The quote I chose echoes the theme of Amy and Nick’s story. When the novel opens, both of them have become deadened to their feelings about their lives, marriages, and goals. First, they need to feel again. Seeing each other is the catalyst that raises “them to a level of awareness where mortal sin [becomes] possible.” But the sin is only possible—they must choose whether or not to act on the temptation. I believe it is most often a person, and the emotion that person evokes, that raises another person’s awareness.

Amy and Nick have become “passively responsive” to their lives, marriages, and circumstances. They’ve quietly accepted the way things are. Seeing each other, remembering what they felt for each other, and what they meant to do and be in life marks a new beginning and a major dilemma for them.

Q. Losing the Moon is told in the third person, using “she” and “he,” from Amy’s and Nick’s points of view. Yet as a reader, I feel as if I am right inside their heads, almost as if the book were told from the first-person “I” point of view. Can you tell us why you chose to use third person, which sometimes creates more distance between the character and the reader, and how you keep the reader so in touch with Amy’s and Nick’s thoughts and emotions?

A. I originally wrote this story in the first person, from Amy’s point of view, until I realized how strong Nick’s story and motivations were. When he stepped (or, rather, strode) onto the page, I understood the story must also be told from his point of view. The novel then moved into the third person in the next draft. There went my original idea that I just had to write the novel once, and it would be ready for publication!

The third-person point of view can create some distance, but in this case I worked hard to not just narrate the events but also to convey Nick’s and Amy’s unique emotional perspectives . Amy’s “voice” as well as her perspective is completely different from Nick’s voice and his perspective on the same events.

Memory and desire are the key ingredients in this story. The reader must be able to feel Amy’s and Nick’s longing and understand their reasoning to become fully engaged in the story. I wrote each scene asking what each felt—what the particular place, action, interaction meant to them.

Q. You’re a wife and the mother of three small children. How do you manage your hectic schedule and still find time to write?

A. Ah, the bottom line is that I don’t find the time—I make the time. Right now I am typing downstairs early in the morning while my three children are asleep upstairs. I have about fifteen minutes before I must wake them for school.