Author Vanessa Rodriguez wanted to write about something she knew, which was being a latchkey kid. That idea catapulted into the new fantasy series A Key to Home (Priceless Publishing, October 31, 2023), which follows a diverse group of four friends, who are all latchkey kids. When asked if she looks at her characters solely as that or as people, here is what she had to say:
“They’re like my kids,” she tells So Booking Cool with a laugh. “I don’t have kids, but I was joking around that for Mother’s day, you’ll have to give me something because I have four kids now.”
Each book follows a character from the foursome including Veronica in A Key to Home: Unlatch the Adventure as well as Ben, Farrah, and Moira. She developed their characteristics by conducting “very personal” interviews with a range of 15-20 adults about their past as latchkey kids.
“It’s actually pretty exciting because I could envision them as a real person because they came from real people,” she says about her characters. “And then, they’re also their own person and they all have their own personalities.”
Check out the full conversation to learn more about Rodriguez and A Key to Home; her thoughts on if representation is important; her reading habits and tastes; J.K. Rowling; other book ideas she has thus far; why Halloween is the perfect release date for her book; and more! For more information, visit A Key to Home on Instagram.