The second book of The Firebrand Chronicles, Flare, releases today! Yay! I’m so excited to share the crazy (mis?)adventures of the heroine Brenna James. She’s loyal, snarky, and has ADHD. But she wasn’t originally written that way.

When I first began writing Spark (which was initially called The Sacred Veil), my youngest daughter entered kindergarten. She was diagnosed with ADHD inattentive in second grade. I was thrilled to have answers to why she did the things she did, and our family began learning about the world of neurodiversity. (Neurodiversity includes autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, as well as other neurological conditions.) I became an expert, if not in ADHD, then at least in my child and her needs. But where were the fantasy books with an ADHD main character? (I don’t count Percy Jackson—his ADHD and dyslexia is explained away when he discovers he’s a demi-god. A missed opportunity, in my opinion!) There were too few neurodiverse characters, and the idea of a main character with ADHD was born.

As Spark and then Flare were written, Brenna and I addressed some of the markers of ADHD—impulsivity, time blindness, distractibility. Although she can hyperfocus and solve puzzles creatively, the reader sees her challenges and her struggle to be “good enough” in a world that labels her as different.

Readers have asked me, Will Brenna ever stop making impulsive choices? Will she stop and think before acting? Will she stay focused? Probably not, because that’s not who she is. ADHD governs that part of her brain. But she’ll never give up, she’ll keep trying, and she’ll believe in second chances. Because that’s something offered to absolutely everyone.