What inspired you to set the book in Waterbury, Vermont. Did the plot come first or the setting?
Before I had any of the characters clearly defined, I always knew that the story would be set in the town of Waterbury, Vermont, and that is because in the book, Hannah, the main character, is on a quest to search for a new job and a new place to live, and she commences that search while living in Waterbury for the summer to take care of her niece and nephew. So she falls for the boy next door, but she also falls for the town of Waterbury, the people, the landscape, and especially the vibe. The novel revolves around the burning question, where and how can I make my best life? The place is a critical aspect of Hannah's search, so the plot and the setting kind of all came together at once.
I had always had a crush on Vermont. I was always coming up here. I am not a native Vermonter. I've lived here for twelve years. I guess whenever I thought in the past about writing a book, Vermont was always the place I imagined setting a book, but then it got narrowed down to Waterbury when I started thinking more seriously about it.
Do you have any personal connections or experiences to some of the places mentioned in A Treehouse on Dog River Road?
Every spot in the book I've been to, and some of them are very dear to me. I'm a very outdoorsy person, and there are a lot of things that take place outdoors, the running that she [Hannah] does, the rafting, the kayaking, and in particular, The Waterbury Reservoir. An experience that formed a lot of the book was the sense of community surrounded by a natural disaster that Waterbury had in 2011. It was shortly after we moved to the area, and I saw what happened to the town and how the people reacted, and it was just phenomenal, the sense of community.
Where is one place in Waterbury you’d want a reader to visit?
I would always say Waterbury Reservoir because it's a gorgeous body of water. It's very big for the state. I think it's in the top ten for large bodies of water. It's a flood control project that was done by the CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] years ago. It's just beautiful. We go there a lot.
Also, just wandering the town, I think that's kind of neat too. If I was a reader and was inspired by the book to go to Waterbury, I would definitely just stroll through and see how things have changed over time. It's a fun little town with a lot of brew pubs.
What’s your favorite book that takes place in Vermont?
A novel by environmentalist writer Bill McKibben called Radio Free Vermont. It's a fable, and it's about a bunch of people in Vermont wanting to seek to secede from the United States. It's just got a real spirit of Vermont's independent thinkers and quirky characters, and it's a super fun read that has some substance to it.