Since ON THE ROPES takes place in my neighborhood (and I grew up in Delco, right outside of Philly) there are more than the usual ‘real-life’ examples and secret easter eggs hidden in this book 😉
In no apparent order:
-That sign above — which says Every day is your chance to make this city a little better — hangs on K Street in Sacramento (where Rob and I lived for eight years) and I would see it every day while biking home. It always stuck with me — and it’s also a core value of mine, that we all have a responsibility to care for each other, our communities and the planet. So when I was thinking of something that Dean and Rowan’s social studies teacher would have as a mural in her classroom, this quote immediately came to mind. ❤
-The idea to write a romance novel about a former boxer did not come from my 15th time of watching Creed, my favorite movie. It actually came from watching an episode of Fargo (the Chris Rock season) — a side character is a boxer and they showed a scene of him wrapping his hands with tape, and I jumped off the couch and scrawled Philly, boxer, romance? on a post-it note.
-In the first draft, Tabitha’s story was entirely different in every single way. Her family didn’t change much, but her original story was that she was a mural artist with imposter syndrome (instead of filming a documentary about the pocket park, I had Dean working with her to paint a mural on it). Also, Tabitha was from South Philly in the first draft but they didn’t know each other, and they were not neighbors. All three of those things made it fall flat — so I revamped it entirely, and all of a sudden Tabitha’s real story, and connection to Dean through their support groups, made itself clear.
-John’s Water Ice is an institution in South Philly — but growing up in Delco, we of course got ours at Rita’s Water Ice (and mango is my favorite flavor).
-I partially based Eddie’s back-story of being a senior and food insecure after a volunteer shift I worked at a food pantry in Sacramento, years ago. I was working with homeless women and children at the time, so was no stranger to being around folks who were hungry. But on this shift, every person I processed through intake was, essentially, my grandfather’s age, struggling to make ends meet with their limited pensions and dwindling social security checks. I have never, ever, ever forgotten it.
-As teenagers, Dean and Tabitha connected by going to a support group for queer kids and allies at a place called The Lavender Center. I based it on The William Way Center and The Attic Youth Center, both in Philly. 💖
-To finish the third draft of ON THE ROPES, I had to pull two all-nighters in a row (do not recommend!!) but on hour 40 of no sleep, chapter 29 came to me in a fit of weird inspiration I’m pretty sure wouldn’t have happened if I was, er, entirely lucid 😂 (and don’t worry — the book went through another six weeks of edits after that, so you didn’t read the weirdest bits). Chapter 29 begins My parents were trying to teach Tabitha how to do the twist. This is now one of my favorite scenes, for being so delightful and charming and for the way Dean realizes the healing his mothers have gone through as well — and because I like to think of Dean and Tabitha dancing in a living room and laughing. This scene was also partially inspired by my dad — he grew up just outside of Philly with eight younger siblings, and they used to watch American Bandstand (when it was still being filmed in Philly) and practice all the dances together as kids in their living room.
-Just a few blocks from my house, there are a group of white-haired veterans who sit on lawn chairs with cups of coffee and gossip on the sidewalk. Every single day. (just like in chapter 3!) Oh, and they looooove Walter.
-All across my neighborhood, people set up honest-to-god pools on their sidewalks every summer. And you just walk around them like it’s no big deal 😉
-And finally: Pam, Eddie’s cat, is real! Okay, her name is not Pam (that is based on a dog at Walter’s daycare, whose name is Pam and that is hysterical to me). I’m not sure if she has a name, but I’ve got a neighbor who has set up an entire bench for her feral cat, complete with two beds, a blue tarp and a bright red umbrella. Rob and I call her Umbrella Cat and I knew I had to give her to Eddie.