Forget Me Not
by Allison Whitmore
by Allison Whitmore
Publication date: September 14th 2015
Genres: Historical, Romance, Young Adult
Theodora “Teddi” Donovan and Calvin Wynne have always hated each other. They didn’t have a choice after Teddi’s bootlegger father killed Calvin’s and left them both orphaned. The scandal has fueled gossip in quiet, quaint Brookhurst, New York, for over a decade. When a friendship develops between them as teenagers, they are ridiculed and shunned by the strict society that dictates life in their town. As they grow older, friendship turns into love, and Teddi and Calvin have to choose between their future and the scepter of their past. Spanning continents and decades, Forget Me Not is a coming-of-age story about truth, self-reliance, and the freeing power of love.
Author's Experience Writing Book
I started my story when I was in
college several years ago. I stopped to work for a while, then decided that
writing was the only thing I really wanted to do. After finishing a draft of a
different project I was working on with friends, I decided I would like to try
finishing this story, Forget Me Not. I came up with it because I'd read
a friend's short story set at the time period and wanted more of that feeling
I'd gotten while reading it. However, as I went through writing the story, I
realized much more important reasons for writing the story came up.
For example,
my main character, Theodora aka Teddi, she struggles with hating feeling like
she has to make decisions based on "status quo" when doing so is
pretty much killing her inside. I think growing up it always bugged me the idea
of oppression, judgment, stereotyping in favor of maintaining the status quo.
Teddi just wants to love, but maybe that's foolish. Of course, I don't think
it's foolish, but I put her in a very strict world where people tell all sorts
of lies and just can't get away from their "attitudes". Then I had to
work on Calvin, a good-looking young guy, and an orphan, who'd been left alone
by scandal and circumstance created by the same people with these attitudes. It
was hard writing about someone who wants so much to be free but keeps getting
pulled back to the same place and the same situation because it's where his
truth is, his love. Of course, I love Calvin, and Forget Me Not. It
was a great journey.
Allison Whitmore started her first novel, Forget Me Not, one icy morning in her dorm room in Southampton, NY. After many years of teaching high school English, she came back to the novel to rewrite it. Allison comes from a family who loves history and enjoyed immersing herself in the research that brought Teddi and Calvin’s world to life. She lives in her hometown, Los Angeles, California. You can find her on Twitter @alli_whitmore and her website: allisonwhitmore.com.
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