Someone asked me recently where my story ideas come from. In fact, that’s one of the author questions I get asked most often. Honestly, the answer is different for every single project I’ve worked on, every single thing I’ve written. I’ve gotten ideas from news headlines, from dreams, from random musings while washing dishes. I even got an idea for a novel from a throwaway remark made by an editor teaching a workshop (that’s how The Story Peddler started).

The idea for The Story Hunter started with a title that turned into a girl.

After The Weaver Trilogy was acquired, my publisher and I brainstormed a list of titles for books two and three in the series. My editor loved the title The Story Peddler and wanted to keep that format for subsequent books. On his brainstorming list was the title The Story Thief. Obviously, this title did not make it all the way to publication. The middle-grade best-selling series Story Thieves wasn’t on our radar at the time, and once it was, I knew we would have to work with a different title (and I absolutely love the title The Story Hunter, so there’s no lingering sadness over here). But the moment I saw that phrase, The Story Thief, a new character popped into my head. It was one of those rare instances when a complete person arrives in my imagination all at once. I knew who she was, what she wanted, and what her unique gift would be. She was Diggy, my story thief, and I knew book three would belong to her.

There were many things I loved about writing this final installment of The Weaver Trilogy but none more than getting to write my story thief’s journey. That’s her hand on the cover of the book, stealing lightning and battling her inner monsters. Though I knew who Diggy was the moment I imagined her, I wasn’t sure how her story was going to end until I wrote it. I can recall saying to my best friend during Hunter’s writing process, “I don’t know if Diggy is going to be okay.” Her backstory is very difficult and deeply personal to me. When we’re facing the kind of odds Diggy is facing, sometimes we don’t win. And even if we do, rarely do we come out unscathed. So I built the book around that question: is Diggy going to be okay? And I didn’t know the answer until I scribbled it down on my outline.

When readers reach The End for the final time in this series, I hope they will feel I’ve done Diggy’s story—and the stories of all my beloved Weaver characters— justice.