Maura Roosevelt is the author of the new novel Baby of the Family. From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:Q: How did you come up with the idea for Baby of the Family?--Marshal Zeringue
A: I’ve always been interested in how families are made, and the tales that become family lore.
The novel actually began with a short story that I wrote, that was only about Shelley and how she left college, broke and unsure about her future.
After writing that short story, I began to imagine what Shelley’s life was like in the past, and then I began writing about her family. Roger emerged, and then Nick. And then all these other characters popped up, and I had an early draft of the novel…
Q: As the great-granddaughter of Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt, how much was your creation of the Whitby family affected by your own family’s history?
A: This book is very much a work of fiction—the Whitby family is very different from my own family. The main similarity between my family and the book, though, was that...[read on]