Thank you so much! Your question does not have an easy answer. The characters are from life except that I mixed up their personality traits and invented some new ones. Some events are informed by life events or by things people told me, others are invented. For example, the opening scene in this part is something an old girlfriend (the one to whom I lost my virginity, as it happens) told me she did at that age. I don’t think I could have made that up. The priest didn’t molest her though. She had more than enough problems without that.

Anyway, I’m up to part 5, with 6 pretty much ready, and close to where it gets weird.