Fiona's about to lose a lot more than her diary.

In Drive Me Crazy, one of the main characters, Cassie Parker, has had a falling out with her best friend, Fiona — but we only get to hear her side of the story. So when my editrix extraordinaire suggested I write a book from Fiona's perspective, I was all in. 

The sacredness of one's diary, after all, is something I hold very dear. I've been writing in a diary since I received one as a Christmas gift when I was eight years old, and I would never read someone else's — let alone have mine read by another person, especially not on the BUS! Though Fiona's diary is very different from mine, I had fun going back through old diaries while I was writing this book.

While I was going down memory lane through my diaries, I was also reminded of how seriously I took my creative writing, even when I was Fiona's age. Though I've been writing my whole life, I'd only created one other a character who cared about it as much as I do (Becca in After the Kiss), but in that book we only see the final product, and not the process. Since one of my other favorite things to do (besides reading and writing) is teaching other people about writing, it was really fun to write the scenes of Fiona's creative writing camp, and show her growth as she learns more (about both writing, and herself). 

The relationship between sisters is also really special to me, and since both Cassie and Lana in Drive Me Crazy don't have sisters themselves, I was happy to give Fiona one. When I was Fiona's age, I still played a lot with my two younger sisters like Fiona plays with Leelu — something that brought me a lot of delight even if I didn't advertise it to many of my friends. My sisters are two of the most important people in my life, and I always learn a lot from them, just like Fiona learns from her own little sister. 

Because bullying is a big problem a lot of middle schoolers (and high schoolers) deal with, I also wanted to write about that issue in a constructive way. Thorughout the book, Fiona learns a lot about how to manage her feelings about being bullied  — and how to get help and stand up for herself — that I hope are helpful to readers. Like Fiona eventually does though, I encourage anyone who's being bullied to find a grown-up they trust to talk to about it. And thank you to The Chapin School for including TIAYFCP on your Top 100 CHOOSE KIND Reading List! 

One last thing that was really neat about writing this book was aligning the events in Fiona's story with those I'd already written in Drive Me Crazy.  Though technically This is All Your Fault, Cassie Parker came out after Drive Me Crazy, you can read them in whatever order you want, and I hope you have as much fun linking the two storylines together as I did!