Susan Choi

I can only cite my mother who's very nice.

I did check with her on this and my mother assured me that I was not obnoxious in the manner that the character is.

But it's possible that I had those feelings.

and didn't show them or express them.

And I had a wonderful experience talking to a reader who's a social worker.

And I met her at an event like this and she came up to me afterwards and she said, Louisa needed to be cared for.

She wasn't being cared for and it made her angry.

And she said, that was very logical reaction, which made me feel really good.

Poor Louisa, because she is kind of hard to take.

She misbehaves.

Horribly, she really acts out, I guess would be what we would call it.

I feel two ways.

I often laugh.

I mean, when I was, when I published the short story, Flashlight, that came out in 2020, and that was, you know, sort of a kernel of this book, but hadn't published the book, I did a reading at a university for a bunch of college students.

And afterwards, in Q&A, it emerged that I was working on expanding into a book.

And one of the students raised her hand and said, does that mean we'll like be with Louisa for a long time?

And I said, yeah, I think so.

And this student goes, what a nightmare.

And I just cracked up because it is funny.

But I also feel a little sad and protective of her.