What inspired you to Vacationland in Owls Head, Maine?
The inspiration for the setting of this book, and I've never done this before; it's set in an actual house that exists. It's the summer home of one of my very best friends from high school, who I've known forever. It's her family's summer home. I've been going to it for years as a visitor, and I've always thought, "oh, this would be such a great place to set a book." It just took me a few books to get around to using it, but I thought this was going to be it; it's time.
The actual house, almost exactly as described in the book, exists. I mean, I made a couple of adjustments like a downstairs office, and I think I updated a bathroom, you know, I did a couple of things. It is mostly an actual real house on the water in Owls Head, Maine. So because the house exists, then I used just everything that I knew of the area, and I just used everything I love about that part of Maine, which is a lot. It's wonderful up there.
Did the setting come first or was it a character or a plot?
Yes, in this case, the setting came first, and that's not always the case with me. I mean, I generally know kind of where I'm going to set the book, but I don't always have such a clear idea. Sometimes I have the characters first, but in this circumstance, it was definitely the setting. And then I thought, "well, who lives in this house" because I'm obviously not going to put my friend's family for real in the book. So who lives in this house? Why are they there? What's there? What's going on, and everything sort of came from there.
It's hard to remember sometimes when the book is out where exactly it started, but there are these three children in the book who are the children of the daughter of the homeowners who come for the summer, and there's a scene early on, when they're out on the rocks, outside the house on the water. I think I probably wrote that scene first, or I conceived of it first, of just these kids on the rocks and what are they doing and who are who they belong to. Everything sort of came in around that.
Outside of the house, do you have any personal connections or experiences with some of the locations in the book?
Not really personal, I did have to explore them because I've been visiting for so long, some things I was familiar with, some places I haven't been, but I went and found them. Some of the restaurants were places that I was familiar with. I think every single place in the book is a real place. Every restaurant exists, pretty much every road; everything exists as it is.
There is one really fancy restaurant called Primo, that I still have not eaten a meal there, so that's on my bucket list. It's very expensive and fancy, and really hard to get a reservation. It was mostly the first summer of COVID that I was working on this, and they did let me in as soon as they opened from COVID, and they gave me a little tour, and I had a cocktail on the deck there, so I've done that much, but I have to eat a meal there someday. That's something I'm going to do eventually.
How did you write the lobster boat scene so accurately?
I had done all that research for a previous book. I have a book called The Captain's Daughter, and that takes place in a tiny lobstering village in Maine. It's actually a fictional town, but I based it on a place that I knew really well. For that book, I did all the lobstering research, so I really didn't have to redo it. I had to relook up some of it, but for the most part, I think I had the lobstering down. In fact, I remember that my editor made me cut that scene. I think I wanted to put everything I knew about lobsters in there, and she was like, it's too long, so I cut it by about a third, I think.
Is there one place you’d like a reader to visit in Owls Head or the surrounding towns?
It's tough to pick one but probably if you could only go to one, the Owls Head Lighthouse. It's beautiful, and I think I have a couple of scenes there. It's your quintessential New England lighthouse. It's on these rocks with crushing water and beautiful views. It's amazing. I recommend that, but as you go there, you have to go by the Owls Head General Store, and I love the Owls Head General Store. I would recommend going to both of those things in one in one trip!
Is Damariscotta Pottery a real life place?
So sadly, they closed. It was a real place, and they closed its doors. I'm not sure if it was connected to COVID or if they were closing their doors anyway, but they no longer exist, so I brought them back to life just for the book.
My friend, who lives in this house, her mother, who passed away a couple of years ago, loved Maine pottery. These mugs from Damariscotta, she would buy. They have them in their house on this self kind of like what I describe in the book, but she would also buy them as gifts for my friend's friends. We have all these mugs from there, and every time I had a new book come out, she would buy me a Damariscotta mug. I have this wonderful collection. They're very distinct. They all have big flowers, and it's a very distinct look. I am sad that they're gone, but I have a lot of really nice pieces from there, so that's why I wanted to put that in there.
Do you have any favorite books set in Maine?
I think the number one Maine book is Courtney Sullivan's Maine, which I would love. I really enjoyed Linda Holmes’ Flying Solo, and Evvie Drake Starts Over.