I’m very aware that UNDER SHIFTING STARS deals with sensitive issues, as these are issues that I care about very deeply–which is exactly why I wrote this book.

Having Audrey save these precious items for her family was a very healing process for me. Someone else might describe it differently, but this is my experience.ĭuring the Alberta Flood of 2013, my childhood home was flooded and my family lost a variety of items, but the hardest part was losing objects of sentimental value: boxes of photographs childhood stuffed animals, clothes, school assignments and crafts a dollhouse built by my parents’ hands my wedding dress. Clare was inspired by the part of me that would only wear dresses in early elementary, felt like a tomboy as a pre-teen, gender-neutral as a teen, and now feels more feminine than I have in years after carrying and birthing my children. Audrey was inspired by the part of me that sometimes felt different from other kids growing up because I was happiest while creating art–in my case, writing. While Audrey and Clare are fictional characters, I would say I sprinkled aspects of myself into both Audrey and Clare, and some of my life experiences into their story. The base is a broth we make up wholesale… Then, to that entirely made-up broth, we add a sprinkling of research, some chunks of childhood memories, a handful of sautéed morsels overheard at the playground, a few diced bits we weren’t planning on but turned out to need for depth of flavor, and some finely chopped pieces of our own lives.” Laurie Frankel explained it better than I ever could when she wrote, “Writing a novel is like making soup. Writers of fiction are often asked if the stories they write are based on their own lives. I’m extremely honored that UNDER SHIFTING STARS is a Junior Library Guild gold standard selection and a Canadian Children’s Book Centre starred selection! This means it will be in school libraries in the USA and Canada.

Under shifting stars