Finn & Sawyer’s names were coincidence. I do not have any specific love of Mark Twain. Finn was always Finn. And when I decided he had a brother I ended up at Sawyer for several reasons. I thought their parents also had a thing for naming their kids after literary figures and it would be something that Everly & Sawyer could laugh about. But I also recalled somewhere in my memory that Mark Twain was a pseudonym. And as I ran to Wikipedia to check on that I thought, I’ll name Sawyer’s company after Mark Twain’s real name so Everly can connect the dots once she visits his office. Because that scene where Everly shows up in his office all, “I need to see Sawyer Camden,” without realizing he owned the place, was firmly in my mind very early on, way back in the middle of writing WRONG. And that scene stemmed from me listening to The Vamps, Somebody to You on repeat for months & months. Okay a year. Fine it’s still on my favorites playlist. I could clearly envision Sawyer standing in his office as Everly looked around & asked if he was somebody important & Sawyer responding that all he wanted to be was somebody to her.
Mr. Pants. I don’t have any tie to the series or author. I read Mr. Pants Slacks, Camera Action! months AFTER knowing Mr. Pants would be significant to Jake. The story behind this is, I have a friend that is a librarian at a public school in Hawaii. She runs the occasional fundraiser for books or supplies and I donated to one of them. Shortly after I got the most amazing stack of thank you notes. The best kind, made from construction paper. One of them stood out. I copied it almost word for word into RIGHT. The thank you I received said, “Thanks Auntie Jana for thos books!!! next can I have mr. pans pleas!!! Inside the card was, “no!? yes!!!!!”
Attached to the card was a post it from my friend saying, “Mr. Pants – a series about cats. This kid kills me.”
So I did what any normal person would do. I messaged Debby immediately and asked where the fundraiser for the Mr. Pants books was. Because this kid needed Mr. Pants! What did I need to do to get Mr. Pants to this kid? Why was she not giving Mr. Pants to him? Well, it turns out that there were no more Mr. Pants. The library already had all the Mr. Pants books and the next one wouldn’t be out for months. Librarian Debby has explained this to the Kindergarteners many times, but still, this little guy walks in and asks for more Mr. Pants on a regular basis. That had to go in the book, clearly.
The nail polishes, they’re all real, by the way. I know I could have made up any nail polish name I wanted, but it was weirdly important to me that they actually existed. I’ll list them here, if you’re so inclined to look for them.
Chapter 11 - Mod About You - OPI
Chapter 12 - Sole Mate purple - Essie
Chapter 21 - A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find - OPI
Chapter 25 - Size Matters - Essie
Chapter 35 - Romantically Involved - OPI
Chapter 39 - Porn-A-Thon - Smith & Cult
Chapter 47 - Fake It Till You Make It - Deborah Lippman
Chapter 52 - Show Me the Ring - Essie
Chapter 52 - Everly Ever After – This one I did make up. ;)
Well, now I’ve written two books. I just made a face at myself typing that. So weird. I wrote two books! Anyway, I hope I didn’t let you down with RIGHT. I still can’t believe anyone read WRONG. The last six months are a blur. I thought I’d publish WRONG and a few people would read it. And then, a couple weeks after hitting publish WRONG made the New York Times bestseller list. Hitting that list wasn’t even a fantasy in my delusional head. I’m still in shock. And now, as I write this a couple of weeks before RIGHT publishes I am freaking out. Will you like it as much? How will I feel if you don’t? Is there a therapist in my area that specializes in book releases? (There’s not, I’ve Googled.)
Until next time, you can catch up with me here:
on Facebook: Author Jana Aston
on Twitter: @janaaston
on my website: Janaaston.com
on my Amazon Page: Jana Aston
Or you can catch up with my cat on Instagram: SteveCatnip
Thank you,
Jana
About the author
Jana Aston is the New York Times bestselling author of WRONG.
After writing her debut novel, she quit her super boring day job to whip up her second novel, RIGHT. She’s hoping that was not a stupid idea.
In her defense, it was a really boring job.