Woah! Is this an update? Nope! I was thinking about this book and realized there were small things that some people did pick up on, while most didn't really know. Since I didn't really ever state it. But I thought it would be fun to add some fun facts that I had when writing!

First: Leaf is half-Latino, half-white.

Explanation: I tend to like to include diversity in my books. My first book, Saving You, featured a protagonist who was supposed to be of Indian descent. The whole cycle of the two storms, one of fire and the other of drowning typhoons, were actually based off an Indian myth of the apocalypse. In my current work, Lost in Reality, Kate is supposed to have some Italian blood. I think the only thought I put to that was writing that she had olive skin so, you know.

 In this book, although Leaf is an American citizen, her father is a first generation child of a family who immigrated from Mexico. It was given in small context clues such as them living in Texas, and Leaf's last name being Verde. In multiple languages (Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish), it translates to green. It was a bit redundant for her to go from Leaf Green in a different language to Leaf Green, but it was also a way for me to tie in her ultimate destiny to be in the game.

Also a little insider, I wrote that her father died from a mugging. In my assumption, I imagined it as a gang of (white) people jumped him and beat him to hell since he was of a different ethnicity. Even though he was born in the U.S. and contributed majorly as he worked for the American Branch of Nintendo (he was stealing them jobs, ya know?? Please note that I'm joking.)

What made me decide it? Uh... I don't know. I'm a pasty white girl, but I really care about my lineage. I have Polish, Russian, German, Finnish, English, Native American and Jewish blood. So basically White, but I care about each one as building small pieces of me. I grew up near Detroit, and that is some melting pot area. A few cities over we have one of the largest Muslim populations in the United States, I worked in a Dry Cleaners with numerous Romanian immigrants, I went to a preschool were half my friends were African American, and when I entered elementary school, I asked my mom why everyone was so white like me? I'm not color blind. I am maybe highly aware of the different cultures around me. 

So uh... That's not really an answer. I guess my reasoning is, "Why not?"

Two: I wrote Copycat in literally just to be a Red Herring for Mew

Explanation: I saw a lot of people calling Copycat Mew and I was like, "NOPE!" I mean, Mew was already a bit hidden with Leaf, but the fact that I hadn't evolved Vulpix yet had some people suspicious so I threw in Copycat. Plus she gave a good subplot to the story that really brought some emotion to build the end of the book.

I grew to love Copycat, because she became the voice of many readers during the time, expressing their shipping frustrations and sometimes impatience, but was still someone adorable and that Leaf and I both cared about very much.

Three: Gym leader Sabrina was written into a chapter just because when I wrote my first couple chapters, someone commented, "What if I ship SabrinaxLeaf?! THEN WHAT?! WHERE IS MY CONTENT!" it was a joke and an acquaintance at the time. 

Explanation: WHY NOT?!?!? I give the shippers what they want. Other than... you know, blue and leaf. And... I tease, okay?

Four: I had a self-insert character written throughout the story. her name was Aster.

Explanation: Go look for yourself! You'll find two characters, Aster and Rain sprinkled into the story. Their first intro was when Blue was flirting with a bunch of girls to see how many numbers he could get.

Originally, these two characters were from a Naruto fanfiction that my best friend and I were working on and based off of ourselves. The book ended up falling through, but the characters had always stuck with me. It was then after my book came out, that Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were released when in the Delta episode that I met Zinnia who kept talking about Aster.

It was actually really funny because I had named my character Aster, so I got really confused as Zinnia was like, "this is for you Aster" and "if only you were here, Aster" and I'm like "uhh?" So the fact I picked the name ended up playing as a coincidental easter egg, that has been pointed out by multiple readers.

Five: Leaf forgave her mother, but never forgot

Explanation: This-- was a point readers went back and forth. I didn't want Leaf's mom to come off as mean. She was negligent. Alice Verde, Leaf's mom, was in bouts of serious depression after losing her husband. It was no excuse, but she really did love Leaf. She just didn't exactly know how to show it.

Alice wanted her daughter to be stronger than she was. 

Leaf was so young, she couldn't completely understand it. As her toys were taken away because her mom wanted to make sure she'd not grow to rely on anything (or anyone too much). As she was yelled at in a cemetery because her mom just needed space.

The fact that her mom didn't say I love you back at the beginning of the book, was really important to me. In this point. But it wasn't because she didn't love her. Alice loved Leaf so much, and she was terrified to lose her too. And to grow attachment, to tell something you love them every day and then watch them die-- It kills you.

Throughout the story, Leaf journeyed and grew to understand what her mother meant, or was trying to. She understood that her mother was in a tough position, and was the result of her behavior. It is no reason to neglect a child as much as she did. But she wouldn't just forget everything her mother did. Leaf learned from it. She wants to be better than her mother.

This is such a common thing I hear from people. "My mother did this and I never wanted to bring that onto my children". It's small things done unconsciously. It's the not speaking good English and saying, "I will not love you if you don't work" because they don't know how else to phrase it. It's the mother who locks herself away when her eldest son dies of an overdose, leaving her young daughter to watch for years. It's the overused phrase of "I'm disappointed in you."

That's what I was trying to go for. After years, many people finally say, "yeah. I forgive them. But I'm gonna be different. I want to be different than that."

Six: Leaf was depressed and suffered from self-hatred

Explanation: Might have been or not been obvious. But I wanted to start her out apathetic. I had her describe her own hair as a muddy mess. I wanted her to see hollow eyes when she saw her reflection. In the beginning of the book, she easily snapped. She easily broke down in tears. She asked for a reset in life.

In my newer book, I have the fact my main character depressed as the main conflict. But for Leaf, it was subtle. I wanted her to slowly grow over the book. I wanted her to find happiness and learn to love herself on the adventure. There was a love interest, but no he didn't fix her. Just gonna say that now.

  And don't thing it came from her relationship with her mom. Yes, that definitely added to it, but in my head it's a genetic thing.  

I chose this because for most of my life, I've suffered depression. I'd say I haven't let it get me down, but it has. It really has. But through it all, I clung to a small, small little bead of hope. And that hope spread into my writing. I wanted to tell readers, and myself, that at the end of the tunnel, you can get better. You can find happiness. You might end up in a completely different place than you expected by the end of it, but if you're happy... Then it was worth it.

Seven: From the beginning of the book, Leaf was always going to end up with Red.

Explanation: This is something I actually get commonly. A few critics even noted that it felt kind of-- sudden. As if half way through the book I changed my decision on who Leaf would end up with. And, that's on my fault for execution. I could have done it better. But I wanted Leaf to get a crush on Blue, and then realize he wasn't the perfect one for her.

That was one of the ideas I really wanted to convey. Many fanfictions I've read and stories I've been fed since I've grown up have usually been focused on falling in love with one person and then happily ever after.

I know, love triangles are so cliche. But I wanted Leaf to first have a friend in Red before anything else. Blue was the first person she really met in this game and guided her throughout her adventure. I wanted her to grow some feelings and admiration. But I wanted her to also slowly grow to realize, that's all it was.

Blue may have been interested in her, but hers was just a fuzzy feeling. A girl who had never had a crush before easily confusing things in her mind. 

With Red, I wanted her to fall in love with him without even noticing. I wanted a friendship and kinship to hold them before romantic feelings. She was to realize how distinctly different the type of love that she held was different that what she felt for Blue.
Also it was a 10/10 Matrix reference. She chose the red pill. She chose to dive into a whole new world. I realized that later on, but I loved the fact that it lined up.

This is something I've been wanting to say for awhile.

Smaller fun facts that I don't think need an explanation: Mewtwo wasn't originally going to be part of the story until about four or five chapters in. I chose Leaf because she was the first girl to enter the first generation from the start (Crystal was second gen and technically went to Kanto but didn't start there) so I really wanted to set this story in the first region as a sort of homage to the old games. And also, I have no clue how to hack. So uh-- feel like correcting hacking things Leaf did? Go ahead. I just basically followed the idea behind most ActionReplays. So... Not really hacking. I aint no genius.

I hope you liked this little bonus to the book!