You Made My Mum Cry

I didn't set out to make my author's mum cry. But that's what happened. All is good, though. The author says the book has brought the two of them closer together because her mother understands her better.

I'm writing the biography of a young founder on the verge of great things. The challenge her mentor set me was to make a book out of someone whose story is yet to happen, rather than someone who has already achieved great things.

I came up with an approach that mixes contemporary "diary" entries with narrative chapters that explain not what she is trying to do but why. Lots of stuff in the story already stacked up: tech innovation backed by NASA that would transform a statewide industry – if not a national one – and a lifetime overcoming systemic prejudice as a young Latina.

What investors weren't getting from her pitches was the source of her profound commitment to the project.

They needed a reason to fall in love with her.

The book will give them one.

If a story can bring the author's mother to tears, imagine the impact it can have on others.