John-Browne is my favorite BalonaBook. It is probably not a perfect example of the novel. In its first edition it had some editorial problems. But it was my very first BalonaBook. I am therefore grateful to it, and thanks to you for asking!

The book was a byproduct of a family crisis. Hoping that bibliotherapy is a fact, and that when a kid reads something wherein another kid-in-crisis meets and is able to solve a problem, I sat down and composed a book that I hoped might help some children dear to me cope with the loss of their mother to cancer.

As every author will tell you, characters that you "invent" soon take you over. You don't always tell them what to do. They very often tell you. This is what happened in John-Browne. Martial arts reared its head because that's been an interest of mine forever. In-school behavior made its entry because I have been a school person forever. Characters associated with the United States Marine Corps appear because I have an abiding regard for marines. Kids using race-words intruded because those (the race-words and the kids when using them) are an everlasting irritation to me.

The characters of Jack and Claire and Richie and Ms Fardel appear or are referred to in subsequent Balona Books. In fact, Claire is one of the two narrators of the popular Balona Book, Buds, a title that sounds to some as if it has to do with "dope." (Nope, it doesn't!).