Lurlene McDaniel is the author of over 40 books for young adults, including PREY, BREATHLESS and the Angels in Pink Trilogy. She joins us today to discuss the compelling topic found at the center of her latest novel, HEART TO HEART.
I’m excited about the release of my latest book, HEART TO HEART!, and I can’t believe it’s the forty-fifth book I’ve written for Random House. I thought you might like to hear how it came into being. I mean, who writes about “cellular memory?” Me, of course!
I actually I started to think about the topic of cellular memory years ago during a conversation with my friend and fellow writer, Lois Duncan. She told me about how transplanted heart recipients sometimes exhibit the characteristics and personality traits of their donors. At the time I was writing SOMEWHERE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH, and had many other storylines running around in my head, but I stored away the information promising myself I’d someday look into the subject.
Years later, another discussion with Lois stirred up the memory, and I began basic research. Lo and behold, there’s plenty of documentation about this unexplained medical phenomena. HEART TO HEART is the result of the creation process --- research plus storyline plus interesting characters. Mix all ingredients together well and cook inside your head until done. OK, so it’s never that easy, but once I got going on the writing of the book, the story practically wrote itself.
I kept going back to the idea: what would it be like to lose your best friend/girlfriend/child and then meet a stranger who exhibits the deceased girl’s habits in ways that irresistibly draws you to her? I alternated viewpoints between the girl’s best friend, Kassey, and the heart recipient, Arabeth, who are both mystified and frightened by what’s happening to her. All in all, HEART TO HEART was a fun and challenging book to write and to raise intriguing questions about cell memory.
Hope all of you enjoy reading it!
-- Lurlene McDaniel
