The most meaningful part of Mumentous was the moment I first wrote my own mom into the story. It was not something I expected or planned to do. She passed away a few years before I began working on Mumentous, so it was really nice to spend time with her again.

This century-long evolution of what it means to “go” to homecoming (mums included) has been a long, slow burn stoked by Texas teenagers being teenagers living in the present.

Women are society’s tradition-keepers, so whether we’re talking about mums or Christmas trees or packing up the kids to go to Grandma’s house every year, chances are there’s a matriarch making it all happen.

Yeah, so why did I write a book about the homecoming mum tradition in Texas?