3 Questions with New Albany author Erin McCahan

New Albany author Erin McCahan's second book, "Love and Other Foreign Words," is a coming-of-age story about quirky-cool 16-year-old Josie and her struggle to understand relationships and love. Published by Penguin Young Readers Group, the book will be released May 1.

"Love and Other Foreign Words" is set in Bexley, where you grew up. How much of the story came from your personal experiences?

Just the setting. I was so shy in high school. I could never have been the heroine in a story because she's a lot more brave than I am or ever would be. She says whatever she's thinking and hasn't really learned yet that you can't always say what you're thinking.

Both of your books deal with big questions about love and marriage. Why did you choose these themes?

I think more than anything, it's about family and that interaction, which is really missing in young adult novels today. In so many, the parents are missing or don't play much of a role in the story. And it's such great fodder for stories.

What do you hope readers take away from this book after they turn the last page?

I really hope I have given them a group of characters that they love and they remember and they think about and that they enjoyed themselves.