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 Years ago, I wrote a series of feature articles about families with drug and alcohol-addicted teens. The moms talked candidly about their children, their heartbreaking struggles. Those stories stayed with me.
My husband and I have four daughters. When I began writing In Leah's Wake, they were teens. Most families struggle in some way during their children's teenage years. We’re no different - though, thank goodness, we experienced nothing remotely like the problems and challenges the Tylers face in the book.
As a parent, I know how it feels to be scared, concerned for your children’s future. That, I think in retrospect, was the primary force that drove me to write this story. I also hated the way parents competed with and judged one another, and I felt, and still feel, strongly that zero tolerance policies, while the drive to enforce them comes from a place of love, are wrong-headed. In the book, Leah is kicked off the soccer team, for a host of reasons, but essentially for drinking. When she's caught at a party, the high school principal forces the soccer coach to dismiss her from the team. I don't understand this – why punish a troubled child by alienating him or her from the community, taking away this positive influence?
My work with families, my personal experiences and core beliefs – all these things played on my conscious and subconscious mind, and ultimately emerged as this book. |
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