Welcome to this edition of Jen’s Jewels, where I’m thrilled to introduce Brooke Lea Foster, the talented author behind ALL THE SUMMERS IN BETWEEN. Set against the evocative backdrop of the 1960s and 1970s, Brooke's latest novel delves into the complexities of friendship, societal change, and the personal journeys of two women navigating an era of both promise and disillusionment. Join us as Brooke shares her inspirations, insights into capturing the essence of a transformative period, and the challenges of weaving dual timelines. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to her work, this interview promises to offer a captivating glimpse into the mind of an extraordinary storyteller.
Jennifer Vido: What inspired you to write ALL THE SUMMERS IN BETWEEN and explore the dynamics of friendship against the backdrop of the 1960s and 1970s?
Brooke Lea Foster: Hi Jen! Thanks so much for having me.
I think I’ve always been fascinated with female friendships and how some relationships come so natural to us, and some are more complicated and feel traumatic. I mean, from our earliest years, girls are made to feel like they’re part of the group—or not. But then there are the friends that sink their teeth into you, particularly in your teenage years or early twenties. You feel like you can’t live without them. I remember feeling so close to my friends at those times, almost like I leaned on them to define me and elevate me and make me feel more interesting.
As I grew older though I needed less from those close intense friendships of my youth, and I thought those changes were interesting. I chose to explore two friends during the late 60s and 70s because it allowed me to go deeper into how women’s lives have changed in the last fifty years. I’m fascinated by history and what we can learn from it, finding patterns in the past and looking for wisdom in what our mothers and grandmothers got right and wrong. Plus, I set the book in the past because I didn’t want my friends to be scrolling social media or texting. I wanted them to spend hours on the phone. To send postcards to one another. To examine what friendship looked like without as many distractions.
Mostly, though, I wanted to zoom in on the times, and explore how the time period in which we live impacts our choices and identity. In the late 1960s, Thea and Margot are riding the wave of protest and feminism. There are marches on Washington, Betty Friedan formed the National Organization for Women, women are having a political moment, so these young women have great reason to think that their lives will be dramatically different from their mothers. But ten years later, the 1970s felt like one big hangover. After all the bra burning and verbal tearing down of the patriarchy in the 60s, women living a decade later still found themselves facing “the problem with no name.” They were doing most of the housework, taking on the bulk of the parenting and their lives felt eerily like their mother’s had. So where did that leave two friends who started out idealistic and close, and then find themselves jaded and distant? That point of tension gripped me.
Jen: The novel takes place in the Hamptons during a time of social change. How did you approach capturing the atmosphere and essence of this specific era?
Brooke: I liked the idea of looking at the sixties and seventies from a woman’s point of view, not simply from history’s point of view. To think about what women were talking about back then, what weighed on the collective conscious, and how our perception of the era may be different than what happened. For example, I came across one piece of research about Woodstock and the free love movement that struck me. One Rolling Stone article reported just how many women were sexually assaulted in the name of “free love,” particularly at Woodstock, which just blew my mind. It made me wonder: Who benefited from the protest movements unfolding at this time? For my characters, Thea and Margot are beginning to see a woman’s place change and evolve around them – but gender roles are still in flux. If these same characters were born now, their lives would be so different.
I also find that the tumultuous sixties are often dumbed down in television and books; hippies are treated as a punch line. The era is defined by the big horrible political assassinations and marches. But the truth is that so many people were just trying to live their lives as these things were happening. It reminds me of today. There are all these traumatic things happening around us – climate change, wars, illness – but we all get up and try to push forward in our own lives. I liked the idea of my characters being influenced by all this social change, but also feeling betrayed by it when the change in their own lives doesn’t happen as quickly as they thought it might.
The sixties and seventies eras were great fun though to write though. I was born in 1975 so it was neat that I could remember some of the references. For example, Wheaties! Plus, Star Wars was released in 1978. I had to put that in my book! I also wanted my characters to be talking about the big music festivals, reference all the drug culture popular then, and the music! I loved diving into the music!
Jen: The relationship between Margot and Thea is at the heart of the story. What drew you to explore the complexities of their friendship, especially after a significant event separated them for a decade?
Brooke: I was on vacation in Maine, and the hotel where we were staying offered a boat ride to town for dinner. We passed by this pretty house with a front porch and there was a youngish woman hanging laundry on a line while a little girl was doing cartwheels on the lawn. A sailboat had just moored in the harbor out front. I have no idea why novel ideas hit at certain moments; I was simply passing by on a boat. But I saw the entire story laid out before me. One friend living a traditional life with a young daughter, the other friend sailing back into town and bringing with her secrets and nostalgia. On the way home to New York, I remember announcing to my husband and kids that I thought of my next book, and we talked about it during the long car ride.
As soon as I started writing, I knew I wanted the story to have some kind of big breakup at its heart. I’ve had some pretty traumatic friend breakups over the years. I think many of us have, and they can be hard to heal from. One of the hardest for me was with two best friends from high school. We left on a cross country road trip the best of friends after our freshman year of college, and we came home four weeks early barely speaking. It bothered me over the years that we grew distant, then stopped talking altogether, but I didn’t always know how to reconnect. I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to. So when I saw these two friends in Maine figuring things out, I knew I wanted to explore what happens when friends break apart but are forced back together.
I also knew I wanted them to be keeping a terrible secret that bound them in a way from their youth – that they would owe each other something from favors paid in the past. That tension really interested me. The question rose up like a beast in front of me: How far would you go for a friend? And why?
Jen: Could you share a bit about your writing process? How did you weave the dual timelines and maintain the suspense throughout the novel?
Brooke: I think my two decades as a journalist makes me a very efficient writer. What I mean by that is that I’m used to writing on deadline. I’m accustomed to writing fast and messy and fixing it later, and that’s how I write my novels. My first draft is for me to figure out the bare bones of the story. Honestly, if you read the dialogue in my first draft you would question how any of my books get published. But it’s placeholder dialogue. I get the very rough sketch out on the page, and then I fix it later.
I found the dual timelines very challenging to write. Both of my previous books were bookended by Memorial Day and Labor Day and everything that happened in the book took place during those three months. To go back and forth in time makes it difficult to keep plot points and character development straight, and there were times I wanted to stay in one of the timelines longer, but I couldn’t for pacing. In the end, I put all the 1967 sections together and worked on them. Then I put all the latter sections together and read them as individual books. After that, I wove them back together.
I LOVE dual timeline novels because it gives you a richer sense of the characters when you get to know them at two different points in their lives. You leave with a stronger sense of how far they’ve come, who they are and what they long for. I hope that comes through in this story!
Jen: Which character resonates with you the most in the story, and what draws you to them?
Brooke: I do not relate at all to rich and feckless Margot. I’m a local, hardscrabble beach girl all the way. I grew up out on eastern Long Island, and it was great fun to watch the summer crowd arrive every year in their fancy cars and sparkly summer houses. But that wasn’t my world. Like Thea, I was a girl who watched the glamour unfold around me and longed to find a true and authentic place where I belonged. That didn’t happen for me until I left for college, met my husband, and decided to become a writer.
I relate to Thea too, because whether it’s the 1970s or the 2020s, all women will come to realize that having a fulfilling career and being a good mother is pretty hard to pull off. There’s always guilt that you’re not doing enough somewhere in your life. My husband and I have an equitable relationship and he’s so involved in our children’s lives and he’s wonderful – and still, I find myself doing the majority of the parenting. It’s not a complaint. It’s just a fact, and I think as women realize that they need to saddle the stresses of family life, they let go of themselves a bit. Then as our kids get older, we reclaim pieces of ourselves. Thea is doing that in the latter timeline; she’s fighting to follow her own dreams.
Jen: As a reader, what do you personally look for in a book? Are there any genres or themes that you are particularly drawn to?
Brooke: I love books where there’s heart on every page, like Patti Callahan Henry’s The Secret Book of Flora Lea. I also love historical fiction set at the beach, like most anything by Beatriz Williams. Her novel A Hundred Summers is set in Newport during 1938 and I’ve always adored the characters and her writing. But I read widely. I love any Elin Hilderbrand book! I just read and loved The Bee Sting, which falls into the literary category, and I just finished Rebecca Serle’s new novel, which is fizzy and light and good for plane listening. I love walking away from a book feeling like I know the characters and want to keep hanging out with them!
Jen: What’s the best way for readers to stay up-to-date on your latest news and happenings?
Brooke: Sign up for my newsletter Dear Fiction! I write about my books, my process, and I write a fun Author Confessions column where I ask writers to dish on the ups and downs of novel writing. I’m also on Instagram!
Jen: Finally, what's next for you? Do you have any upcoming projects or ideas that you're excited to explore?
Brooke: Yes, I’m finishing up my fourth novel right now. It’s set on Martha’s Vineyard in 1965 and 1978 and centers on the complicated relationships of three sisters raised in a political family. The father was a longtime United States Senator, and the mother is a staunch (and legendary) feminist. The daughters grew up with so many expectations in their family, some fulfilling their roles and some failing at them. There are also divisions, and my book takes place the summer the family is forced to sell the beach house and reckon with what’s left of their relationships.
Jen: On a lighter note, do you have any fun summer plans or reading recommendations for your fans?
Brooke: You’ll find me reading at the beach whenever I have a free minute this summer. To me, that’s joy: A beach chair, a book and a view of the ocean. The nice thing about having a book come out in summer is getting to visit all your favorite beach towns! I’ll be doing events in Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Myrtle Beach and Bethany Beach, among others. I’ll be talking to readers all summer long in the Hamptons, too. As for what to read this summer, there are so many goodies to look forward to. Don’t miss Natalie Jenner’s Every Time We Say Goodbye and Jane Rosen’s Seven Summer Weekends. I’m also so excited for Lisa Wingate’s new book Shelterwood!
Jen: Thanks for stopping by to chat about ALL THE SUMMERS IN BETWEEN. I guarantee that readers will be swept away by your captivating summer read!
Brooke: You are too kind! I’m so excited to be here. Thank you for letting me ramble on! xo
When wealthy, impulsive summer girl Margot meets hardworking and steady local girl Thea in the summer of 1967, the unlikely pair become fast friends, working alongside one another in a record store and spending every spare moment together. But after an unspeakable incident on one devastating August night, they don’t see one another for ten years…until Margot suddenly reappears in Thea’s life, begging for help and harboring more than one dangerous secret. Thea can’t bring herself to refuse her beloved friend—but she also knows she can’t fully trust her either.
Unfulfilled as a housewife, Thea enjoys the dazzling sense of adventure Margot brings to her life, but will the truth of what happened to them that fateful summer ruin everything? Testing the boundaries of how far she’ll go for a friend, Thea is forced to reckon with her uncertain future while trying to decide if some friends are meant to remain in the past.
Set in the dual timelines of 1967 and 1977, All the Summers In Between is at once a mesmerizing portrait of a complex friendship, a delicious glimpse into a bygone Hamptons, and a powerful coming-of-age for two young women during a transformative era.
Coming of Age | Fiction Women's Fiction [Gallery Books, On Sale: June 4, 2024, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781668034378 / ]
Brooke Lea Foster is an award-winning author and journalist who has worked as a writer and editor at The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, The Huffington Post and the Washingtonian magazine.
Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Parents, PARADE, The Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, Psychology Today, among others.
Her novels, Summer Darlings and On Gin Lane, were featured as top summer reads in People Magazine, named a top summer pick by Entertainment Weekly and named one of PARADE’s best books of summer. She writes the popular Dear Fiction newsletter and she's the author of three nonfiction books. All the Summers in Between is her third novel.
under the age of 35.
Jennifer Vido writes sweet romances set in the Lowcountry filled with southern charm and hospitality. In between chapters, she interviews authors for her bi-weekly Jen’s Jewels column on FreshFiction.com. Most mornings, she teaches an arthritis-friendly water exercise class for seniors before heading to the office to serve as the executive director of a legal non-profit. A New Jersey native, she currently lives in Maryland with her husband and two rescue dogs and is the proud parent of two sons who miss her home-cooked meals. To learn more, please visit her website.
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