By Josh Truter

In anticipation of the launch of Book Two in the Big Yikes! trilogy, Josh has some more questions for Ann.

JT: Hi Ann. I see Book Two of your Big Yikes! trilogy will be launched on March 7th. In this book, the theme of your main character being a Ward of the State is expanded in greater detail. Can you tell us more about the condition that her mother was diagnosed as having?

AA: Nina’s mom, Katja, was judged to have the mental health condition called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP). Social Services see this situation as a kind of abuse, where the caregiver makes the person in their custody ill or pretends they are ill so they can gain some kind of benefit either in the form of accolades or financial gain. For their protection and to prevent further abuse, the victim is often removed from the caregiver’s custody and made a Ward of the State. But here’s the catch – Katja Martinez did not have MSbP. The diagnosis was incorrect.

JT: This is confusing. Please explain.

AA: If anyone was to be judged as having Munchausen Syndrome, it would have been Nina, herself. Of course, she didn’t see it that way and, as often happens with kids, she wasn’t told the truth about the change in her circumstances. She was simply moved around, from one place to the next and the next. But in her case, in essence, she used to pretend she was ill in order to manipulate her mother and the housekeeper. To a lesser extent, lots of kids pretend they are ill to get out of going to school. The difference is simply a matter of degrees – in Nina’s case, she eventually stopped going to school entirely. And she no longer needed to pretend to be ill, because she was.

JT: What was the cause of her illness?

AA: The back story to the illness is that there was a spike in Adenoviral infections. Her brother, Matteo, got it first and then it spread around the family, with the exception of her father who was away on a business trip. While her mom, Matteo and the housekeeper all recovered, her symptoms persisted and she ended up in hospital. Everything seemed to spiral out of control from there.

JT: If I have to be honest, I find it a bit of a stretch believing that a spoilt kid from a rich family would stoop as low as doing her own laundry and cleaning floors. The same with her situation of being homeless (in Book One), why didn’t she join forces with the other homeless people on the streets.

AA: Firstly, Nina would not allow herself to be categorized along with the other homeless people. She was temporarily without a home. To her, that was a big difference. Secondly, with her parents both so committed to their careers, while she was at home, she spent an awful lot of time keeping the housekeeper and the gardener company. That’s why she went with the housekeeper when she took the family’s clothes to the laundromat, after their washing machine packed up. That’s how she knew there were lost property bins in some of the laundromats. Helping the immigrant family with housework was also a no brainer for the same reason.

JT: Last question. How come Halsey was so confident that he would see her again after they parted ways on the farm?

AA: I’m not sure. Call it instinct?

Check out the Big Yikes! Sus, Shook and Salty book series available on Amazon