The spark for A WEEK AT THE SHORE

The spark for A WEEK AT THE SHORE

Given that I’ve written more than 80 books, approaching a new one is daunting. There are times when I feel I’ve written every story there is to be written – times when I have to struggle to leave my comfort zone in search of an original idea. But freshness is what I’ve always promised my readers. And what about me? I refuse to write the same story over and over again. That would be totally boring, would it not? I am, after all, my first and most critical reader.

How to come up with a novel idea? My own answer lies with the media. Yup, the much-vilified media that, whether we like it or not, serves an important role in our society. When I was growing up, even first writing, I’d have defined media as the morning paper. But who of us reads a morning paper anymore, when social media shoots stories at us all day long? Many of those stories are filled with rancor, thanks to governmental leaders who feed on hatred. But there are other elements as well. Look past the headlines, and you find stories about people who are simply struggling to stay afloat.

These folks are fertile ground for me. Reading stories about them, discussing the same issues with my friends and applying them to my own life, I found myself homing in on memory – specifically, how two of us can recall the very same event in two very different ways. That’s intriguing enough when we’re talking about co-workers and friends, but the stakes soar when it comes to family. Family. Memories. Disagreement. Estrangement. Reconciliation. In searching for a plot, I realized that these were what I wanted to write about – specifically, sisters who see family events in different ways and have been estranged because of that. As often happens with families, a crisis brings everyone back to the scene of the crime.

But where should that be? Another big choice here. Since New England is my thing, I weighed each of these six states, ruling out the locales of my most recent books before narrowing in on Rhode island. It was actually a YAY! moment for me. In recent years, my family has spent increasing time at the Rhode Island shore. That gave me both knowledge of the place and a fondness for it. The latter, by the way, is a must. In the course of writing a book, I spend a full year-and-a-half in whatever setting I choose. If I don’t like it that place – if I don’t want to visit it – if I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning and be there — if I don’t want to describe it to you all in terms that make you want to be there yourself – well, then it’s a bad choice.

Rhode Island was a good one for A WEEK AT THE SHORE. Most recently, my husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary there with our children and grandchildren. It was an amazing time — a very sunny and light-hearted few days that gave us all some very special memories. I knew that if I set a plot in that area, I would be happy traveling there each morning. So I created a fictitious burrow on the outskirts of Westerly, the area we love, and I was good to go.

The next choice concerned my main character. I knew she would be approaching forty, a single mom by choice, and twenty years removed from the place of her birth, and I knew that an emergency would call her back. But who should she be? What should she do with her life? Here’s where the me came in. I was a photographer before I was a writer. Did you know that? When my oldest child was born, I taught myself how to use a good camera on the theory that a stay-at-home mom was in the best position to photograph her child. I loved it. But it cost money. So I took a job at a local newspaper creating a weekly column profiling local businesses. It entailed both written copy and photographs. In time (actually, very quickly), I saw that writing came more naturally to me than the other.

Writing quickly became my occupation. Photography was relegated to hobby status, but it never did go away. I sense it has something to do with the art gene I inherited from my mother, though she was a painter and I’m hopeless when it comes to drawing things free-hand. But photographing my oldest son became photographing all three of my sons, then photographing trips we took, then my cat, then average, everyday things in our lives, like the lilies in the yard and the key limes I just bought (literally, to photograph today). I know photography. I’m comfortable with it.

And so, the main character of A WEEK AT THE SHORE, Mallory Aldiss, became a photographer. She photographs real estate – as in homes that are going on the market and for which, increasingly, an online presence is crucial for browsers, visitors, and sales. Her camera is an extension of herself, just as my camera is for me. And yes, I hide behind mine, as she does behind hers – but that’s for when you read the book.

One last thing. Please look at the cover of A WEEK AT THE SHORE. It is based on one of the photographs I took myself during one of our many stays at the Rhode Island shore. I kid you not You’ll see my name in the cover design credits! Not only am I totally flattered, but each time I look at this cover, I’m there in Rhode Island, just as I hope you will be from May 19 on through the summer of 2020!

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BARBARA DELINSKY is the author of more than twenty-two New York Times bestselling novels.  There are over thirty-five million copies of her books in print, including those published in thirty languages worldwide.  Ms. Delinsky earned a B.A. at Tufts University and an M.A. at Boston College. Before she began writing fiction, she worked in Boston as a researcher for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and as a photographer and reporter for The Belmont Herald. She decided to try her hand at fiction after she read a newspaper article profiling three successful female writers. Her first novel sold, and the rest is history for delighted readers around the world.

Ms. Delinsky lives, writes, and breathes New England, where she lives with her husband, two tennis racquets, and an iPhone filled with pictures of her kids and grandkids.  She loves engaging with reader, and can be reached at www.barbaradelinsky.com, www.facebook.com/bdelinsky, www.twitter.com/BarbaraDelinsky, or www.instagram.com/barbaradelinsky.

 

A WEEK AT THE SHORE

In A Week at the Shore, New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky explores how lives and relationships are forever changed when three sisters reunite at their family Rhode Island beach house.

One phone call is all it takes to lure real estate photographer Mallory Aldiss back to her family Rhode Island beach home. It’s been twenty years since she’s been gone―running from the scandal that destroyed her parents’ marriage, drove her and her two sisters apart, and crushed her relationship with her first love. But going home is fraught with emotional baggage―memories, mysteries and secrets abound.

Mal’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Joy, has never been to the place where Mal’s life was shaped and is desperate to go. Fatherless, she craves family and especially wants to spend time with the grandfather she barely knows.

In just seven watershed days on the Rhode Island coast three women will test the bonds of sisterhood, friendship and family, and discover the role that love and memory plays in defining their lives.

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