ALS is a devastating disease that offers little or no hope and kills those afflicted within a relatively short period of time. However, it is also a disease that is relatively pain-free, and because it follows no set pattern and affects its victims in different ways, it allowed me more freedom as a novelist to tell my story. I researched the book by talking at length to a neurologist, and by contacting the ALS Society. Although the book deals with serious issues, there are parts of The First Time that are very funny. I believe that humor is a very important quality.
People use humor to diffuse and cope with all sorts of traumatic situations and events.
Humor is important for both the character and the reader as it helps you deal with the tragedy. In general, humor makes even the most seemingly unsympathetic character more likeable. If a character is funny you can forgive them almost anything. One of the things I'm trying to say in this novel is that things are rarely as simple as they seem and that people are rarely what they first appear to be. The use of nicknames underlines that they are not necessarily who we first take them to be, or even who they, themselves, think they are.