Q: You did quite a bit of food research in preparation for The Islanders, from the creators of the Cookie and Kate food blog to the Chococoa Baking Company. What is the most surprising thing you learned? Did you pick up any new cooking skills in the process?

A: I’m ashamed to say that I still haven’t tried making my own whoopie pies, although my daughter has made them using the recipe included in the book and they came out great. (She also, conveniently, makes a mean macaron.) I do love to cook, and I use recipes from food blogs in my daily life. (My Instagram feed is mostly food, books, and dogs.) I have a lot of admiration for very good food bloggers, who inject just the right amount of personality into their blogs while still focusing on the food. Trying to do that even as a fictional blogger with only a few entries I found to be challenging.

Q: It’s safe to say you like whoopie pies. What are your feelings on macarons? Do you have a sweet tooth?

A: I very rarely say no to dessert. I certainly wouldn’t turn down a macaron, so even though some of my characters have an understandably negative reaction to the macaron truck that appears on Block Island that fateful summer, I’d probably be first in line.

Q: What was your favorite scene to write?

A: I loved writing the scene where the book publicist Shelly Salazar comes to Block Island to track down Anthony Puckett, and Joy first thinks that she’s Anthony’s estranged wife, Cassie. Shelly is a minor character, but she’s one of the first characters who came to me fully formed, right down to her outfit and her hair, and I had a lot of fun with her. I don’t know any book publicists like Shelly Salazar in real life, but I like to think she or someone very much like her is out there somewhere.

Q: Which authors challenge and inspire you?

A: Usually whatever I’m reading at the moment inspires me! My two recent favorites were The Dutch House by Ann Patchett and Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout—these are two of my favorite authors who are at the top of their game. Well, they seem like they’re always at the top of their game, which is why I admire them so much. I love Kate Atkinson and Liane Moriarty for the way they can balance heavy subjects with their own particular brands of dark humor. I’m a huge Elin Hilderbrand fan and am constantly inspired by how she puts out books so often and somehow each one is always better than the last. I often turn to the short stories of Alice Munro for inspiration, too.

Q: What’s coming up next for you?

A: My new novel, Two Truths and a Lie, will be out in May 2020. That’s set in the Massachusetts town where I live—another great summer setting—and delves into the social dynamics of a group of moms of preteen girls, and what happens to the group when a stranger comes to town with her own dark past. I’m currently working on a book for summer 2021, which takes place in another of my favorite summer settings, the mid-coast Maine towns of Rockland and Owls Head.