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Ask Me Anything! Book Club Wrap Up With Author Q&A
Thanks for the awesome response to our first book club selection of 2023, The First Thing About You. To wrap it up author, Chaz Hayden, is open to a Q & A session. Now is the time to ask your most burning questions. What would you like to know? Ask below and Chaz will fill you in.
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13 Replies
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Have you experienced any awkward dating moments that helped inspire the story? ????
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Ooh, good question! I wouldn’t say any embarrassing moments but the “date” Harris goes on with Nory is similar to one I went on. I’d known the girl for a few years, so a lot longer than Harris knew Nory, but I was still just as nervous as him about getting fed and just being alone without a nurse or parent.
This was also my first date although, like Harris, I never defined it as that when I made the plans. I didn’t know what to expect but just like Nory, my friend made me feel really comfortable and was a pro at feeding me.
The only slightly embarrassing part of my date was that we went to a restaurant I was very familiar with and eat at frequently with my parents. The staff kept making eyes at me the whole time but played it cool. My parents ate there a few days later and the manager couldn’t wait to tell them I “brought in a beautiful girl and everything went fine” as if my parents didn’t know ????
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I’m curious about your writing process. As someone with limited mobility did you use any tools or software to make writing easier?
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Ooh, I want to know this too. I use a mix of onscreen keyboard and speech recognition.
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I use the Tobii Eye Tracker 4C. That single piece of tech provides so much freedom for me to be creative. Without it, this book wouldn’t exist or would’ve taken me twice as long to write. In the past, I tried using speech-to-text software but words in your head sound a lot different when spoken. You tend to add extra words, create run-on sentences, or just ramble. Using my eyes gets me as close as possible to typing with my hands.
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That’s cool. I’ve been thinking about trying that as it works with the software I’m already using for speech recognition, https://talonvoice.com/.
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Who is your favorite author(s)?
Who would you want cast as Miranda in Netflix’s adaptation of First Thing About You?
Favorite flavor of ice cream?
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Who is your favorite author(s)?
Besides JD Salinger I don’t really have favorite authors but some of my favorite books are The Catcher in the Rye, Looking for Alaska, The Westing Game, The Giver, and Highly Illogical Behavior.
Who would you want cast as Miranda in Netflix’s adaptation of First Thing About You?
I think about who I’d cast way more than I probably should. For Miranda, I feel like Iris Apatow might be a good fit if I wanted to cast someone more well-known. But recently I discovered Kris Collins who acts a little but mostly makes TikToks. Honestly, she looks exactly how I pictured Miranda when I wrote the book.
Favorite flavor of ice cream?
Chocolate chip or cookies and cream. I’d also say vanilla and add toppings.
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These are all great questions. I had them in mind while I was reading it as well. One question I have to ask though… what was Nory’s favorite color?! I still want to know!
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What do you think is her favorite color? I always tell people that if they really want to know then they would have to hack into my computer and read earlier versions. For a lot of those drafts, I do reveal her favorite color but that moment never felt significant. Like, once she tells Harris, is he mad or happy? By the time she would tell him, those reactions didn’t feel right or important. But when I take away Nory’s favorite color she instantly becomes the main vessel for Harris’s personal growth and understanding that it really doesn’t matter.
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Absolutely. I thought that was a great way of illustrating character development. I was curious throughout the book though! I think it’d be yellow.
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I thought we might find out Nory was color blind or something similar at the ending.
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omg that’s brilliant!
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