Wherever You Go

I wrote this book while my daughter was in high school. I thought about the advice and love I wanted to send her into the world with, and those thoughts became WHEREVER YOU GO. The book is also dedicated to her. And, it was published the year she graduated, so the timing was perfect.

The first two lines came to me randomly when I wasn’t writing or thinking about writing. I wrote them down and then started working on them in earnest. I find writing rhyme to be much more difficult than writing prose, so it took many drafts and many long hours of staring at my computer and tapping out the beat on the table to get the language where I wanted. I wanted each action the road took to mirror a life stage or a life choice, so I did a lot of Google searches looking for various landscape words. After I had a version I was pleased with, the book’s initial editor, Connie Hsu, provided invaluable feedback to make it even better.

Even though I was thinking about my daughter as I wrote, I wanted it to be a book for younger children too. So I used the theme of traveling and roads. I hoped older teens and adults would see it as a metaphor of life’s journey and younger readers would get a sense of all the possibilities waiting for them.

My favorite part of writing a book is seeing which illustrator the publisher matches me with and then seeing what he or she creates after reading my words. I was thrilled when I saw the rabbit and the other animals Eliza envisioned. I initially assumed the book would feature people. But once I saw the animals, I couldn’t picture it any other way. I usually don’t have much input on the art. If I see something that concerns me, I will mention it, but that’s a rare occasion. Eliza did a marvelous job of bringing everything to life with her glorious, detailed artwork. I find something new to admire every time I pick up the book.