Author dreams up teen love story

By Christina Lent

The Beaverton Valley Times, Jan 10, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

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A story of everlasting love comes to life with a paranormal twist in Lisa Schroeder’s debut young adult novel, “I heart you, You haunt me.”

“I had a dream about a girl whose boyfriend died in a tragic accident, but he loved her so much that he came back as a ghost,” the Cooper Mountain author said. “I remember waking up and feeling their love so strongly, I had to go to the computer and start writing their story that morning.”

She hopes her haunting tale about 15-year-old Ava and the spirit of her boyfriend Jackson will resonate with young readers as well.

“To me, this book is mostly a story about love,” Schroeder said. “It’s more than a ghost story, it’s a story of love, loss, healing and hope.”

Published by Simon & Schuster’s teen division Simon Pulse, “I heart you, You haunt me” hit bookstores Tuesday. A book signing will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19, at Powell’s Books in the Cedar Hills Crossing.

First step

Although Schroeder also wrote a picture book called “Baby Can’t Sleep” that was published in 2005, writing a novel has always been a dream.

“I always loved to write,” she said. “Writing was something I could do in my spare time.”

During the week, Schroeder serves as a compensation analyst for Oregon Health and Science University. She’s also a mother of two sons, Sam, 13, and Grant, 10.

When she’s not spending time with her family or reading, Schroeder writes.

“I dipped my toe in at first” when it came to branching out from picture books and trying her hand at penning short stories for children’s magazines and mid-grade novels, she said.

“It sort of evolved from there,” Schroeder said. “Taking that first step is sometimes the hardest. Once you take that first step, sometimes you can be surprised at the doors that then open.”

Schroeder wrote three mid-grade novels and tried to attract the attention of an agent and editors. Although nothing ever came of those projects, she viewed the experiences as steps in her journey as a writer.

“Those three books were training so to speak,” she said.

When she sat down to write “I heart you, You haunt me” following her dream, she discovered she had a gift for telling a story in as few and unique words as possible.

Instead of writing in traditional prose and chapters, her novel is written in verse or poems.

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