P Q P memo to the author: Praise, Question, and Polish

To: Kate Brian

Subject: Sweet Deceit

Hello! I am one of your many readers and fans! I’m writing you to talk to you (and possibly ask some questions? You know, if you don’t mind ><) about one of the books in your Privilege series, Sweet Deceit.

Now, in Sweet Deceit, the characters do a lot of scheming, which if one of my favourite things about your books! (^o^) But what I really like is the way you are able to explain all of that! In your stories, there are so many twists and turns, the reader can never be sure what any of the characters are thinking, even the character of which the story is being told through. But then, near the end, when everything is supposed to come clear, the reader can understand everything they’re supposed to immediately! You put just enough foreshadowing, and give just enough clues in the beginning so that the reader can’t figure out what’s going on until you want them to. Then when they’re supposed to, it’s like a light bulb just comes on and you can figure everything out without having to look back to previous chapters. (>u<)

There are a few things though, that I’m very curious about, so this paragraph is going to be some questions. You don’t have to answer them, or even read them (considering all the fan mail you must get!) you can just skip over this weird little paragraph! (=w=) One of the things I want to ask most is, how do you come up with exactly what each character thinks (considering all the plotting they do) and how it affects others? The things that Ariana and Kaitlyn can come up with are so complex, so where do you get your ideas? I know that this isn’t really a question you can answer… but I’m still really curious about it. I also want to know how you came up with the idea of this whole series, with it being from Ariana’s point of view, while continuing with Reed’s. What? Why am I only asking about ideas? Ah well I guess you can really answer these then… ( ‘ A ‘ )’’’’

In you stories, there are a lot of twists and turns. And after reading a whole lot of your books, they are almost expected. I think it’d be really cool if you tried something like…. a reversed twist. Like you do what you usually do, and make the reader think something is going to happen… but then make something else happen instead. Do the opposite of what someone who’s used to reading your books would expect. (Since you have a really unique style of writing and all that ‘ u ‘ ) when I read your writing, it’s very steady. Going up the mountain, then coming down (I’m talking about that thing you learn in elementary school and junior high, like the storyline/mountain thing? *u*). I think I’d like to see some jumps, and maybe some more, uh, un-jumps? Like when you make everything all happy and calm for a while. ( ^ . ^ )

Alright! I’m really glad you took your time to read this!!! (well you must be if you are reading this part right?)

Sincerely, Jessica

Voki

Car Donut Story

Talking to: Isabelle (Friend)
“Oh my gosh, my parents were SO mad at me yesterday!” I
complained to my friend Isabelle. “Why what happened?” She asked. “So you know
yesterday when I asked you if you wanted to come with me, Jennifer, and Lala to
take a ride in my mom’s car, but you had piano lessons?” “Mhm,” she answered
“Well we ended up going into this parking lot, and somehow we got the idea to
do some donuts…” “What’s a donut?” She
asked. “It’s kind of like, when you make the car go in a circle… so like a
donut” “Oh my gosh! That sounds like so much fun!!! I wish I had been there
too!”

“So then… we slipped into a pole. It was really really
slippery but even though none of us got hurt, my parents still got really mad
at me! Aren’t they even glad that we didn’t get hurt? And then she called
Lala’s and Jennifer’s parents too! So now we’re all in trouble!” She looked at
me with sympathy, and a little bit of disbelief “Aww… that sucks,” she paused
for a second “I don’t wish I had been there anymore…” she smiled at me. “Haha
yeah, you’re lucky you weren’t,” I said just as the bell rang and our teacher
walked in.

Talking to: Mom
“I’m home!” I announced as I walked through the door! “Did
you have fun? Was it slippery outside?” my mom asked. “Yes it was really fun!
And of course it was slippery!! It’s winter after all!” “Well I’m glad you and
your friends are all safe,” She replied. Wasn’t she the one who told me never
to assume anything? What made her assume that we were all safe? Does she know
that we crashed? She probably does, and is just trying to make it harder for me
to tell her. Wait? How did she find out? Was she psychic? Or was she spying on
me or something? I thought she trusted me… this is trusting me? What about…

“Hello? Jessica?” I blinked and saw my mom standing in front
of me. “Oh, um, sorry, I was thinking about something else… what did you say?”
My mom smiled “It’s alright, I said I’m glad that you’re so responsible” Oh
wow, she really does know… she’s definitely trying to make this harder on
purpose. “Well,” I started, “Me and my friends are all safe but it was really
slippery out on the road! But I didn’t know and I’ve never driven on a slippery
road before so… I crashed the car… it’s alright though, because no one got
hurt” My mom looked at me. What was she thinking? Why couldn’t I be psychic
too! “Aren’t there supposed to be people who take care of stuff like that?” She
asked. “Not in the parking lot,” I said without thinking. “What? Well you
should’ve been more careful!” “We were!! We wanted to have some fun… so we spun
the car around a bit… but we were still careful!” Clearly I wasn’t thinking
straight, why did I say that??? And that’s when it started. “How many times
have I told you…” she droned on. Two hours later, I finally got to walk back to
my room, extremely bored and tired as I finally started on my homework.