10 Facts About The Goodbyes - Trivia Edition

It's time for some spoiler-free trivia! Here are ten things you may not know about The Goodbyes!

1. I wrote the first draft of this book for NaNoWriMo, 2014 (National Novel Writing Month).

2. On November 30th, I was over 10,000 words short of a completed manuscript, so I sat at Panera for eight hours to finish the book.

3. Sixteen agents rejected the full manuscript. I was one week away from self-publishing on CreateSpace, but I pitched the idea on #Pit2Pub (a Twitter pitching party). Two weeks later, I had three contracts.

4. Bree was originally named Avery. Blue Moon published another book whose main character shared this name, so we decided to change it. I still call her Avery sometimes.

5. The working title of the manuscript was Goodbye, Avery Hope.

6. When I got the idea for this book, I was driving home to Pittsburgh on the same roads that Webb travels to see Bree.

7. In the original idea, Webb was returning home to attend Bree's funeral. That idea only lasted for a few seconds.

8. I named Webb after my favorite bookstore in State College: Webster's Bookstore & Cafe.

9. I chose Glen Hope as Webb's hometown because my college roommate and I would drive through this small town on the way to her parent's house. I loved the name.

10. The night before I turned the manuscript over to my editor, I had a last-minute bolt of inspiration and completely rewrote the ending. I can't imagine Webb's story ending any other way!