Hard. The hardest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. When I first wrote it, I had 25 pages and I said, “That’s it, I’m done. All done.” And my editor said, “I think it’s a little short.” But then I would be off for five or six weeks and I would be reading all kinds of books regarding discrimination and incarceration, you know, prejudice. And then I’d dive back in and I’d write some more. And then I would just have a heartbreak or I’d find out somebody else has died recently, somebody else has been murdered as an innocent and then I’d stop writing again.
So, it was in fits and starts. So, a lot of things weren’t layered in until later, like Carlos, the young man who gives the gun to Jerome. It was a year and a half before Carlos ever appeared. So, I started with Jerome, Emmett, then came Sarah and the police officer, then came Carlos. But it was hard. And, you know, honestly, I still haven’t quite recovered.
It was so important for me to get it right. So important that no child be stereotyped within that book, whether Hispanic, white or black. No stereotypes, but love, compassion, affirmation. And I wanted everyone to feel as though they could be the change. So, this is a book for every child of every ethnic heritage in the entire world.
And I swear to you, if we hadn’t gotten it right, if I hadn’t felt in my soul that I had given it everything I possibly could have given it and that I had made that line of truth and love, it never would have been published. So, sometimes I think I get scared that I might not be able to write another book after this one because I think I did get it right.
But it took a whole lifetime of living, loving, having the grandparent that I had, having the hardships that I’ve had to get to that place that said, “You know what? Always we rise. Life and love rise.”