Thanks for joining me today, Lindsey. We’re going to start with a little flight of fancy. How would you finish these sentences?

If I could assign one household task to the fairies forever, it would be…

Please, please wash all the dishes all the time. My teenager fairies are good, but sometimes they need help. 🙂

If I were an animal, I would be a…

Right at this moment I feel like a sloth. I’m at that point in my creative process where I can’t seem to finish anything and everything takes twice as long as it should.

If I could say one thing to my younger self, it would be…

Lighten up, live a little, make some mistakes.

When I was a child, I wanted to be …

Laura Ingalls Wilder. My daddy built me a log cabin in the woods and my grandmother made me a calico dress.

That’s so sweet!

Okay, so let’s get down to business. Where does your inspiration come from as a writer?

I’ve always been strongly influenced by place and the type of people who choose to inhabit whatever place I’m currently fixated upon. So for Edisto—which is one of my favorite places in the world—I wondered what it would be like if someone didn’t want to call this place home?

Tell us a little bit about Edisto Island and why you chose this as the setting for your novels.

Edisto Beach is located about 45 miles from Charleston, SC and is Lowcountry at its truest. Because of efforts by locals and like-minded individuals, the island remains undeveloped commercially—you aren’t going to find high-rise hotels or resorts. There’s no putt-putt course or water parks. The people there have a rich, proud history, that like all places in the South, also has its share of darkness. But these days Edisto has become a place of respite and relaxation, centered on family vacations for tourism and living a slower pace of life for residents. Locals there tend to truly live off the land with hunting and fishing, which is necessary given there’s only one grocery store and driving on and off gets old pretty quickly. You can find lots of great info, podcasts, and stories at ExploreEdisto.com.

How does The Bridge Between fit in with your other Edisto novels?

This story picks up about four months after the close of Still Waters. Lou, Cora Anne’s mother, has moved back home as caretaker of the family’s farm, and her father, David, has come to Edisto as well because they share custody of the triplets. Unlike Still Waters, which tells Cora Anne and Tennessee’s story, The Bridge Between is the story of hers and Tennessee’s parents. It’s more dual-timeline in its structure, so you get to see what actually happened in the past.

The Bridge Between features a divorced couple. What were some of the challenges you encountered in writing their story?

I knew all along I wanted to write a story of reconciliation. However, I prayed and hoped that it would still resonate with readers who have experienced the heartbreak of divorce, yet don’t have the amicability Lou and David are able to achieve. Like any story, there’s always two sides, and I worked hard to show both his and her POV so the reader could understand their motivations.

What surprised you about these characters as you wrote their story?

In Still Waters, Lou was not the most likeable character. Even I struggled with her at times! But in writing The Bridge Between, I really began to identify with her heart. At her core, she’s a woman who struggles with delayed dreams, and while she adores her children, motherhood has not come easily. There’s a lot of my own personal revelations within her character, and I’m continually amazed by how many readers have messaged me about their own identifications with her as a wife and mother.

What did you learn from these characters as you wrote their story?

I think I learned I really, really wish I had gone back to school for my own advanced degree. 🙂  But also, the book leans heavily into one of my favorite themes—forgiveness—and I am always holding that mirror up to myself. Who do I need to forgive? What choices do I need to let go and accept forgiveness for having made?

What was your favourite scene to write?

When I first started writing this story, I had a hard time finding Lou and David as characters beyond just being the parents of my debut heroine. I remember sitting on my couch early one morning, trying to work through a scene when I decided to jump ahead and write a conversation. I wasn’t sure where it would fit or if I could keep it, but that scene was the first time I felt like I had found my characters. Long story short, I did keep it.

This scene happens in David’s kitchen one Saturday morning when Lou has come over to teach him to make a pot roast because she doesn’t want him to feed the boys fast food all the time. Here’s an excerpt:

Washing potatoes and carrots put them hip-to-hip in his small kitchen. She seemed right at home as she searched his drawers for a knife she liked. “I might get a dog.”

“You hate dogs.”

“I do not.” She snapped the narrow end of a carrot, and he raised his brows. She shrugged. “Bad spot.”

“You don’t like dogs.” He wasn’t going to be distracted by wilting carrots or the fact that this close, he could tell she’d switched back to her old standby Dove soap.

“I don’t like messes,” Lou clarified. “Dogs, in and of themselves, are not the problem.”

“Dogs make messes.”

“So do boys. And boys like dogs.”

Ah, now they were coming to it. “Are you jealous of Hank?”

“David James Halloway.” She pressed the knife against the pockmarked skin of an innocent potato. “I am not jealous of some animal.”

He thought maybe it was the dog’s owner she envied, but didn’t think that statement would be safe in the vicinity of the knife and all.

Haha. Probably a smart decision by David!

What can readers look for next from you?

Right now I’m concentrating on the Edisto series while shopping something completely different. Publishing is a long waiting game, so in the meantime, join me over at Spark Flash Fiction where I work with a great team of writers to bring you short, sweet romance just right for reading in the car rider line, the dentist office, or the grocery store checkout. 

Thanks for chatting with me today, Lindsey!