Kaleidoscopic

FUN FACTS

1.     This book was supposed to be a simple one-on-one romance, but I couldn't figure out the perfect match for Danny so I made two and the love triangle began. I wanted to make it non-cliché and actually hard to choose an endgame couple.

2.     The original title for this book was High Dive. Jackson and Evan were going to be divers, not swimmers. I changed it when I realized it was going to be more complex than I had originally planned.

3.     Chris was inspired by my personal favorite characters within multiple cinematic universes, including: Stiles from the show Teen Wolf, Benny from the movie My Babysitter's A Vampire, Flounder from the movie Animal House, Ron from the show Kim Possible, Felix from the show Love, Victor, and Ned from Marvel's Spiderman.

4.     Most of this book was written in a hair salon because I'm a front desk receptionist. My boss lets me write and do homework while I work. She's genuinely one of the kindest people I have ever met, which is why she inspired Nadine.

5.     I showed the character aesthetics to my best friend and she was the one who said Nadine and Bones looked like a couple, so I wrote them as a couple for her.

6.     This story takes place in Des Plaines, Illinois because that's where The Breakfast Club was filmed. Illinois was also the first state in America to decriminalize homosexuality in 1961, so I thought that was very fitting. Additionally, Cass County is a real place and was one of the first counties in Illinois to present a legal marriage license to a same-sex couple in March of 2014.

7.     My older brother is a numismatist, which basically means he collects and inspects currency. He gets super triggered whenever he finds something with writing on it, but I think it's cool. That's what inspired the writing on the dollars.

8.      A lot of my aesthetics and plot inspiration came from: the show That 70s Show, the show Twin Peaks, the show Riverdale, the show Stranger Things, the book/movie Perks of Being A Wallflower, the movie Boy Erased, the movie Dream Boy, the movie The Edge of Seventeen, the movie Clueless, and classic 80s movies, such as: The Breakfast Club, Valley Girl, Sixteen Candles, Dirty Dancing, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Footloose, Grease, Back to the Future...etc.

9. Writer and director John Hughes famously wrote the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off in just six days. This amazing feat challenged me to complete the plot outline for Kaleidoscopic in only one weekend. I finished writing the entire book six months later. 

10. Evan's character was greatly inspired by my dad's childhood. He was a swimmer, and when he was a teenager he never swam with goggles. To this day, he blames the chlorine for his bad eyesight. I turned his poor vision into a figurative subplot – making Evan blind to Danny's cheating and Jackson blind to his own feelings for Evan.

11. Jackson was originally going to be a twin because the real person he's based on is a twin.

12. Danny's family was inspired by my mom's childhood. She grew up in a Catholic immigrant family, which inspired Danny's strong morals.

13. Clem was named after Clem Burke, who was the drummer of the band Blondie and the band Ramones.

14. One of my favorite fictional characters is Atticus Finch from the book To Kill A Mockingbird. Atticus Finch was an incredibly inspiring character to me as a child because I always admired his compassion, empathy, and determination. Atticus's open-mindedness influenced Mr. Webster's persona and his outlook on Evan being gay. I also think this helps explain the origin of Evan's multiplex confidence. A lot of times, in mainstream entertainment, a father with a gay son is stereotypically homophobic. I wanted to challenge this narrative with a timeless parallel and showcase the idea that it is possible to have a supportive father-son dynamic.

15. I used a lot of opposite aesthetics and colorful imagery within this story. For example, night and day, white hair and dark hair, blue eyes and brown eyes, leather and denim, preppy and punk, religion and astrology, Greek and Roman references, magic and science...etc. I wanted to draw attention to these differences because, even if two people are opposites, not only can they love each other, but they can also love the same person. Love truly binds us all.

16.      Some of the aesthetic pictures are real! Can you guess which ones?

17.      I used the rule of three a lot. Meaning, three main characters, three stanzas, or three occurrences. This was to symbolize a lot of different things: the holy trinity, a three-mirrored kaleidoscope, and of course, a love triangle.

18.      I have two godmothers, which is why I wanted Clem to have two godfathers.

19.       Kenneth is the only character based on a real person whose name I did not change. The real Kenneth is an 80 year old retired mechanic who spends most of his time in his garage. He likes to to tell stories and I like to listen.

20.       The 1981 movie Arthur was my parents' first date, which inspired the name of Clem's husband and is also the reason I wanted Evan to work at a movie theater.