Lake Amanda follows a daughter fulfilling her dying mother’s strangely precise final request, leading her to long-buried family secrets, and forcing her to reconsider the difficult woman who raised her. What drew you to explore family secrets through the relationship between a mother and an adult daughter?

Mother-daughter relationships are complex, especially with a difficult mother whose untold truths are the root of the dysfunction. I was drawn to the idea that if Vicki were to discover her mother’s secrets through a mysterious last request, she might find a way to break through her long-held resentments and reach a place of understanding and compassion. But the truth is often painful. I wanted Vicki to feel that pain. I made sure that the relevations she discovers about her mother are shocking and messy, throwing her into a mindnumbing tailspin. In the end though, this is the very catalyst Vicki needs to find forgiveness, and to understand her mother’s love–and the way she’d shown it.

How did you approach creating a mother-daughter relationship containing both genuine love and lasting hurt?

I approached Vicki’s relationship with her mother from a place of “Catholic guilt,” reflective of her upbringing. The reference afforded me an opportunity to add humor and irony, which was fun! Vicki slips into an endless cycle as she strives to love a mother as a “good” daughter should, but then can’t, due to a lifetime of pent-up hurt and resentment. This causes unrelenting guilt and shame, and the cycle repeats itself. I started off the book with the following epigraph: “Growing apart does not diminish love; it transforms it into something complex” (Bianca Fisher). I think it captures the notion that genuine love and lasting hurt can exist in parallel. And indeed they do for both Vicki and her mother.

How does Vicki’s understanding of what she wants from love change as she begins understanding herself differently?

Vicki’s understanding of love is a critical metric of her personal growth throughout the novel. Her mother’s love was narcisstic; the love modeled by her parents was merely co-dependence. Her early romantic persuits were superficial, chaotic, and obsessive. However, she is not incapable of love. The love she feels for Ginny, the love she recognizes in Ranji’s heartrenching displays of affection for Ginny, and the Greek’s “pragma” that Dean talks about intrigue and instill aspirations in Vicki. She comes to see herself as capable of deep and committed love, and perhaps will someday experience it.

What interested you about the idea that discovering a parent’s hidden history can change the way an adult child understands their own identity?

I was raised by a very busy mother of five children back in the 60s. She and I never really got to know each other woman to woman. I imagine she had stories. I’m sure she had secrets. But she is gone now and her secrets are gone with her. In Lake Amanda, I wanted my protagonist to discover her mother’s secrets–really shocking messy ones!–and from that, have the opportunity to understand her mother in a way she couldn’t have otherwiise.

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