Pretty Little Liars and Hit, Plot Echoes by lorieanngrover on PolyvoreAs I traveled the country for the
#hitwithgratitude project with author
Justina Chen, I met so many teens who told me my novel
Hit was similar to the TV series
Pretty Little Liars. The first couple of mentions I thought were a bit unusual, but as it kept happening, I needed to investigate.
A month or so back, I sat down in front of
Netflix and entered the world of Rosewood. What I discovered was an echoed plot strand, exactly as my readers described. The parallels between my
Sarah and Haddings with
Pretty Little Liars' Aria and Ezra were incredible. It was as if I watched the show and wrote my work. THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED!
So this is my blog post to set the story straight. I began the novel in 2005, after the
real Sarah was struck in a crosswalk in 2004. Originally a verse novel told in six viewpoints, the novel grew and changed for ten years. In 2009, I fictionalized and added Haddings. In 2014
Hit hit the stores. And now I can sit down and see the scenes play out on screen in
Pretty Little Liars. Even to the brother's participation at the climax. I won't say more to avoid spoilers. :) But, are you kidding me?
Sometimes creative ideas cross and birth at the same time. Stories are all ultimately echoes of each other. I've lost sales in the past, because another writer, at the same publishing house, with the same editor, had the same idea at the same moment. Yes, each story is told differently. Yes, each will present in a different light, theme, motive, and truth. But sometimes, wires cross, and the spark hits two people at the exact same moment.
I thought
If I Stay by Gayle Forman was
Hit's echo.
Pretty Little Liars rings even more loudly. One take-away is that there is a a story to tell. Look at us doing so, similarly and differently. Each can be appreciated; each will reach different people; each was developed independently. That alone is fascinating! Isn't it?
Enjoy!
"Hit by Lorie Ann Grover is a powerful book about tragedy and recovery which shows you both sides of the story, for better or worse." Hypable
JLC -- HIT is a riveting read! Tell us what inspired you to write it.LG -- Thank you, Janet! HIT was inspired by a true story. Ten years ago, my daughter's best friend was hit in a crosswalk on the way to school. With her life threatened, her urgent brain surgery sent her family and friends spinning through a dark wait. Inspired by her experience, my novel tells the story of one girl struck down by the very grad student she is crushing on. Plans, goals, and dreams are shattered, as everything comes screeching to a halt.
JLC – You chose to write the book in two viewpoints: Sarah, the girl who’s struck by a car, and Mr. Haddings, the young man who was behind the wheel. I was amazed by your choice which worked beautifully! Can you tell us when you decided to write the book this way and share some of the challenges faced?
LG -- Well, it was originally six voices! JLC -- Wow, six?LG -- :~) JLC -- Who were they?LG -- Sarah, Haddings, Cydni, Luke, Janet, and Mark. Different editors along the publishing journey suggested reducing it to four, then finally two. Without introducing some sort of fantastic element, like Sarah wandering the hospital in spirit form, I needed at least two voices to tell the story as she is so long in surgery. JLC – You write so deeply and truly about family and family relationships in HIT. Can you give us a peek into your process for this? LG -- I think the real event was so charged and poignant, gestures, words, and phrases became haunting notes in my mind. It was simple to stream those straight into the novel. I also include the struggles I’m having or have had in the past: how to mother and let go, how to love the right person, how to separate your identity from another, etc. By digging deeply and bringing battles to light, there’s a chance the work will ring with a reader.
JLC—They say every story is about character change. Sarah’s accident forces not only the central characters but every character in the book to change. How did you determine the way each of these unique personalities would change through the events of the story?
LG -- Thank you for noticing, Janet! I started from a place where everyone was caught up in the everyday. They were selfishly focused. The accident arrests each of them, giving them a chance to stop and assess where they are and what is important. So often, this is one of the gifts within a hardship. I naturally landed on their starting points, riffing off my friends and my own traits. I amplified every facet to better the tale. Seriously, my friends are blessed with so much grace, I had to work hard to weaken them. :~)
JLC— What would you like readers to take away from this book?
LG --’d really like readers to consider the concept that within every hardship there are sweet red seeds. Like Dottie tells Sarah, under the leathery pomegranate skin, there is beauty. We just have to look for it. The truth lines up beautifully with Hit-and-Run: the Gratitude Tour. We're doing. Both Justina Chen and I tend to write about this.
JLC -- Tell us more bout the tour!
Hit-and-Run: The Gratitude Tour:
When trials hit, how do we run in triumph? When we have a blind spot for blessings, how do we embrace gratitude? Award-winning authors and readergirlz co-founders, Lorie Ann Grover and Justina Chen, share the trials and triumphs within their own lives and their books’ characters, inspiring teens and adults to #hitwithgratitude.
What we now realize is that our message is going to stretch beyond this tour across four states. We will continue to hit the road, encouraging readers to #hitwithgratitude now and in the years to come. For example, how about a 30 Day Challenge to #hitwithgratitude daily through the month of November? Why not tweet, fb, and Instagram shout-outs for those you are grateful for? Who are the people who have crossed your life that you’d like to #hitwithgratitude? JLC -- I love this idea!LG -- There are so many ways we can encourage each forward, right? Let’s do it.
I officially #hitwithgratitude: readergirlz and Janet Lee Carey!
JLC -- :~)
Hit By Lorie Ann Grover
Blink, 10/07/2014
We have just finished reading this delightful fable about Shanti, a lion who is a spiritual leader to the people who live in his village in India, and indeed all those whose lives he touches. He doesn’t eat meat so as not to frighten these people and is able to speak. Far-fetched as all this sounds, it is convincing within its narrative framework and there’s enough magic emanating from the story to make my two pester me with questions as to whether it was true or not and “Does he really just eat grass?”
The quality of the illustrations adds to this too – they are pencil sketches but depicted with such a photographic eye that the appearance of Shanti amongst the people becomes unquestionable. The story is introduced as a story within a story, told by a wise old man to two children who meet him on his arrival at their village. I have to say that we became so caught up in Shanti’s and the villagers’ adventures that we forgot this, until the twist at the very end which served to add fuel to my boys’ conviction that somewhere in India there is a grass-eating lion called Shanti…
The author, Paul Sinclair told me:
“Even though the book is aimed at children aged eight plus, I’ve had parents tell me they have read it to their six-year-olds and they ask a lot of questions and a lot of explanations are necessary, but they are apparently fine with it.
One friend of mine who had read it to her children aged around six told me she had an Indian friend called Ashanti. Once Ashanti phoned and left a message on the answer phone. When the children heard Ashanti had left a message they asked their mother if that was Shanti. Not realising what the children were asking she said yes to which the children asked ‘Does he eat grass?”
So mine aren’t the only ones!
All proceeds from the sale of the book go to the Shanti Lion Children’s Trust, which is very close to Paul’s heart – and he has written a thought-provoking article about his journey to write and publish the story, which appears on the organisation’s website.
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Thank you for your kind, astute words Marjorie. Some adults I meet are convinced Shanti is real as well; at least deep down a part of them really hopes he is.
The other day I was selling Shanti’s book at a stall. Three youngsters (probably 12 or 13-year-olds) came over and one of them stared at the book’s cover intently. He wanted to know if Shanti was real or not so I smiled and told him he needed to read the book to find out and I gave them each a copy. About an hour later they returned as they had all been reading the book. They had changed expressions on their faces as Shanti’s existence had now become a pressing issue to them all. The young man who had initially shown the most interest in the book now said with the greatest sincerity and gravity, ‘Does he (Shanti) really eat grass? Because if he does that would be the coolest thing ever!’
You see, deep down many youngsters today crave role models or heroes of the heart. Sure Spiderman and Harry Potter etc. are cool, but they are heroes of the mind or more specifically the imagination. Shanti is physically big, strong and powerful, but he is also wise, gentle, loving and caring; this is his real strength as this makes him a true hero of the heart. Shanti is a role model whose unselfishness nature youngsters can not only respect and admire, but also copy.