Ginny Moon
I was inspired to write Ginny Moon in part because of my own experience adopting a young lady with autism. In the book, Ginny, an autistic teenager, has been in foster care for a number of years, and has finally been adopted by a loving family. However, Ginny struggles to feel at home, and so she begins plotting to get kidnapped by her birth mother.
In a way, my wife and I experienced a similar (though considerably less dramatic) challenge with our own daughter. When she first came to live with us, we were excited and enthusiastic, but quickly had to face the fact that we would still never be enough. No amount of love and support can ever replace the loss of a parent.
Fortunately, our daughter didn’t try to get kidnapped or run away or to do any of the disturbing things that Ginny tries in the book. Still, the rawness of her hunger—the utter fierceness of her desire to return to the place from which she’d come—is what provided Ginny’s motivation.