Cutting Losses follows Josh and Effie as they return to a small South Dakota town carrying regret, heartbreak, and old wounds, only to discover that love, home, and redemption must be chosen honestly and earned slowly. What inspired you to set Cutting Losses in a small South Dakota town?

​I am originally from a small town in South Dakota, one similar to the Clover Lake I write about that Effie moves back to. From the age of 9, I grew up in a town of 1000 people, and everyone basically knew everyone else. When I wrote my first book, Excess Baggage, I wasn’t intending it to be a series, but I loved the experience so much I wanted to write another book. I felt like Josh, the jilted fiance of EB needed a redemption, so he was a perfect choice for my male interest. The larger “small” town of Beverley, population of around 12,000, is a mix of Mitchell and Huron, both in South Dakota. It was important for me, as someone from South Dakota who has lived in NYC for almost 25 years, to try to represent what it was like for me growing up there.

Josh and Effie are both rebuilding after painful personal failures. What drew you to writing characters who are starting over as adults?​

I want to write characters that have multiple dimensions—people who have lived lives, who have made mistakes, who have regrets. Part of that is having to start over at some point, and that also means having to admit you need to change, which is one of the hardest things someone can do. It’s easy to stay the same, but it’s much more difficult to alter your life.

Effie’s inner voice brings a lot of humor and sharp honesty to the story. How did you develop her voice?​

I essentially immerse myself in my characters, and I want them all to be distant from each other. For Effie, she had to overcome tragedy early on in her life, which made her a little sarcastic, and a lot of that is me, as well. It was fun to let her say what I might say during her situations. She is a bit overly dramatic, which is the kind of person Josh needs to keep him from being too serious.

The novel moves beyond Josh and Effie to include other perspectives from the town. What made you want to tell the story through a broader cast of characters?​

I am an extremely nosy and curious person, and I am always a little too interested in what everyone is thinking. I like having the perspective of the MMC, because I want to see why he’s falling for the FMC. In my first novel, I loved the character of Ruth, and that was why she got some chapters—I wanted more from her, since she wasn’t a main character. When I wrote my second book, Cutting Losses, then, I liked the idea of other characters maybe weighing in on the romance of the MMC and FMC, but also I believe my books are about communities, and since I am writing a series, having another side character have a chapter means I can bring in a past character and we get to see them again.

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