The excerpt below is from the Conversation Guide at the back of The Ones Who Matter Most.
Question: What might surprise a reader of The Ones Who Matter Most?
Author Rachael Herron answers:
Writing the scene in which Abby is scrabbling through the rolltop desk’s drawers was a special treat. Writers are incorrigible thieves, stealing bits and pieces of their lives to provide sparkle and heft. We can’t help populating our books with parts of ourselves. I share Abby’s optimistic naiveté as much as I do Fern’s ruthless practicality.
But beyond the stolen personality pieces, we steal actual objects.
That’s my desk in Scott’s office. As Abby explores the many small drawers, Abby wonders why they aren’t being made useful. They could hold hair bands and gum and those wonderful yellow Paper Mate pencils. In my office, those drawers do hold those things. Found in an antiques store in a defunct chocolate factory in Oakland, my desk waited for me to stumble over it. As my eye fell on it, a solo spotlight hit its polished oak highlights and a heavenly choir sang one high, perfect note. I hadn’t been looking for a rolltop desk, especially not one as unwieldy as a drunk cow. It was in my office the next day.
