Standalone Spotlight: Kirsten Hubbard Guest Post!

Wanderlove has been one of my favorite contemporaries of the year, so when I saw that Kirsten was writing a guest post for me on things most people don't know about the book, I was super excited to learn some interesting facts! I hope you enjoy them as I did.

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Ten Things About WANDERLOVE Most People Don't Know

1. The first version of Wanderlove (written around four years ago) began with Bria hiking up a volcano (the Guatemalan volcano Pacaya, specifically) with her tour group. That's where she saw Rowan and Starling for the first time. I scrapped it in the later version because it required too much recapping to catch up.


2. Bria and I have similar hairstyles, but not because I wrote her to mimic me – it's the other way around. I had long hair the first time I wrote Wanderlove, and really wanted short hair. So I gave it to Bria. Then I chopped off my own.


3. I got the idea for Rowan from two guys I met while backpacking in Central America. Both were megatravelers; one was a (blond) ponytailed dive instructor, and the other funded his travels through some shady ventures. The personality, looks, familial background and all his idiosyncrasies are entirely Rowan's own, though.


4. I got the idea for Starling from a teenage girl I met in Guatemala. She was traveling with her dad – an obvious megatraveler himself – and she was adorably bohemian, and also kind of standoffish. I admired her, even though she had to be at least five years younger than me.


5. I think I'm fifty percent Bria, fifty percent Starling. Good and bad parts both.


6. Laughingbird Caye is based on an island in Belize called Caye Caulker. I visited it during my first Central America backpacking trip at age 20, with my then-boyfriend. I married him on that same island four years later.


7. While drawing the illustrations in Wanderlove, I watched the entire series of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer for the first time. Thank you, Joss Whedon.


8. I worked the hardest on the final drawing in Wanderlove for obvious reasons. More than any other, there was a huge pressure to get it right. But while other illustrations went through a couple iterations, I was happy with it on draft number one.


9. I totally jumped off the Seventh Altar waterfall.


10. I am dying (DYING) to write companion books based on two specific Wanderlove characters. Buying Wanderlove will help make this happen :)

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Leave a comment and let me know what you thought of the guest post! Or maybe check out my review of Wanderlove :)