speaking the characters' language

Chris Crutcher's talk at the library was jammed. The auditorium was full of students (junior high, high school), teachers, parents, librarians. Crutcher talked mostly about Whale Talk and gave its history: how he had to write the book twice because the first time, the plot centered on a high school shooting, but when Columbine and other shootings happened, he asked his agent to throw the book in the wastebasket. As he said, he was then character-rich and plot-poor. So he relied on his experiences as a teacher who coached a fledgling swim team composed of atypical athletes.

Crutcher talked about the scene in Whale Talk that got the book banned in Limestone County, the two pages in which Heidi, the 4 1/2 year old biracial girl, uses the "F" and "B" words in her therapy session. And Crutcher talked about the actual person the character is based on, a former client of his, from whom he got permission to tell the story in his novel. That client is now a college graduate.