Erin Yun: Hi y'all, my name is Erin Yun, and I'm the author of the middle grade book, Pippa Park: Crush at First Sight. I was inspired to write Pippa Park: Crush at First Sight, both because I think there's more to Pippa's story, and also because I wasn't ready for Pippa's story to be over. In the second book, Pippa's best friend at her new school, Helen, is dating Pippa's best friend from her old school, Buddy, and starts to develop the same insecurities I felt from that age all the way up to college. Like worrying that her friends are drifting away from her, and that she's missing out on new milestones, like holding hands with a crush, or going on dates. Also keeping in line with the Dickens theme, Pippa Park: Crush at First Sight takes inspiration from A Christmas Carol, but because Pippa's characters and world were already establishing in book one, there's less direct parallels and more whimsical commonalities between the two.

Pippa Park: Crush at First Sight is the first sequel I've ever written. So there was definitely a learning curve in terms of how to reintroduce readers to the world, and how to balance backstory with fresh action. In addition, it was a lot more challenging to infuse Crush At First Sight with the essence of A Christmas Carol compared to Great Expectations in Pippa Park Raises Her Game. As I mentioned, going to the second book, the characters and settings are already established, so it wouldn't make sense for, say, the optimistic Pippa to suddenly take on the cynical, grouchy personality of Scrooge.

And of course, the first book is realistic fiction, so it would also be quite the genre shift for three ghosts to pop up in the sequel. So instead of a literal retelling for the sequel, I decided to explore similar themes of A Christmas Carol, like greed and materialism. I also had Mrs. Lee perform a past, present, and future Tarot reading for Pippa, which is a play on Christmas past, present, and yet to come.

The process was, in a lot of ways, very similar to the first book. I spent months writing an extensive outline before diving into a quick first draft, and then spent most of my time in the editing stage. However, I was also writing it during lockdown in a global pandemic, and so it was also very different too. Pippa's character is naturally upbeat and optimistic, but because our voices are so close, my own negative emotions started to really manifest in that first-person voice, which was something we had to address during the editing stage. In order to keep Pippa's voice consistent, I focused on giving myself breaks on sad days, and spent extra time editing on happy days.

I also went back and immersed myself in some of Pippa's happiest moments from Pippa Park Raises Her Game, which gave me a lot of joy. I think Pippa feels more like herself now. Honestly, my favorite part of creating the sequel was getting to hang out with Pippa again. I always enjoy receiving any feedback from readers, but I feel especially warm inside when they tell me they love Pippa's character, because I just love her too. Whenever I'm working on a new project, I'll start to hear the main character's voice in my head. Like, I'll try and drift off to sleep, only to be distracted by the protagonist getting into a random, imaginary argument with the antagonist. So it was a lot of fun to have Pippa chattering away my brain again. I didn't even realize how much I missed our friendship until she came back.

So I didn't have a preset moral or lesson when I sat down to write Pippa Park Raises Her game, the first book, but if there was a takeaway, I hope readers would remember it to be kinder to themselves, and that remains even more true for book two. Life is hard, and the last few years have felt particularly hard. As a kid, when I was upset, I could lose myself in The Princess Diaries, or the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson. And no matter what else is going on in real life, for a few hours, I found myself smiling. I remember those feelings of happiness and laughter even when I don't remember the details of the books. So if even one reader finds a similar feeling of escape or joy in the pages of Pippa Park: Crush at First Sight, then I'll be so grateful.