So you want to write book? A long journey from newspaper reporter to book author

How did this project evolve from being a podcast, then a film and finally a book?
When I first started reporting it back in 2009, I wanted to make a podcast. My mom had no idea what a podcast was. But she knew what a film was. So from 2010 until 2017 or ‘18, I worked on it as a documentary film but could never figure out what the end was supposed to be. One person told me that she wouldn’t give me a grant because Hudgins was dead. She was like, “He can’t be your main character.” I remember telling her on the phone, “Well, what about my grandma?” She was like, “What about you?” And I said “No, thank you. I’m a journalist. I don’t want to be in it.”