Hi, everyone!

Since The Adventures of the Petersons: Book One — The Cruise has gotten some likes, views, and comments, I thought it would be fun to do a little Q&A!

First of all, thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to read the book, leave a comment, or show it some love. It honestly makes me so happy knowing that people are reading and enjoying the Peterson family's adventures.

For this Q&A, I’m going to answer some questions about the book, the characters, how the story came together, and a few other behind-the-scenes things.

And at the very end, I’ll share a little sneak peek of what’s coming next.

I wanted to create a series that was funny, relatable, and full of family chaos. I liked the idea of having one family that keeps finding themselves in completely different adventures, while still keeping the same characters and personalities throughout each book.

The Cruise was the perfect way to introduce the Peterson family because it puts everyone together in one place, where, of course, things don’t exactly go according to plan.

I also wanted the series to be something you could read when you just want to relax, laugh, and see what

ridiculous situation the Petersons manage to get themselves into next.

Oh my gosh, this is actually such a hard question!

If I absolutely had to choose one character, I think my favorite would probably be Lana. I know she isn't necessarily THE main character of the entire series, but there's just something about her that I really like. She's really cute, I love her personality, and I feel like she adds such a fun touch to the story. Even when she isn't the person at the center of everything that's happening, she still adds something special whenever she's there.

Lina would definitely be a very close second. I feel like Lina and Lana just go together so well, which makes it even harder to choose between them. Their friendship

and the way their personalities work together is one of my favorite parts of writing the characters. If Lana is number one, Lina is definitely right behind her.

And then I would probably put John third. John obviously plays a huge part in The Cruise, and I really like writing his character too. He has so many funny moments, especially when he's trying to do his own thing and somehow ends up caught in everything happening around him.

But honestly, I really do love all of the characters. I've spent so much time working on them, figuring out their personalities, and deciding how they fit into the Peterson world that it's almost impossible to pick favorites.

Something I also really want people to know about The Adventures of the Petersons is that John isn't necessarily going to be the main character of every single book. That's part of what makes this series so fun for me to create.

One adventure might focus more on John, while another could feel like Lana's story. Another book could put Lina at the center of everything, or maybe Zoe will be the one who gets the biggest storyline. Different characters will have their moments to shine depending on the adventure and what's happening in that particular book.

I don't want the series to feel like it's only one person's story with everyone else standing in the background. It's

really about this whole group of characters, their relationships, their personalities, and all the ridiculous situations they end up in together.

So my final answer would probably be:

Lana is my favorite.

Lina is an extremely close second.

And John is probably third.

But honestly, ask me again after a few more Peterson adventures, because my answer might completely change!

Not really! The characters aren't actually based on specific people I know. Most of them really just came from my imagination and slowly became their own characters as I kept working on the story.

For some reason, I've always been obsessed with names like Lana and Lina. I just really, really love those names! Honestly, I love pretty much all of the names I chose for the characters. Coming up with names is one of my favorite parts because sometimes I'll hear or think of a name and immediately feel like I need to make a character for it.

That's kind of what happened with The Adventures of the

Petersons. I knew I wanted to create another book, and once I started coming up with the characters and their names, everything slowly started coming together. Then I started figuring out their personalities, how they would act around each other, who would be friends, who would cause the most chaos, and what kind of adventures they could have.

I've actually made a bunch of different books before this one with different characters, different towns, and completely different stories. I really love being able to make up my own little worlds. You can start with something as simple as a name or one random idea, and somehow it can turn into an entire town filled with

characters and stories.

That's probably one of my favorite things about creating books. At first, the characters are basically just names and ideas in my head. But the longer I work on a story, the more I start figuring them out. They get their own personalities, friendships, families, favorite things, problems, and little details that make them feel like actual characters.

And that's definitely happened with the Petersons. Now when I'm writing, I can actually think, "Lana would totally do that," or, "John would NEVER say that." Their personalities have become much clearer to me since I first created them.

So no, there isn't a real Peterson family out there secretly living all of these adventures. They really came from my imagination, my love of creating characters, and apparently my obsession with certain names.

(Sneak peek: You may meet some NEW characters in The Not-So-Merry Christmas... and there could be even more new faces joining the Petersons in future books. So keep an eye out. You never know who might show up next.)

Okay, I know I’ve been saying this for a lot of these questions, but this one is REALLY hard too.

Honestly, I don’t even know if I have a favorite scene.

There are just so many different scenes in The Cruise, and I spent so much time working on the whole book that it’s really difficult for me to look at one part and say, “Yep, that’s definitely my favorite.”

I love some scenes because they’re funny. I love others because I really like the characters in them. And then there are scenes that I like because I remember coming up with the idea and being really excited to actually put it into the book.

I also think when you’re the person who created the story, it can be harder to choose. I didn’t just read all of these scenes—I had to come up with them, write them, change things around, figure out what the characters would say, and eventually put everything together into the finished book.

So I know this is probably the most boring answer ever, but I really don’t know!

There are definitely a LOT of scenes that I love, but I don’t think I could pick one and officially call it my favorite. Maybe after I’ve finished more books in the series, I’ll finally have that one scene where I’m like, “Okay, THAT ONE wins.”