All of the 7th Avenue Gang are real people that I grew up with. Some may recognize themselves, and I hope they find delight in that. Denny’s nemesis in the novel is an amalgam of assholes I’ve known throughout my life. I named him Kevin, because every Kevin I’ve ever known has been a pain in my ass. No offence to the vast majority of Kevins out there or the people who love them, it’s just that the Kevins in my life have never worked out for me.
Carrie Anne Gabler is also an amalgam of a number of girls and young women I’ve known through the years - and yes, one of them fell through a ceiling and broke her arm when she hit the television her brother and I were watching. They were all gentle and sweet and loveable, yet at the same time vulnerable and tragic. The world is a hard place for girls like Carrie, who only see the good in people and when evil is done to them, they internalize it as a failing of their own character. Though Carrie only has a small role in Little Gangsters she plays a larger role in Denny’s life during the sequel, Bigger Gangsters that takes place ten years later. Denny will carry her memory and his undying love for her through Millennial Gangsters and it haunts the pages of Gangster’s Girl, and will remain with Denny for the rest of his days.
A friend and I did witness the Vancouver Police ambush and kill an escaped convict named Boyd in a hail of gunfire just like it happened in the chapter "Boyd's Dead". I had to move the location of the massacre so it fit into the right neighbourhood for the story and the friend with me wasn’t Frankie or Donny; his name was Tom and his parents owned the grocery store where Boyd bought the groceries for a last meal that he never got a chance to eat.
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