Interview With The Author - Part 4

We return now to our fourth and final Q&A, where Josette is in the interviewer’s chair asking me everything she wants to know. Hi, Jo.

Hi! I’m so excited! 

Me too! It’s great to see you! As you know, I’ve been speaking to your mother and your siblings, and now it’s your turn to ask me all you want to know!

Yay! That’s so much fun! 

Okay, okay, questions! Can I start by asking about my name? Leia and Mateo have stories about theirs, do I? 

You certainly do! I just haven’t mentioned it!
As you know, your sister was named from a suggestion I got from a reader, and Mateo was named after a character from a show I love and also because he was a salvadorada honeymoon baby.
You were named after another character of a show I love, and also somewhat after your mother – Jo.
Your birth mother got to discuss naming you with your parents before they adopted you as a toddler – Kate and Salim named you Josette after your birth mother, Jolene, who went by Jo as a child.

Oh wow! I have a namesake! That’s so cool! Thank you! So you’ve mentioned my adoption – I wanted to know, why did you decide to include an adoption in the story? 

Well, for a few reasons. Your parents already had two children and seemed to really enjoy being parents, and so after exploring their thoughts and discussions and seeing a decent amount of baby signs, I knew they wanted another child. However, pregnancy was going to be difficult for Kate, writing and looking after the kids while Salim worked.
But more than that, I wanted to add something new and important to the story. I think adoption is amazing, giving a baby a chance in a family that will love them so much – so, I decided that adoption was the right choice for Kate and Salim.
They had a few meetings and met a few children, but after they heard about your mother and the open adoption, they decided that you were the daughter they wanted to adopt. They loved the open adoption idea. The fact you’d get to see your birth mother sometimes.
I wanted the open adoption in the story too for a few reasons, including to just add something of substance and importance that’s so often overlooked. You gave me the opportunity to write about something so important and so unique – I couldn’t say no!

Aww that’s so sweet! I’m very glad Mum and Dad adopted me! So I guess you’re glad you included my biological family? Was that challenging? 

It was. See, it wasn’t easy to have a biological and adopted family for a number of reasons, including the limited detail put into adoption in The Sims World. So, it took some thought and work to make sure I did it justice.
I’m very glad I included your birth mother’s story, and that you are in contact with them a lot now.
I did worry that, with the audience and myself being so attached to Kate and Salim as parents, introducing essentially another mother into the frame would be a challenge. And it wasn’t easy, making sure to word things right so to not negate the fact that Kate was your mother in every way.
I hope I did it justice.

You did! Thank you! When did you decide to include my grandmother and uncle? 

That was after writing Jolene’s backstory. Of course, I created the characters to fit in with the story – I didn’t have a need for them before, frankly.
I wanted Jolene to have a single mother, but not to give detail into why her father wasn’t around – I like the ambiguity of that.
As for her brother, Clayton, I wanted a child in the household to add to the difficulties that Jolene faced. I didn’t want to write adoption as an easy thing, because it isn’t. Having Clayton there really gave Jolene that difficulty making the decision that I wanted to show – ultimately, she made a decision for you, and she got support from her family. That was the key point of their story.
Having you see them now is a little more complicated. It’s as much about their story as yours. See, they aren’t under a controlled household – they can get married and have children without me even knowing, and that’s what happened.
First I found out about Clayton’s wife and son, and so decided to have you visit them as a way of updating you and the audience as to this.
Then, when Jolene had a child with her husband, I knew I had to introduce you to him – he is your biological brother, after all! It was difficult to decide to tell the audience about that, just as it’s difficult for birth parents to tell people that they’re having a child after placing one for adoption.

Wow. You’ve really put a lot of thought into my adoption! Why is that? 

I just think it’s important. If I’m going to add an adopted child to this story, I want to do it right. I don’t want to do a half-baked storyline where I add a child in with no explanation. There’s no personal reason for it. I just enjoyed the challenge of writing it and doing the concept justice.

Okay. Is there anything you wish you’d added to my story? 

Not your father. I know that’s the answer people might expect, but I’m glad I left him out of it – I wanted to show the complexities of that relationship.
As for your story – like your siblings, I wish I could have explored friendships a little more. We know that you were close with Rita, and Winter, and that Moses was your friend prior to becoming your boyfriend, so we have a lot more detail than your siblings. But still, given the chance, exploring each of you more in depth would’ve been great – unfortunately, there just wasn’t time.

You did write a lot about me and my siblings, though. What is your favourite part about me? 

I just love your character. You’re bubbly and fun! You have a real personality – all of you do, and that’s why writing about you is so easy. I think your relationship with your siblings is really great to see, especially with Leia after your parents passed away. She looked after you. Luckily, you became an adult just a few days later, but Leia was still just there, making sure you weren’t alone. The fact you were still a teenager when your parents died is actually, in some ways, a good thing for the story – it meant we got to experience that new bond that formed with your older siblings the moment it happened.

It was sad, but I was glad that I was able to help show how much the three of us banded together after it happened. One last question – what’s next for me? 

Well, your story isn’t complete. You fell in love with Moses young, and I don’t think either of us realised his wealth until you moved in together and discovered the live he was able to provide you with – which actually, I think perfectly fits you. If any of you were to live the truly rich and lavish lifestyle, it would certainly be you!
So, what’s next? Well, first and foremost, it's having your baby!
Your artistry will also be important, we will really get to go deeper into your dreams for your art and what you want to do.
But, as for whether you’ll get married, have more children, or achieve your ultimate artistic dream, is something we’ll have to wait and see!

Ooh I can’t wait to tell everyone what I want to do!! I have big dreams! 

You certainly do.

Well, that’s all the time we have for our author Q&A! Stay tuned as within the hour we will be premiering the main event! Part 100! Thanks as always for reading and a big shout out to everyone who has stuck with this story since the start and helped shaped the characters into who they are today! I truly appreciate being able to write this story and know people are reading and enjoying it, so thank you! See you soon for Part 100!