What Inspired Where The Flames Took Her

Writing Where the Flames Took Her was a fun experience for me. I put parts of myself into the book, drawing inspiration from my home state of Michigan. I’ve always been creative, even if I didn’t always realize it, and I spent a lot of time painting and drawing. One memory that stands out is sitting by the lake on warm summer evenings with my sketchbook, trying to capture the way the sunset made the water glow with fiery colors. That quiet hope and longing inspired one of the opening scenes, where Tee sits at a window watching the rain, wrestling with her thoughts and finding comfort in art. My home life was different from most, so I included some of those experiences in my story. Writing this book helped me heal.

I chose the real city of Lakeland for my story. It’s a small town in Livingston County, but the version in my book is a little different. I changed some details, like making the downtown bigger and adding new local businesses that aren’t real. I also created neighborhoods and invented some landmarks to capture better the feeling of the rural towns I grew up in. These changes helped me show the sense of community and the mix of isolation and closeness I remember from my own hometown. This book is my way of showing love for places where people live far apart, except for a small group of homes, a few buildings, and a blinking light at a four-way stop. Once you leave town, you’re surrounded by farmland and open spaces. My hometown was like this. Everyone knew each other, and I graduated with just sixty-four classmates. Our middle and high schools were connected, sharing the gym, library, and art room.

I also picked Lakeland because it’s close to Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor is a classic college town with its own energy. In Where the Flames Took Her, I included real places from the city. The Hoppy Cat, for example, is a trendy spot with resin-glazed tables and old magazine covers, and Graffiti Alley is real, too. I still remember the first time I walked through Graffiti Alley on a rainy afternoon, surrounded by colorful walls and messages from so many visitors. I spent almost an hour taking photos and reading what people had written, feeling the city’s creativity all around me. That feeling found its way into my book and inspired some of Tee's first sketches. I changed some details to fit the story, but I wanted you to get a sense of Ann Arbor’s culture. I hoped to give readers something real and help anyone from Michigan feel at home.

The characters and themes in this story mean a lot to me. I wanted to create a sense of nostalgia for simpler times while still keeping things modern, so I tried to find a balance. Childhood friendships are at the heart of the story. It’s really an emotional journey with a bit of romance. As a writer, I wanted to include voices that aren’t always seen in stories. Tee and Zayne are those voices. Tee is her own character, but some of her traits, like her love for art and the way she sees the world, come from different people I’ve known. My childhood best friend inspires Zayne’s loyalty, though he’s become his own person on the page. Phoenix is based on women who have been through similar things, or whose stories showed the complexity and strength I admired. I see a little bit of myself in both Tee and Phoenix. Tee’s story is about finding her identity and accepting herself. The friendship between Tee, Zayne, and Phoenix is important, and I wanted you to see their shared history and how their feelings changed as they grew up. For Phoenix, I wanted to tell her story from a new perspective, different from what I’d read before. I hope I did her journey justice and that you connect with it.

As you read this story, I hope I got it right. If I missed the mark, please know that was never my intention. I know I have more privilege than some, and there are parts of certain journeys I can’t fully understand. Still, I want to use my voice to be an ally and celebrate everyone’s story. My goal as a writer is to bring diverse voices to life. Not every book I write will be like Where the Flames Took Her, and I hope to write lighter stories too, but I will always try to create real, authentic characters. Looking ahead, I’m working on the second half of this story. The new book will follow this group of friends as they reconnect years later in a quirky lakeside town. If you enjoyed Where the Flames Took Her, I hope you’ll be excited to see what comes next.