Caitlyn isn't someone to get over. She's someone to come to terms with, the way you have to come to terms with your parents, your siblings. You can't deny they ever happened. You can't deny you ever loved them, love them still, even if loving them causes you pain.

The only thing that works with writing is that you care so passionately about it yourself, that you make someone else care passionately about it.

If all you leave in the library is books that you think speak to everyone, what are you going to have? You'd have nothing.

Little kids are amazing. They seem able to adjust to anything.

you can't deny they ever happened. You can't deny you ever loved them, love them still, even if loving them causes you pain

My characters live inside my head for a long time before I actually start a book. They become so real to me, I talk about them at the dinner table as if they are real. Some people consider this weird. But my family understands.

Nothing teaches you as much about writing dialogue as listening to it.