From her Q & A with Jordan Foster at Publishers Weekly:
You say this is your most autobiographical novel in terms of geography. Why now?Learn more about the book and author at Laura Lippman's website.
I've wanted to write a novel about where I grew up since the day I started writing novels. I made a decision early on not to make Tess Monaghan be from Dickeyville because I wanted to create a character who wouldn't be confused with me. This story came from a very simple idea about friends with a secret. But as the idea was fleshed out, I thought, "This is it, this is when I'm going to write about Dickeyville."
What about the wild versus the tame theme running through the book?
I was part of a generation where kids had a lot of freedom and aimless downtime. I had no scheduled after-school activities. As long as you came home for dinner, everything was fine. I had a great childhood, and I liked all the freedom I had, but, as I hope the book makes clear, there's a dark side to that, too.
You kill Go-Go, a major character, in the opening pages. Was this your intent from the beginning?
This was always...[read on]
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--Marshal Zeringue