Lisa Roe

Lisa Roe graduated from the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and spent many years as an advertising creative director and copywriter in New York City before she accepted the tougher job of stay-at-home mom and turned to writing fiction—mostly to entertain her kids, but then to tell her own stories. A classic first born, reluctant empty nester, and Dr. Doolittle wannabe, Roe lives in New Jersey with her husband, David and three incorrigible dogs. Big & Lily is her second novel.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Big & Lily is the story of two very different, but very codependent sisters, Bridget (Big) Ackerman-Petty and Lily Ackerman who accidently sign up for an extreme Alaskan adventure. Choosing to use just the sisters’ names as the title draws focus to the most important aspect of the book—the sisters’ relationship. In addition, by using Bridget’s nickname “Big” (short for Big Sister), readers will quickly understand the key theme of the story—the exploration birth order theory (a fascination of mine, being a big sister myself) and its role in each of the women’s lives. Big & Lily is also a play on Big & Little, which further brings the point home.

When I first started drafting the book, my working title was Big and Lily Come to a Fork, but I soon realized that while it was clever—the sisters come to a fork both in their relationship and literally on the trail—the succinct two-name title tells readers what they need to know; this is a story of sibling love and rivalry and about how two sisters can sometimes want to kill each other but would also die for each other any day of the week.  

What's in a name?

Bridget is called “Big” throughout the book by her sister because even though they are adults, it was Lily’s childhood nickname for her. Lily was born when Bridget was eight, and just after her parents split up, sending her mother into a depression. As the eldest daughter, Bridget was tasked with filling in the maternal gaps. “Go to your Big Sister,” their mother would say. And so, when Lily could talk, she called Bridget “Big Sister,” then “Big Sis,” and finally just “Big.” And because even as an adult, Big continued to fill in the maternal gaps in Lily’s life, the name stuck.

The younger sister was originally named Lily because it sounds like Little and worked perfectly for the title. But it also conjures thoughts of a beautiful, carefree woman. And so she is, at least in her sister’s eyes.

Bridget is sandwiched between her grown kids still sleeping in their childhood bedrooms, a husband at loose ends after his recent retirement, her “challenging” mother encamped in a Granny Pod in the backyard, and an adult sister who still needs to be chased after. With all that on her plate, she doesn’t have a minute to figure out what she wants out of life.

To her, Lily has a charmed life; she’s a beauty with a handsome husband, a thriving business, no responsibilities, not a care in the world.

But Lily sees it differently; more than anything she wants the kids, the long marriage, and the “white picket fence” the life her Big Sister’s has. It’s not until they get to Alaska that they realize they are seeing each other through rose colored glasses. Now, out in the rugged terrain, with wild animals, and physical challenges, they must shake off the lifelong labels of the Big and Little sister and learn to overcome their issues and reconcile their differences if they are going to survive the wilderness, and each other.  

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I always start a story with a basic idea for a plot. What is the story about? In the case of Big & Lily, two sisters take a trip to Alaska. Then I ask myself, what does the main character (or in this case, the two main characters) want? I knew one sister wanted to get lost as far away from home as possible. And the other wanted to get away and find herself.

Then I ask myself, how do I make it as hard as possible for my characters to get what they want? As Vladimir Nabokov said, “The writer's job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.” For Bridget and Lily there were endless emotional and physical obstacles (wild animals, treacherous trails, outdoor plumbing) to navigate in Alaska.

All to say, I always know how my stories begin and more times than not, the start of the story stays set. In addition, I like to have a general idea of which rocks to throw (aka, the middle of the book) but I do spend time figuring out how the characters are going to get out of the tree in a way that will be a satisfying ending to them, me, and my readers. Although when drafting a book anything can change (that’s the beauty and fun of writing)!  

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

As a Big Sister myself, I’ve always been fascinated with birth order theory and the more recent conversations around Eldest Daughter Syndrome. I’m a classic firstborn: in- charge, organized, goal-oriented, and reliable, with a skosh of perfectionism and a dash of anxiety. I wanted to write a story that let me delve deeper into the subject. I created Bridget so she could do the work for me. I let her figure out whether being a second mother to her little sister was a lifelong commitment and whether she could rewrite her narrative if the one she’d carried with her all her life no longer suited her.

Visit Lisa Roe's website.

--Marshal Zeringue