Author Q+A (from 2021)
Thanks for sending these questions! I had so much fun answering them.
-What are the actors/actresses used for the characters?
The main cast list is:
Maia Mitchell as Evangeline West
Keith Powers as Trevante Newman
Kat Graham as Samira Wilson
Algee Smith as Latrell Farris
Rose Leslie as Reina Cunningham
I chose Keith Powers as Trevante because he was similar to how I originally pictured Tre. I also had a huge celebrity crush on him (haha). Kieth doesn't look exactly how I mentally pictured Tre, but he's pretty close.
I chose Maia Mitchell as Evangeline because I pictured Eva as a girl who is beautiful by being simple and natural. Maia has this down-to-earth beauty about her that appears so normal and simple, I thought of Eva being that way too.
-What inspired you to write this book? Was it just your own twist on the good girl meets bad boy storyline?
So the inspiration behind this story did come from some of my own experiences while in college. College was where I first experienced meeting people from different races and cultures. I gained a lot of eye-opening lessons while going through college, in regards to dealing with people and becoming an adult.
The Evangeline character was inspired by my upbringing. I grew up in a very strict conservative, pentecostal religious household, so I really identified with Eva immensely in her naivety, innocence, and the trepidation towards her parents.
I have also always loved the cliché good girl/bad boy storyline. So yeah I did want to put my own twist on it and try to make it different than the other cliché stories.
I also was dealing with the stresses of college, so this book definitely became a creative outlet and safe space for me.
-Do any of the people or events in the story mimick anything in your real life? Whether it be location or interests or hobbies and friends?
The only character that kind of mimicked my life was Evangeline. I loosely based her off of myself: My freshman year dorm room number was 212 and one of my best friend's lived in the room right across from mine. I love to read. My favorite poets are Maya Angelou and Edgar Allen Poe. Some of my favorite novels are A Walk to Remember and The Great Gatsby. I've always wanted to travel the world. I hate being in stressful situations and try my best to avoid them. I had a 4.0 throughout most of my high school and college years.
I'm also shy and awkward at first and I'm a super quiet person. I've never made friends that easily and I only have like 3 friends I'm actually really close to. I can be stubborn at times (I'm a Taurus so it makes sense). Eva is basically an exaggeration of myself. Although, I don't think I would've reacted the way that she did in most of the drama situations.
-This story touches on street/gang life. Did that require research on your end?
I did have to do a little bit of research over Detroit and how much gang violence the city actually has. I watch a lot of crime tv shows and movies, so I used those as inspiration too. I also had to do some research on Wayne State University, which is what this book's university is based off of. Obviously since this book is fiction, some things are more exaggerated and dramatized, but I tried to do research when it was necessary so it would be a more accurate portrayal.
-Did you have an outline of the story before you began to write? Did you know how you wanted the story to begin and end? Or did you have a general idea of how you wanted the story to go but things changed as you wrote the chapters?
I had a very broad outline for the story. I didn't plan much out besides the major plot points. The only things I had planned beforehand were Eva and Tre being project partners and not initially liking each other, Eva's parents not approving of their relationship, Tre being involved with a gang, and him and Eva breaking up. But everything else in the book I did not plan out ahead of time. I just created most of the plot as I was writing each chapter. I don't like to follow a strict outline because I like having the freedom to write whatever I want. The creation and writing process on this book was pretty organic, which fit perfectly because I wanted the story to seem as realistic as it possibly could in the fiction genre.
-Did this book go exactly the way you planned or did you change anything during the writing process?
This book is different than what I had originally planned (lol). There was a lot I had thought about at the beginning of writing the book but then changed as I got further into the writing process. I had thought about making nobody approve of Tre and Eva's relationship, including their friend group, but I thought that wasn't realistic so I scraped that idea. I had wanted to put more religious undertones throughout the plot and Eva to stick to her strict faith which would cause more problems in her relationship with Tre, but then I decided it was better to see her grow into her own person and make decisions for herself regarding her religion (which is what happened to me in my life). I also had a different ending in mind, but then I changed it because it didn't fit within a realistic timeframe for Eva obtaining her medical degree.
More often than not, things don't turn out how you originally plan. But I honestly love how this book panned out. Compared to when I first came up with this idea, this book ended up being so much better. I could not be more happy with how it turned out and I'm so proud of writing it the way I did.
-Have you ever been in an interracial relationship?
Yes I have been in an interracial relationship before. My previous relationship was with a black man. I kinda touch more on that in another question below.
-Why in every interracial story are the white person parents always racist?
This is actually a really good question because this is a pretty common occurrence in interracial stories. My reasoning for making Eva's parents racists is because of my own previous experience (it's a personal situation I don't like to talk about), but in general, I guess it's just easier to make the white parents racist. Going off what I've seen and witnessed in my own life due to the predominantly white town I grew up in, I think it is typically white parents who are more hesitant and not accepting of their children being with a person of a different skin color. Which is really horrible that this still happens today because love is love and we all should be free to love someone without judgement and persecution from others.
-Does Eva still read the Bible? Does she still believe in God? Does she still have a strong relationship with him?
Eva does still read the Bible, but only when she feels like she needs some clarity or peace. She practically memorized most of the chapters because of reading them so much throughout her upbringing. Eva still believes in God. She never stopped believing in him, she just distanced a little bit from the religious practices because she didn't want to keep feeling forced into it. And Tre also found his own faith again once he started healing himself, so they both have their own relationships with God. They don't go to church, but they are telling their children the stories about God and Jesus. They don't want to force any religion upon them, but they are teaching them to treat everyone equally with love and compassion.
-Will there be a sequel or spin-off?
There will not be a direct sequel. I'm not a fan of sequels if they're not necessary (that goes for books and movies). I think a sequel should be created only if it's to further or add on to the main plot line and/or characters. With creating this book, I never thought about writing a sequel to it. I just wanted it to be a single story that ended with an epilogue. I don't like to mess with an already good thing.
I don't know if there will be any spin-offs since I did an epilogue, but I do have some ideas if you all are interested in seeing more! I could potentially write a smaller book about Sam and her life after Trell's death. Or I could add a few chapters in Tre's POV or show his writings/letters to Eva. Which of these ideas would you prefer? Or if you have any other ideas, I am open to suggestions!
-Do you agree with pineapples on pizza?
I actually don't mind pineapples on pizza (lol). I would not choose to buy it for myself, but I would eat it if it was the only other pizza around. If I had to choose between olives or pineapples on pizza, I'd choose pineapples. My favorite pizza though is either pepperoni or bacon and green peppers.
-You graduated with a degree in English. What do you plan to do with it? Is there a specific career you have in mind? What is your ultimate end goal in terms of career and what do you want to do with the rest of your life?
I did graduate last May with a bachelor's degree in Creative Writing and I will not be perusing anymore education. 4 years was enough college for me. My ultimate career goal is to become a full time novelist. But since I need to become financially stable first, I am trying to get a job either in writing, editing, or social media marketing. With all of the different experiences I got in college, I have a range of things I could use my degree for. In college, I was a journalist/newspaper reporter for 4 years, I worked on a marketing team for a year, and I had an editing fellowship for 1.5 years. I got a minor in Publishing & Editing and I got a second minor in French. So I can do quite a bit of things with my education experience.
But due to the pandemic, I am still struggling to find a job in my related field. As of right now, I am starting a blog and posting my short writings/poems on my Instagram page.
I also plan to move out of the United States by next year, once more international travel is allowed. It's my ultimate life goal to travel to each continent. Ever since I was a little girl, I've always wanted to travel around the world. I have a long list of countries I want to visit in my lifetime. If I could get a job where I could travel and write about my experiences, then that would be a dream come true.
-Have you ever been in love? Do you have a boyfriend and are you in love now?
I have never been in love. I've only ever had one boyfriend in my entire life. Kinda hard to believe it since I'm almost 23 lol but I'm pretty picky when it comes to dating. I was in an interracial relationship for 6 months last year, but we broke up because of the long distance after I graduated from college. My ex-boyfriend was very sweet and our relationship was great, but we weren't that serious and things just didn't end up working out.
I've been single ever since and I'm currently not looking for a relationship. I want to get my life established first before I consider bringing another man into my life. I am looking forward to when I finally meet the future love of my life, but I'm not in any hurry. I also want to have 4 kids, so I'm in no rush to start that chapter yet until I get my life more figured out.
-Are you from Detroit or somewhere else in the Midwest?
I've never been to Detroit before. I was born and raised in the Midwest. I am from Missouri and live near St. Louis. This is also how I know some of the street/gang life for this book because STL has been really bad with shootings and violence. Along with Detroit, St. Louis is considered one of the most dangerous cities to live in.
I'll always love STL because it's my home city, but I do not want to live here the rest of my life. Like Eva and Tre previously said, there's not much keeping me here and I have no reason to stay.
-
I will also be including some fun facts about this book!
Fun fact #1: I first created this book in 2018. January 19th, 2018 was when I started writing the first chapter, but I didn't end up publishing it until around January 2019 when I already had the first five chapters written.
Fun Fact #2: The title of this book came from the NF song "10 Feet Down". I was listening to that song a lot in 2018 and I thought it would be a really good title for this book.
Fun Fact #3: I decided to write the story in mostly Eva's POV because I don't like switching perspectives a lot between chapters. I sometimes find POV switches hard to keep up with, so I like having one POV throughout most of the story.
Tre is such a complex and interesting character that I wanted his POVs to be special. He's mysterious and closed off, so I wanted it to be meaningful when his POV finally came. Tre's mind is so vast and carefully thought out, it's painfully revealing and brutally honest. Which is why he's my favorite POV to write, but it takes a lot out of me. In order to write his POV, I have to put myself into a dark headspace and that's a task I can only handle a couple of times because of how emotionally invested I am with this book.
Fun Fact #4: My favorite character of this book is a tie between Tre and Trell. I love them both for different reasons. Trell is such a sweetheart and Tre is very complex and intriguing.
My least favorite characters are Eva's parents because they're atrocious and assholes. It was hard to write them because I hate them so much.
Fun fact #5: To write a chapter, it typically takes me a couple of days or sometimes longer, depending on how busy I am. It kind of just depends on the context of the situation, but usually my shorter chapters took me a few hours to write, but the longer chapters always took me a couple of days to finish since they're near/over 8,000 words. I'm also kind of a perfectionist when it come to my writing, so I always take longer to edit it.
Fun fact #6: I never planned on killing Trell off. It was a last minute decision that I thought was necessary. (rip Trell, you are greatly missed)
Fun fact #7: I used to write fan fiction. Before the creation of this book, I did have a fan fiction published in 2016 that I ended up unpublishing because I had no motivation to finish it. 10 Feet Down is the first story I have ever finished from beginning to end.
-
Now I have some questions for you all!
1. Where are you from?
2. What was your favorite scene/passage from this book?
3. How did you find out about this book?
4. Final thoughts?