Behind the Scenes

It’s strange what memories from childhood stay with you. I am not sure why, but one of the clearest memories I have is a birthday party I went to the summer before junior high school. It was the birthday of a boy in my class. I remember what I was wearing and the surface of the patio and the giant cake. I remember the way I felt so happy to be invited. Most of our class was there. We were all right on the cusp of being teenagers. Money and looks and were not yet so important.

The memory of this party floated to me one day and I thought about it as a starting scene for a book. I thought it would be interesting to write from the perspective of the twelve-year-old girl at that party. The disappearance of her best friend is Dell’s first exposure to the evil and darkness that exist in the world, and she wrestles with how to pair that with the goodness and light she has known of childhood. Dell has to come to terms with the fact that very little in life is black or white. Between the Sun and Rain is an allusion to this. At the same time, it calls to mind the universal symbol of hope.