kid whose last name was "Sheedy." I thought it was the coolest last name ever, and appropriately Irish. Yes, he knows I stole his last name.
• Grifters
  • They were called "monsters" until a friend suggested the name of his brother's old band.
• McFarland
  • In elementary school, I was friends with a girl whose last name was McFarland, and everyone called her "McFartland"—not for any real reason other than being total jerks. I haven't seen this girl since I was 10, but I still think about that stupid name. I wanted to give it to a character who is strong, moral, and doesn't care one lick about petty insults.
• Jimmy Daniels
  • I knew a kid of a *very* similar name. He was the quirkiest, most unique kid I'd ever met. Initially, Jimmy was supposed to be Ella's random, funny classmate and nothing more. Then, he turned into one of the most critical characters of the series. Funny how that happens.
  • When I was in college, Jimmy's namesake walked into the library where I worked, WHILE I was writing. Mind you, this was a decade after I'd last seen him, and in a different city. He totally remembered me, and we chatted for a bit. Did I tell him I was currently writing about a character I'd named after him? Heck no. I just gaped. It was surreal.

​
CHARACTERS:

• Vires
  • He's probably the most bona fide stolen character in my books. Initially, Vires was a filler character so that the academy contained cadets other than Ethan and Lydia Burnette. I didn't know much about him—what he looked or acted like. Then came my college Lit Theory class. I cannot describe to you what happened when I noticed a certain classmate. When he opened his mouth, my mind went *VIRES!VIRES!VIRES!* This character I'd never cared to develop suddenly exploded with life. His personality, his physical appearance, his manner of speaking--Hello, Vires. Nice to meet you.
  • Said classmate inspired this blog post.
• Kara
  • ​In the earlier drafts, Kara was obnoxious, selfish, and bratty. I didn't realize until my alpha readers told me. No one cared when she got kidnapped! I decided she needed to appear innocent, fragile, and sweet, that way it's all the more horrifying that she winds up in the clutches of evil, and Ella feels all the more determined to save her. Much of her sweetness—plus her witty, quiet humor—came from one of my alpha readers, who dealt with these drafts much like Kara deals with Ella: in an honest, kind, tip-toey, mothering kind of way. It was this friend who delicately said, "Adelaide, does Ella have to play soccer?" A friend like that deserves to be imbued in our MC's bestie.

PLOT:

• Stealing from my dreams doesn't count as stealing. But, in 8th grade, I had a dream where a girl was on the run from some evil forces and found safety in a cabin in the woods. There was a guy there, and of course they fell in love.
• Flashforward to high school. At a friend's soccer game, I wondered what would happen if someone on the team had superpowers and the government sent spies to observe her to make sure she didn't draw too much attention to herself. Because of that idea, The Trace was about soccer for many, many drafts. 
• When I began writing, my bestie and I were separated by college. I could see her floundering--hanging out with the wrong crowd and making herself miserable. I wanted to rescue her but couldn't. So I wrote a book where a girl is desperately trying to rescue her best friend. It took me a long time to tell this friend, but she knows now.
• This friend and I were also suffering through painful trials with our older brothers. Ella's journey toward forgiving Kyle Watson mirrored mine as I struggled to love my brother again. He and I are now BFFs.

SCENERY:

• The dream that sparked The Trace took place in the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania. Mountains, trees, forests: those were my stomping grounds as I worked first through this idea. Naturally, my books had to take place in a similar setting.
• My sister's in-laws live in Blairsville, GA, in an awesome house in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Every time I visited growing up, my imagination went wild with plotting. So that's where the academy is: somewhere around Blue Ridge. SPO-10, located in the made-up "Sullivan, GA," is actually in Blairsville. The Creekside grocery store where Ella+Ethan meet Mae Keane is Booger Hollow. (Yes, that's the real name.)
• Durgan's Grifters live in Sumter National Forest in SC; Chron's Grifters live in the Francis Marion Forest (renamed "Dewey") in Wambaw ("Wallowaw") Swamp.
• The Goose Swamp Navy base is actually Goose Creek in real life. My brother-in-law was stationed there.

So, there you have it. Feast your eyes on my thievery. ​Now it's your turn to tell me what YOU'VE stolen!