Alexina asked Heather Smith:

I REALLY enjoyed "The Agony of Bun O'Keefe!" I read it in one day because I just couldn't put it down. Thank you for addressing topics such as families come in all shapes and sizes, sexual abuse, grief, and suicide. The one question I have, and not sure you would even have an answer as not all suicides have an answer, but why did you decide that Chef would take his own life? Thank you.

Heather Smith *spoilers below*

Hi Alexina. What happened with Chef wasn’t planned from the outset. I knew I wanted him to be struggling with something and I wanted whatever that was to be hidden from the people who cared about him (as is often the case in real life). But as the novel progressed, Chef’s fate was becoming subconsciously sealed in my head and, before I knew it, I had written the words “The next day he was dead.” It was a punch in the gut, I know. But that’s how suicides often are – unexpected and out of the blue. That feeling of being left with no answers is something I wanted to explore with Bun and the other characters. I wanted the readers to feel it, too, which is why I left Chef’s suicide unexplained.
Thank you for the question. It was a great one and I am happy to have had the opportunity to answer it.

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