Maybe I Will (22 page)

I smiled and closed my eyes.
Maybe I will.

Many readers will ask whether Sandy is short for Sanford or Sandra. My answer is “Yes.” Some readers will identify strongly with Sandy as exclusively male or female, while others will read the book twice, once assuming Sandy is one gender and again assuming the opposite gender. In discussions, some will use the masculine pro-nouns and some will use the feminine. Others will undertake the cumbersome task of using both disjunctively (he or she, his or her), and some may attempt an entirely gender neutral commentary. Do whatever is most comfortable for you. I am not an advocate for gender neutrality. Instead, I believe we're moving toward becoming a society that embraces and values male and female experiences equally, and I hope that
Maybe I Will
is a step in that direction.

Laurie Gray has worked as a high school teacher, a deputy prosecuting attorney, and the founder of Socratic Parenting LLC (
www.SocraticParenting.com
). In addition to writing, speaking and consulting, Laurie currently works as a bilingual child forensic interviewer at her local child advocacy center and as an adjunct professor of criminal sciences at Indiana Tech University. She has served on the faculty of the National Symposium for Child Abuse in Huntsville, Alabama, annually since 2009. Her debut novel
Summer Sanctuary
(Luminis Books, 2010) received a Moonbeam Gold Medal for excellence in young adult fiction and was named a 2011 Indiana Best Book Finalist. Her third young adult novel,
Just Myrto
(Luminis Books, 2014) will carry readers back to ancient Greece to meet Socrates, Laurie's favorite teacher of all time.