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Frequently Asked Questions About With Is Edenton a real place? Yes it is. It's located in the northeastern section of North Carolina. Is life there the way it is described in the novel? Yes. Edenton is a small town with a strong sense of community, a place where it seems that everybody knows everybody. Why didn't you make Taylor a full-time fireman instead of just a volunteer? Because in a town that small, there's no need for full-time crews. It wouldn't have been realistic had I done that. Why did you use parentheses' when Kyle spoke? I had a choice there. I could have written it straight, as if he enunciated words in the same way that other characters did. I also could have written it in dialect (the words in the parenthesis). Neither one seemed satisfactory, because Kyle's problem wasn't only that he had trouble speaking, but the words he did speak were spoken poorly. Straight writing wouldn't have captured that. Had I written in dialect, more than likely it would have added unnecessary confusion to the novel. My own feeling is that dialect should be used rarely in literature. Instead, I opted to write it straight, with how it sounded put in parentheses. The opening scene was different from any other opening scene you've written in that it had a high level of excitement. Why did you do it that way? The three elements of a love story are originality, universality, and that the plot and characters are interesting enough to hold the readers attention. By originality, I mean that all elements have to be original, including such relatively minor points as how the characters first meet, what they do on dates, how their relationship unfolds, etc. This originality isn't simply limited to what other authors have written. It must also be original with regard to what I've written in previous novels, as well as other mediums, including films and television, which is the reason this genre is so challenging. At the same time, it must be universal enough that people could imagine it happening to them. Since it was also interesting, this was how I chose to have the characters meet. It had the added benefit of adding excitement. How much research did you do with regard to fire fighting? Enough to know that what I've written was fairly accurate. Help! After reading your novel, I realized that I know a child like this. What can you recommend that I do? Where can I find information? Denise worked with Kyle in exactly the way that my wife and I worked with our son, and since I'm not a doctor, I can't tell you what you should do with the child you know. I can only tell you that our son is fine now. It required a great deal of time and effort (hours per day.) Information on CAPD can be found on the Internet and in most comprehensive child development books and I would recommend reading as much as you can about the disorder. Are the two books that Denise mentions in the novel real books? Yes. Let me Hear Your Voice by Catherine Maurice and Late Talking Children by Thomas Sowell were the most helpful books I used when formulating the best way to work with my own son. I recommend them both. Why did Mitch have to die? Taylor needed something to push him into finally accepting the truth about himself. Denise leaving him wasn't enough to do that, neither was the realization that he wouldn't see Kyle anymore. To keep Taylor's character coherent, it had to be something terrible and dramatic. Mitch's death, sad as it was, led to Taylor's rescue. Have film rights to The Rescue been sold? No. The Rescue is being adapted into a television series instead. Did Nicholas Sparks use the Apple 'method' in his book, The Rescue, and with his own son, Ryan? Yes, I did. If you want more information, you can read Three Weeks with my Brother. I devote quite a few pages to the specifics.
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