Waterbury Winter celebrates the restorative value of art and the joy to be found in keeping promises. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?

My husband and I were visiting family for the holidays one snowy December. The day after Christmas, we stopped by a drug store. No one was there except for my husband and me, and the middle-aged attendant at the checkout counter asked us how our Christmas was. “Fine,” we said, “and how was yours?” His reply: “I was here, and my car broke down.” Holidays are not easy for everyone, we thought. And so Barnaby Brown came to life, as a lonely middle-aged man who didn’t celebrate Christmas and whose old car broke down.

Did you plan the tone and direction of the novel before writing or did it come out organically as you were writing?

The tone of the novel evolved naturally once I had established Barnaby as a likeable character who had lost his way. I knew I needed to write about how he would overcome his longstanding bad habits and restart his failed artistic career. He had many obstacles to overcome: debts, drinking, depression, along with anti-social behavior, so the story progressed slowly. The direction was never in question because I wanted him to succeed.

Was there anything from your own life that you put into the characters in your novel?

Really only my interest in art and the creative process and my belief in their healing powers.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

I’m working on a novel set in England in World War II, scheduled for publication in spring 2024.

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