Lindsey Leavitt discusses her latest novel, The Chapel Wars, and gives us an insider look at Las Vegas.

Sam is a unique character in YA in that he is strictly a platonic friend to Holly. Why did you decide to write that relationship?
I haven’t read many books with a girl who has a lot of friends who are boys, with one friend who is a boy being the best friend. Just friends. That’s it. No, seriously.
In high school, I had a group of guy friends who I had no romantic involvement whatsoever, and we are still friends to this day. Plus, Sam was one of those characters who just kind of came to me and I thought he made a great emotional foil to Holly’s often unmovable logic.

Vegas almost becomes its own character in the story. Living in Vegas, was it easy to make the city come alive on the page and include so much history about the city? Did you use any moments you may have observed as part of the novel?
Absolutely. I grew up here. I knew all about being a local kid living in a setting known for a very small amount of real estate. Research was geographically easy because I could drive right on down to a wedding chapel, and I’ve never had that luxury before.
Lots of my own personal feelings and observations about this constantly changing city are embedded in the pages. I have a love/hate relationship with my hometown, and I was able to show that from two different characters’ point of views.

The families in this story are far from perfect. How did you create the family dynamics and make decisions about who these characters would be?
Have you ever met a perfect family? I haven’t. Probably because it doesn’t exist. I’ve met messy families composed of flawed people who love each other imperfectly. Yes, there are severely dysfunctional families out there, and I know authors who tell their stories painfully well. I like to explore the earthquakes–big and small–that shake those family dynamics and hopefully, in some way, bring the characters closer together.

At what point in the development of an idea do you know that it will become a full-length novel?
Usually when I write THE END. I have a lot of doubt that something will become a book until it actually does. Which probably isn’t great commentary on my writing process, but it’s so true. I’m still shocked and awed when an ARC comes and I see something that used to be nonsense in a word document translated to a tangible object. There’s a lot of sweat and a little magic that makes that come together.

What is easier to write: The first line or the last line?
The first. I write sequentially, so it takes a lot of words and work before I can get to the last.

About Lindsey Leavitt

Lindsey Leavitt is a former elementary school teacher and present-day writer/mom to three (mostly) adorable girls. She is married to her high-school lab partner and lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is the author of the Princess for Hire series, Sean Griswald’s Head, and Going Vintage.

She also feels weird writing about herself in third person.