A: The Islanders is the first book I published with my (wonderful) new publisher, so the process was a bit longer than it is when I have a contract underway. I wrote about 150 pages of the book to sell it, and I guess that probably took six months or so, with a lot of that time being spent going back-and-forth with my agent. Once the book was under contract, I completed the first draft in another five months (rewriting many of those 150 pages!) and then did two biggish rewrites over the next several months. So, from when I wrote the very first word to when I had completed the final edits it was probably about a year and a half—but not all that time was active writing time. I typically try to write between 1,000 and 1,500 words a day when I am working on a draft. Sometimes it’s more and sometimes it’s less, but that’s my goal. I write mostly at home, and mostly when my kids are in school, and often with my dog on my feet. Now that my kids are older, I can go back in the late afternoon and get a little more work done depending on what’s going on in the household that day. When I have a deadline for a first draft or a big rewrite, I often have to take myself away for a few days to focus.

Q: The Islanders is your fifth book. Do you feel you have the art of the novel down? How has your writing changed book by book?

A: Oh, how I wish I had the art of the novel down! But I don’t think I do. I always write pretty messy first drafts and I revise a lot—often adding or removing at least one point of view, sometimes more, and massaging the plot quite a bit. Characters and setting come to me pretty quickly when I start a book, but my plots always need work. I write my first drafts in a vacuum, with my editor and often my agent being the first people to read the draft and offer feedback. I think what I have gained over the course of several books is the confidence to keep moving forward knowing that I’ll have time and opportunity to fix what isn’t working down the line. But as for the process, it’s sort of like childbirth. It hurts every time.

Q: What was your experience writing Anthony Puckett, a fellow novelist? Were you ever tempted to go easy on him? Was it fun writing about the publishing world?

A: I love Anthony Puckett! It took some work to get him where he is today. In early drafts of those first 150 pages the feedback was that he was unlikable and not doing enough to own up to his mistakes. It’s fine to have unlikable characters, of course, but I didn’t mean for him to be unlikable, so I had to keep working on him. It took some time to dig into the complexities of his relationship with both his estranged wife and his father, and I think once I got to understand those relationships better, I was able to make Anthony more vulnerable and less whiny. Although he still whines a little bit. I had so much fun writing about the publishing world! I think it took me a few books and a few experiences at different publishers to start to understand publishing, so I couldn’t have written this book as my first or second novel.