In most cases, before I know who the character is, I know the situation I want to write about. In my latest book, The Survivor’s Guide to Family Happiness, I knew that I wanted to write about a woman who was put up for adoption when she was just a baby. And I knew that I wanted her to feel the pain of that separation, to long to know her history, to want more than anything to see her birth mother and understand why she was given away.

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