How did that influence you as a writer?

So I told you I had a late start in getting a late start on my writing.

When I was in college, I Again, I knew I always wanted to write, but I focused on the career of medicine first and foremost.

But while I was in college, I did take some writing classes.

And then it wasn't until 2018 when I really started dedicating myself to writing.

And that happened with a class through Hyman Settlement School that was an online class with Silas House, who we all know is one of the big Appalachian writers.

And he taught me so much in that brief.

How do you think we've progressed in a sense, for instance, the experience Mary Esther had versus Corinth's generation?

So, um, what do you hope that readers take away from the way mental health is portrayed in your book?

Well, I want to start by saying that there's no single way to an experience, to experience mental illness.

You know, just like all of us are completely individual people, everyone's experience is going to be very unique indi- individual, and I want people, you know, to go in with that mindset that this is just how I portrayed two people, um, with their own mental health issues.

Um, I want people to see, especially in the character Corinth, that even on the outside when it seems like everything's going right for someone, you never know what's going on in the inside.

And one thing I am especially...

Well, one thing that I especially admire in people that suffer with mental health disease is that every day that they get up, face the day, you know, go to their jobs or go to school, they are overcoming something big, and it's a really brave act.

And I hope people will see that in Corinth's character.

So I do like that there's, um, different aspects of, like, womanhood in different stages, you know? What are some stereotypes about women specifically that you wanted to focus on or challenge?