The Theory of Everything

What's the story behind The Theory of Everything?

When I was thirteen, a friend of mine was hit by a car and died. I’ve always thought about how the death of a friend can really send your worldview into a tailspin, especially when you are a teenager. A lot of grown-ups really don't understand how devastating it can be, and how long grief can last. So I had been holding that in my heart for a long time.

Then one day I saw a van in the driveway of a house around my corner. The van said "Aftermath Cleaners." There had been a murder in that home. I was gutted. Who had lived in there? What happened? What would a job like that -- cleaning up death or murder scenes -- be like? 

Just after that, I turned the corner and came up my own driveway. My dog, Ruby, was wagging her tail. She pointed her muzzle to something she was very proud of: a dead possum. She had killed it and left it for me.

​Suddenly everything coalesced in my mind. The threads of the story started to intertwine.


The grief in The Theory of Everything feels real. Did you experience the death of a friend when you were a teenager?

Yes. As I said, a close family friend was hit and killed by a car while she was crossing the street. She was ten, I was thirteen. The experience of grief in The Theory of Everything is real. The characters, relationships, plot, and details are fiction.

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I love the chapter openings. Did you think of the charts and graphics yourself? Did you draw them or was it an illustrator?
 
Thank you! I thought them up and drew them, and then my publisher's illustrator re-drew them for publication. She did a fantastic job. I couldn't be happier with how it all turned out.

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Do you love Star Wars as much as Sarah does in The Theory of Everything?

Yes. The original trilogy was a huge part of my childhood. I was four when my parents took my brother and me to see A New Hope on opening night. I will never, ever forget watching that opening scene. (I'm still scared of Darth Vader.) 

In my twenties, I went through a huge Star Wars books phase. Reading those novels was my favorite guilty pleasure. I recently went back and counted, and I was astonished (and a little embarrassed) to learn that I've read... not one... not ten... but seventy-seven Star Wars novels. Seventy-seven!

To answer your next question: yes. Just like Sarah, the text message alert on my phone is Chewbacca.

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Where can I read more of your thoughts about The Theory of Everything?

Here's an interview I did with Hollywood the Write Way.
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