What inspired me to write this book?

ALMOST TWINLESS is work of fiction based on my personal experience as a volunteer executor director of an arts program, inside a youth center, in the Ramparts neighborhood during the period of the police scandal, in the aftermath of the Burlington fire. As a child and family therapist, and social scientist, I had had professional experience with the impact on kids and their communities of the trauma of gang-related violence. My involvement in the youth center during the police scandal broadened my understanding to include the trauma of police brutality. Most importantly, I came to appreciate the ways many kids affected by trauma don't let their lives be defined by it--often by committing to excellence in sports or the arts.

At home, at the end of the day, I'd write down notes, mostly snippets of conversations I'd overheard between the kids. Eventually, I began to feel as if I'd fallen into a story that was taking shape around me, and I wondered what would happen next. The drive in me to write this book was strong, but it has taken many years to get enough distance from these personal experiences to get the story right.