i wanted to be able to show how other people saw what it was that eddie jean was going ,hrough.nd more than anything people can sometimes be supportive and sometimes a fake it. i was curious about the children , what does it feel like to be abandoned, i mean really. what does that feel like? what does it feel like to know that your mother is a crackhead. i did not know. there are a lot of characters, siblings but i just wanted to know what gives some people or makes them feel like they are authorities on other people's lives and especially when they do not look at their own. so that was the point. in order to do that i had to write it from the various view whosepoints of lives impacted betty jean and vice versa. tavis: speaking of vantage point from which you had to write since there are so many characters here. i am curious as to your process. how do you take what is a very and deliver itue in a narrative that is poignant, that is funny at times, that is not proselytizing. that is a serious issue and you take it and how do you turn it into a novel? rex is a dramatize it. becaus