Some of Anna's many fans have

taken to creating their own art around After.

So it takes place in Seattle?

Yes.

So there we go.

Hence the Space Needle.

I like this one.

(laughing)

Yeah.

As a writer, talk to me about that tension

between doing what your audience wants.

Like, is there any tension between pleasing your audience

and actually like, trying to

you know, get out what you want to get out?

Yeah.

Are those things in conflict?

For me there was a ton of that,

but it just made it more entertaining for me.

They wanted me, especially with the romance love story,

they always wanted this happy ending.

And they kept saying, from the fifth chapter,

When are they gonna be married?

When are they gonna be married?

They have to be married.

And Tess is 18, so she's not getting married.

Even though I did, but still.

(laughing)

She's not gonna get married.

And so it was a lot of back and forth of like,

they have an influence on the story, and they own it,

I feel at least.

They own After just as much as I do,

but I'm not going to write what they want me to write

because I hadn't done that the entire time

and they loved it.

So there was a lot of,

I can't believe you did this.

I'm never reading it again.

And then the next chapter, they would be like,

I came back.

I'm sorry. (laughing)

So it was like,

there was a lot of that tension.