A Welcome from the Author [ Edited ]

[AnnPacker]

How I Came to Write This Book

There is nothing more interesting to me than human relationships, all kinds: parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, friends and lovers. I am fascinated by the ways in which we relate to each other, especially in difficult times. In Songs without Words I had in mind some very difficult times -- a teenage girl’s serious downward spiral into depression -- and I was interested in exploring both the effects this would have on this girl and her family and also how this trouble would affect her mother’s relationship with an old friend.

In preparing to write the book, I began thinking about the roles we take on in life, in our families and in our closest friendships, and how sometimes these roles, which start out being very useful and necessary, can come to be confining and ultimately damaging. What would happen if the mother of this depressed teenager had always been the “rock” for her lifelong best friend and suddenly couldn’t be? What if, just as suddenly, it was this mother who needed help and support, and her friend, for whatever reasons of personality, life experience, etc., was unable to come through?

As a parent, I am terrified by the idea of a child in trouble, especially a child in invisible trouble, trouble her parents are unable to see, or to see adequately. This issue, too, was with me as I wrote the book. How would the parents of a self-destructive teenager cope with their failure to step in when needed? Where would forgiveness come from, and how might it be delivered?

Imagining the characters in Songs without Words was my way of “answering” these questions, of bringing some abstract thoughts into a kind of reality. It’s my hope that they -- the characters -- will feel real to readers and that the book that contains them will offer to readers the reward that I seek when I read fiction: an expanded sense of what it means to be human.

Message Edited by Jessica on 10-24-2007 02:24 PM