Diane Chamberlain's new novel is Big Lies in a Small Town.From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: How did you come up with the idea for Big Lies in a Small Town, and for your characters Morgan and Anna?--Marshal Zeringue
A: I stumbled across an article about the WPA-era murals somewhere and it reminded me of the murals in my New Jersey hometown post office.
I began digging into the creation of those murals and I loved learning that they were part of the government program to put people—even artists—back to work after the Great Depression.
Many of the murals are lost to time, but others are being restored, so I thought it would be fun to write about the mural during its creation and again during its restoration . . . when its secrets would be revealed.
I had Anna firmly in my mind from the beginning as the 1940 artist. Then I had to create Morgan—and her unique personality and set of problems—to bring...[read on]