Did you ever mistake someone else‘s parents for your own when you were little?
I did. I was distracted by something and ran up to what I thought was my mom and grabbed her hand, only to discover it wasn’t my mom but some stranger!
The sheer terror I felt at that moment was very real, but luckily, my mom wasn’t far away, and although a bit rattled, we went on with our day. But I never forgot that experience. It stuck with me, and while looking for story subjects for my character, Bo, I tried to do just that: go back to my childhood and remember feelings and situations I could use.
That became the premise for my second Bo story, where Bo and his mom go to the supermarket.
I often do that when writing. I try to remember situations and my feelings in those situations. Then, I try to represent that feeling to the reader, hoping it will strike a cord. Usually, both children and grown-ups can relate. The children might just have had such an experience, and the grown-ups might evoke a long-lost memory. Relatability and recognition are keywords I try to incorporate in all of my books. Sometimes, it works.
