The Statistical Probability Blog Tour

 Today I am taking part in the blog tour for The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. If you haven't read my review you can read it here. The book is fantastic! If you haven't seen the other posts Jennifer has been doing, you should check them out!


Jennifer was kind enough to do a question and answer with me!

What is the most interesting thing that has happened to you, or that you have witnessed, on a flight?

One of my favorite flying experiences actually made it into the book.  I lent it to Oliver.  A few years ago, I was on a flight from Chicago to New York on the Fourth of July.  I was sitting next to the window, and soon after takeoff, I realized I could see fireworks displays going off down below.  They looked really tiny from above, nothing more than the smallest flares of light, but they were everywhere, just dotting the landscape.  I couldn’t believe how many there were, probably hundreds of local displays that we followed across the country all the way back to New York.  It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.  So, of course, I had to put it in the book.

Where in the world would you most like to visit?

I’ve been lucky enough to check off my top three places in the past few years: South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.  But there are so many more countries I’d love to visit.  For some reason, Iceland is really high on my list at the moment.  So is South America.  I’ve been to Argentina, but I’d love to go back and see some other places down there as well.  Hopefully soon!

If you could sit next to anyone on the plane, real or fictional, who would it be?

I’m sure I should be choosing someone clever or important here like Charles Dickens or Abraham Lincoln, but the truth is, there’s nobody I’d rather be next to on a plane than my sister.  We’ve traveled a lot together, and it’s really nice to sit beside someone who doesn’t mind when you get antsy or bored or grumpy, or who doesn’t care that you get up forty-two times or talk through the movie or ask if we’re there yet.  Plus she always lets me trade her for the good parts of her airline meal.  I bet Abraham Lincoln wouldn’t do that.

What inspired you to write The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight?

I’d been reading a lot of books that were really dark and depressing – beautiful and poignant, but still dark and depressing – and I wanted to write something that was sweet and deeply hopeful without being overly light and fluffy.  I’d been thinking a lot about the idea of fate, and how the smallest things can so easily send everything onto a different course, and I just kept coming back to the idea of this girl missing her flight, and how something like that might change everything.

Did you always plan to write The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight over a short time period and if so, why?

I did, yes.  I like the idea of a fixed time period, and I think putting parentheses around the timeframe of a story can really notch up the tension.  But when I was first thinking through the book, I imagined it would be set over a long weekend.  I wasn’t sure twenty-four hours was enough to show two people falling for each other in a convincing enough way.  It wasn’t until I was pretty far into the airplane section that I realized it could work.  That flight was only seven hours, and by the time they got off that plane, they already had this deep connection and had shared so much.  At that point, there were still seventeen hours left in the day, and it started to seem like more than enough to tell their story.

Are you writing anything at the moment? If so, could you share a little bit about it?

My first middle grade novel, The Storm Makers, will actually be out in April.  But at the moment, I’m working on another YA love story called This is What Happy Looks Like, which has been a lot of fun. 

How did you choose the names for Hadley and Oliver?

They’re both names I’ve always loved.  I actually knew a man named Hadley when I was growing up, but I’d just read A Moveable Feast when I started this book, and that was the name of Hemingway’s first wife, so I think it sort of stuck with me.  As for Oliver, I met more than a few guys with that name when I was living in the UK, and what’s not to love?

I would just like to thank Jennifer for answering all my questions and giving such fascinating answers. Make sure you stop my Anna Reads and Heaven, Hell and Purgatory Book Reviews for tomorrow's posts.