My new novel, published by Coffee House Press, is my tenth. When I came to rural, midcoastal Maine twenty-one years ago, it was supposed to be all about finding quiet for brief periods–quiet as a change from a busy, crowded life in Cambridge MA. But I stayed, and I keep on staying.
All I see from the windows of my writing room are trees and sky. The ocean’s close by, and the Kennebec River, and a large freshwater pond. It is a watery world. Did I start to be a better writer because of the quiet and the pace of daily life defined by light and rural-life chores? I like to think so. I would also like to think that after a lifetime of reading and writing–I published my first novel in 1983–I have some expertise in doing things with words, sentences, paragraphs, a story, a book.
But every new book is a whole new life. Sometimes it amazes me that all my books are so different from each other. But I am glad for that. I never know what is coming once I have characters and a basic sense of a story. I feel so lucky that I keep on being surprised.
Books in order of publication:
Small-Town Girl – 1983
All the Way Home – 1984
The Old Ballerina – 1999
The White Palazzo – 2002
Gun Ball Hill – 2004
A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies – 2007
Lambrusco – 2008
Thanksgiving – 2013
The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances – 2014
One Night Two Souls Went Walking – 2020
Oak Lawn Library Friends 