Book Thief
asked
Laura Nowlin:
When did you fall in love with books? What made you want to write If he had been with me.
Laura Nowlin
I am mildly dyslexic. I was a slow and reluctant reader until I was 9 years old. That year, my family moved from a small town in Arkansas to St. Louis, MO. I made a few friends in my neighborhood, but none in my class, and halfway through the school year, the girls decided that I was to be mocked and ostracized. I discovered that if I concentrated on reading, I wouldn't hear them mocking me, and my lack of reaction took the fun out of teasing me. No one would be my friend, but no one would make fun of me anymore, because I would just pull out my book. They redrew district lines, and I moved to a different school where I had lots of friends from my neighborhood in my class. I'd caught the reading bug though, and it never left me.
What made me write IHHBWM? My first novel had been rejected again and again, and I was giving up hope that I would ever be an author. I was severely depressed, so much that I was briefly hospitalized. During my recovery, while I was still an outpatient, I dreamed that I was a girl whose friend had died. She knew that if he had just been with her, he would still be alive. I woke up shaken and depressed still, but also inspired. I got up, wrote the first chapter of IHHBWM and went back to bed. The next morning, I looked over what I had written and realized it was the best thing I had ever written. Writing that book gave me purpose again.
What made me write IHHBWM? My first novel had been rejected again and again, and I was giving up hope that I would ever be an author. I was severely depressed, so much that I was briefly hospitalized. During my recovery, while I was still an outpatient, I dreamed that I was a girl whose friend had died. She knew that if he had just been with her, he would still be alive. I woke up shaken and depressed still, but also inspired. I got up, wrote the first chapter of IHHBWM and went back to bed. The next morning, I looked over what I had written and realized it was the best thing I had ever written. Writing that book gave me purpose again.
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