1--What is the title of your latest release?
PROM MOM
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Twenty years ago, a girl gave birth to a baby during a high school prom. The baby died, the girl’s life was upended. Now she’s returned home – and starts stalking her clueless date from that night, who’s now happily married. Or is he?
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I set most of my work in my hometown of Baltimore, the darker stories tend to be set in the suburbs. This is a very suburban story.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
No, but I would definitely buy art from her gallery.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Intelligent, obsessive, determined.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned quite a bit about Class B and Class C commercial real estate.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Sort of both? I try to write straight through, over and over again, but sometimes I allow myself to edit if I’m stuck.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I have so many, but I am particularly enamored of the soft pretzels sold at Royal Farms right now. It’s a nice way to end the end, a hot pretzel and a martini.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
During Covid, my office space was under renovation, and I began working at the dining room table. My office is now a beautiful space, but I still find myself working at the dining room table. It’s a pretty space, with some of my favorite art – etchings by my late sister-in-law; a piece by Chris Roberts-Antieau, who works in embroidery; a mantle full of whimsical objects. Plus, it’s right next to the kitchen.
10--Who is an author you admire?
I love writers whose work shows a great range. Kate Atkinson is a good example. I’m also a big fan of Elizabeth Strout, whose work has a deceptive simplicity. Lucy Barton’s voice is such an artistic accomplishment, it’s hard for me to believe that Lucy’s not a real person.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
There’s a scene in a short story by Ellen Gilchrist where the character, Rhoda Manning, discovers Dorothy Parker and feels this rush of excitement. I felt that way when I began reading Larry McMurtry’s All My Friends Are Going to be Strangers – and all I wanted to do was make someone else feel that way, one day. I have no idea if I’ve achieved that, but I keep trying.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
It’s a bittersweet story. I was at work, in the features department of the Baltimore Sun. My agent called to say she had one offer and was now going to call the other editors who had the book to see if they wanted to bid. The first person I shared the news with was my colleague Rob Hiaasen, who bought me a cup of coffee. Rob was killed in a mass shooting at the Annapolis newspaper in 2018 so I tear up when I think about that morning.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
It’s more of a subject – money. I love books about money. Madame Bovary, Mildred Pierce, Capital (a marvelous novel about a single street in London), Barbarians at the Gate. Money works in every genre, fiction and nonfiction. Lately, I find myself drawn to books about families fighting over money and real estate. Part of my affection for crime fiction is centered in the fact that it never lost the thread when it came to money and social issues, whereas literary fiction seemed to ignore it for a while there. Money is the true kink in our culture; everybody is weird about it. Myself included.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Don’t make me pick one! But I’ll tell you one that I consider perfect: the original The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3.
15--What is your favorite season?
Fall.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I like to have lasagna and a grocery store bakery cake, a small one, devil’s food with white icing and just tons of roses.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Gilbert King’s Bone Valley is a terrific podcast.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Is pizza a cuisine? But despite loving pizza and lasagna, I think I love the sort of dishes one finds at Spanish tapas places.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I walk a lot, about 5 miles a day. I like to bake. I read, of course.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
A much happier book, that’s for sure.
A Novel
New York Times bestseller Laura Lippman tells the story of Amber Glass, desperately trying to get away from her tabloid past but compulsively drawn back to the city of her youth and the prom date who destroyed everything she was reaching for.
Amber Glass has spent her entire adult life putting as much distance as possible between her and her hometown of Baltimore, where she fears she will forever be known as “Prom Mom”—the girl who allegedly killed her baby on the night of the prom after her date, Joe Simpson, abandoned her to pursue the girl he really liked. But when circumstances bring Amber back to the city, she realizes she can have a second chance—as long as she stays away from Joe, now a successful commercial real estate developer, married to a plastic surgeon, Meredith, to whom he is devoted.
The problem is, Amber can’t stay away from Joe. And Joe finds that it’s increasingly hard for him to ignore Amber, if only because she remembers the boy he was and the man he said he was going to be. Against the surreal backdrop of 2020 and early 2021, the two are slowly drawn to each other and eventually cross the line they’ve been trying not to cross.
And then Joe asks Amber to help him do the unthinkable…
Thriller Psychological [William Morrow, On Sale: July 25, 2023, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780062998064 / eISBN: 9780062998088]
Laura Lippman was a newspaper reporter at the Baltimore Sun for twelve years. Her Tess Monaghan novels -- The Last Place, The Sugar House, Baltimore Blues, Charm City, Butchers Hill, and In Big Trouble -- have won the Edgar, Agatha, Shamus, Anthony, and Nero Wolfe Awards, and In a Strange City was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed novel Every Secret Thing. Lippman lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
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