Cover Reveal & Guest Post: IF I FALL by Anna Cruise

*****************************

The old, tired adage is Write what you know.

I prefer to do something else. Write what you miss.

And for me, that’s the place where I grew up.

San Diego.

I’ve lived all over the United States, but San Diego is still the place I call home because that’s the place I did most of my growing up (some might say I still haven’t grown up. To them I say, WHATEVER!!!). It’s where I went through my adolescence and teenage years—which meant school and dating and other things I don’t want to mention because I’m afraid my parents might read this and try to ground me...

Anyway, now that I don’t live anywhere near the Pacific Ocean, the fantastic seventy degree temperatures nor the sand, I find that I miss it even more. And I've found that the easiest way to get back to my hometown is by writing about it.

I actually think that’s the appeal, too, for readers of YA and NA novels. It’s about going back to the familiar. Maybe to re-live or maybe to fantasize about what could have been. It’s sort of like getting a do-over. But that's a topic for another blog post...

So, for me, setting IT WAS YOU and now IF I FALL in San Diego were easy decisions. San Diego was the place I did the same kind of growing up that my characters are doing in the books. I remember what it felt like to navigate the streets when I was angry. I remember what it was like to kiss a boy on the beach, the sand soft and cool between my toes. And I remember how just smelling the ocean breeze could instantly calm me down, like some magical elixir tailor-made just for me.

It’s not a coincidence that my characters experience those things. I think that by setting the characters in a world I know pretty well lends a certain authenticity to what they do and how they feel. I’m not sure I could do the same for a story set in New York or Chicago. So I think San Diego is a natural fit for me.

Wait. Not for me. I don’t want to go back and live there now. It’s too different and so am I.

But my characters? The characters that are the same age I was when I lived there?

Yeah, they fit pretty darn good there.


**************************************

Meg Calloway is at the edge.

Reeling from her parents' sudden divorce, fifteen-year old Meg has never felt more alone. Her father is about to marry a woman she can't stand and her mother's only companion is an endless supply of alcohol. When Aidan Matthews, an older boy at school, shows interest in her, she grabs on and doesn't let go, thinking he's exactly what she needs to help stem her loneliness and despair. She quickly learns that Aidan lives a darker, more dangerous life than she does and the more isolated she feels from her family, the more willing she is to step into Aidan’s world.

As Meg drifts further from her friends, she tries to find comfort with a boy who is opening her eyes up to new things, none of them good. Will she listen to those around her who are warning her that she's headed down a path of self-destruction?

Or will she fall too far...too fast...too deep?

goodreads