We piled in the car and headed north to the small coal towns of Central Pennsylvania. This is where The Goodbyes takes place. Our plan? Grab some footage of the places mentioned in the book for the book trailer and behind-the-book vlog posts. During our junior year, my college roommate's parents moved to Glendale, Pennsylvania. Once a month, we'd make the forty minute drive from State College (which seemed like four hours back then) for a real meal. We'd pass through Glen Hop

When I write, I usually bounce between Pandora stations and my iTunes library. Some days I get obsessed with a specific song and play it on repeat until I never want to hear it again. Other days I let the algorithms decide what I need to hear. But writing The Goodbyes was different. Since Webb was a musician, I was afraid to let other artist’s lyrics sneak into my prose. I needed the musical equivalent to white noise. So, many of the chapters were written to the soundtrack of

I was late for school without a note—again. My unexcused absences had piled up like stamps on a Subway rewards card. But instead of a free tuna sub, I was cashing them in for another in-school suspension. I stood in Dr. Butterini’s office, enduring another lecture on truancy. But I was just happy to be in a temperature-regulated building. At that moment, my home was the stairwell of an apartment building. It was February. In Pittsburgh. Everything I owned was shoved in my sch