Why did you do it?

Question: I started reading the Alice series when I was in fourth grade and I love them!!I just read Intensely Alice and I was wondering why did you have to kill —– off? Why couldn’t you have killed off Jill or Karen because if they died I wouldn’t have spent the last three chapters crying hysterically. LOL I guess it just shows how good of an author you truly are:)

Question:

I knew for a long time that one of Alice’s friends would die, and for many reasons, I chose this person.  I won’t go into all the reasons because they are complex–they involve past plot and future plot and all sorts of stuff that writers have to consider when they take a major step in a series.