Blog interviews are always easier to participate in than live ones.  I can take my time to think about what I want to say and in some cases, even decide which ones I choose to answer while ignoring others.  Here’s one of my answers from Suzy Turner’s Fiction Dreams site.  Click through if you want to see which other questions I selected.

What inspired you to write it?

Each book in the series sort of represents a different “type” of kid you might find living homeless on the street. The first one, Painted Black, is about two runaways, one who’s a graffiti artist and one who turns to prostitution to survive. The second, Bend Me Shape Me, is about one of the many youth diagnosed as mentally ill, which means no one wants to believe her when she says her psychiatrist is responsible for one friend’s suicide and may be targeting her brother as his next victim. In Box of Rain, I wanted to call attention to kids who have the brains, drive and morals to be successful in life, but aren’t recognized as such because of circumstances beyond their control. Their path to a happy life is blocked because of what has happened to them, not who they are.

via Author interview with Debra R. Borys |Fiction Dreams.