![]() For me, anything can spark a new idea-whether it’s a new scientific development, something I saw on the news, a book or a TV show-as long as I have enough brain space open for it. One more note about Dragonbird: many dyslexic people who love to read, but my kids don’t, so Jiara doesn’t either.īut back to inspiration in general. It’s her violent ghost of a sister, a killer on the loose, and a new husband who doesn’t speak her language. ![]() ![]() I didn’t set out to write an issue book though. I did research and found that plenty of dyslexic people are multilingual, and I wanted to depict that. We live in Germany, and once we had the diagnosis, some people (not experts) tried to convince me to stop speaking English to them, thinking concentrating on only one language would make reading and writing easier. That can really impact a person’s feelings of self-worth. In this case specifically, Jiara’s portrayal drew heavily on my children, both of whom were diagnosed with dyslexia after hearing for years from the school that they just needed to work harder/longer at practicing reading and writing. ![]() I’m usually inspired to write by “What If” questions: in this case, what if a princess had to marry someone and they didn’t share a common language? And then because my children were struggling with dyslexia while growing up bilingually, what if this princess who was thrust into investigating a murder while learning a new language also had dyslexia? ![]() I’ve just released my debut YA fantasy novel A Dragonbird in the Fern. ![]()
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