Secrets of THE SUMMER OF FIRSTS AND LASTS

The paperback version of my third novel, The Summer of Firsts and Lasts was released this week, with much ice cream and fanfare. I’m thrilled that this summer-y book is now in proper pool-bag format (even if it’s still chilly in parts of the country), and I hope you’re all stocking it along with your sunscreen.

To celebrate this release, I’m sharing some of the behind-the-scenes scrawlings that went into making this book. You see, I’m the kind of author who does an inordinate amount of background work –notes and maps, charts and graphs– all of which help me get a solid sense of the world my novels are in, and therefore convey them to readers. (It’s nerdily fun, too.)

For example, here is the map that I drew of Camp Callanwolde, so that I’d know where everything was when I was moving characters around. (Note that is is on the back of a piece of paper that apparently has some other poem on it.)

Here is the list I drew up of all the cabins and counselors at Camp Callanwolde, so that I could keep them all straight (even if not all of them appeared in the book).

Lastly, here are some notes that I made about Calla, Violet, and Daisy, so that I could understand them as individuals but also could get a handle on their relationship as a threesome:

Thanks, everyone, for checking out this book and giving it a chance! I hope this is enlightening, and that, reading this book,  you enjoy your foray into sisters, sunshine, and summer camp–all spring and summer long!

Songs in my Head Upon Waking in the Last Week:

Some song by the Sundays that I don’t know the title of; “Fembots,” Robyn; “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”*; “World As I see It,” Jazon Mraz; “Evil,” Interpol; “To Binge,” Gorillaz; “It Might Be You,” Stephen Bishop

* I know, right? Christmas music in April??