THC: I was somewhat surprised by the strong Baptist element. Where did that come from?

BC: The religious undertone came because I was interested in exploring characters whose lives are fed by their faith. Their complete and utter faith gets them through.

THC: There seems to be a strong Lesbian element to many of the female relationships, particularly between Victoria Landy [the Landy family matriarch] and Sonia [the local hairdresser]. Why did you make that choice?

BC: I wanted to do that because it was a time and a place, the late ’50s, early ’60s, where people might have those feelings and wouldn’t go anywhere with them. I was curious as to how those feelings would be expressed and I was curious as to how far a character who never denied herself anything [Victoria Landy] would take the lesbian attraction thing.

I hadn’t intended to show a lesbian undercurrent between the two mothers or between the two daughters, but that does not mean it is not there.

THC: You say that you wanted to try things like lesbianism and passionate religion to see how the characters played off of it, indicating that the characters’ paths are unplanned. Can you talk a little about your process of character and plot development?

BC: I don’t plot things out. I know my characters very well and from there, it’s a little bit like reporting. I kind of interview the characters and find out what they would do in certain situations, what they would say and then I sort of write as I go.

THC: There are many similarities to our own political situation in the book. Is this meant to be political commentary?

BC: Only in so much as history tends to repeat itself and in that we tend to repeat our stupid actions. Otherwise, it is very much a commentary on that war, that situation.

THC: You don’t seem to have a character that is clearly heroic. Were you trying to create a hero?

BC: Each character has another character they see as a hero. I didn’t mean for there to be one hero. I think, in life, there isn’t only one hero or person who acts only heroically. Everyone finds their own heroes for different reasons.

THC: What do you hope readers will get out of the book?

BC: I think it’s a very hopeful book. I think that, in life, everyone gets into a lot of these tough situations and you can get out of them. In this book, there are a lot of situations where these characters can fall into despair and they don’t. They find hope within themselves and they find hope within the friends around them, who they make their family.

THC: So much of this book is about life in Florida. Why did you set it there after spending so much of your professional life in New York?

BC: I grew up there. Other than Long Island, it’s the strangest place in America.