In Cash and Lennox’s book, Changed By You, we learn that Lennox deals with dyslexia. Music therapy was one way that helped her deal with her neurodivergence as a child, which in turn led to her becoming a Grammy-award winning artist. She mentions early on in the story the ways her parents helped her navigate her dyslexia in a successful way. Click here to read more about effective teaching techniques for students with dyslexia.

Another aspect to Cash and Lennox’s story is the car accident they’re in during the prologue. Their story opens up with a car crash and midstory readers find out the aftermath and how they navigate it. Without giving too many spoilers away, one of them suffers a spinal cord injury. My cousin suffered a complete spinal cord injury in her late teenage years, meaning unlike my characters, she’s permanently paralyzed. My imagination began to wonder though: what if her injury was incomplete? How would that difference in diagnosis have changed her rehabilitation? How would a complete versus incomplete spinal cord injury have impacted the patient and their loved ones? While my character’s injury is drastically different than my cousin’s, I wanted to show readers the time and effort these patients have to go through and the hope they have to carry to keep on going in their rehab, and just how trying it can be on not only the patient but also their loved ones. If you’re here after reading Changed By You, please click here to learn more about Anterior Cord Syndrome and here to learn more about spinal cord injury recovery. The one thing our family learned in my cousin’s diagnosis and rehab is that a strong support system and a sense of humor can get you through anything, and that’s exactly what I wanted my characters to realize as well.