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Hi, Liam,

OK, here goes:

1. Names are easy. Everybody’s got at least one. But I spend a lot of time working on names for my characters. I can’t exactly explain it, even to myself. But a name has to “sound right” for the character before I’ll choose it. But I’m not really sure what “right” is. I just know it when I see it.

2. I assume you’re talking about LINKED, right? I needed a small-ish town with a manageable-size population of people who could all get behind the paper chain project. I chose the mountainous part of Colorado for just such a semi-isolated area. The events? That’s part of the story. I chose it. If it hadn’t been for that story, the whole of Chokecherry’s past couldn’t have been brought up. It was all fiction, all made up to suit the story I chose to tell.

3. The paperclip project in that Tennessee school was something I’ve been thinking about for several years. Those students were unique people in that they found it hard to wrap their minds around a number like 6 million. It was a brilliant idea to collect something like paper clips to be able to imagine such a number in terms of 6 million human lives.

4. It may sound strange, or even a little bit “stuck-up,” but I wouldn’t change a word of that book! It came out exactly the way I’d hoped when I was planning it.

There. I hope that’s helpful, Liam. If there’s anything else, you know where to find me — right here!

                                    Best regards,                                                                        —–Gordon Korman—–