1--What is the title of your latest release?
THE SUMMER CLUB
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Two opposite families- one working class New York transplant who’s come into money and one small-town middle-class native who’s fought to work his way up for his family- find themselves reluctant new neighbors. The Birches, who appear the perfect family, live in an idyllic coastal Massachusetts neighborhood where father Ned is the president of the country club, Mayhaven, and golf-phenom daughter Darcy has just shattered his dreams by announcing she’s walking about from the sport. In come new neighbors- Stan, Josie and her son, Flick-urban transplants, who arrive with high hopes for a fresh start, along with their giant RV, late night noise, and an expectation: to elbow their way into Mayhaven. What ensues is a summer of neighborhood upheaval, new love, letting go, and the discovery of an alarming secret that Ned’s daughter Darcy asks new neighbor Flick to keep.
TSC is a story of the dangerous assumptions we make, no matter our privilege. It’s also the cautionary tale of parents with good intentions but wide blind spots, and the risks we take when we’re desperate to belong.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
All my books are set in lush New England settings during summer. Coastal Massachusetts was a natural choice because I wanted a backdrop during a season that promised magic and allure, but that was also a stark contrast to some of the darker themes that would be experienced by the families. In keeping with contrasting themes at the club, like the haves and have-nots, I also wanted to juxtapose natural beauty with the ugliness life sometimes delivers.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
This novel is told through 3 viewpoints: Flick, Darcy, and Ned. I adore Flick Creevy, the neighboring teenage son. I admire his honesty and strong sense of self, despite his youth and the fact he finds himself completely out of his comfort zone having been abruptly transplanted from a working-class neighborhood in Queens, NY and dumped in the wooded enclave of privileged coastal MA. My heart breaks for young Darcy, who has so much resilience but falls prey to social pressures and someone else’s bad intentions. Ned, Darcy’s father, is trying hard to keep his failing club and his struggling family afloat. But despite his clear intentions, his own childhood history blurs his vision to what’s happening right in front of him. I think all parents will find him a deeply empathetic character, who, like the rest of us, is doing the best he can, but the situation on the ground calls for so much more.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
I’ll go with Flick: clever, conflicted, and true.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned a lot about country club culture. Country clubs get a bad rap, much of it well-deserved. There are long histories of exclusivity, and often outright discrimination. Concerning privilege - there are the usual haves and have-nots. But there is another sub-culture right there beside the membership; the culture of those who serve them. I wanted to explore the psychology of the members and the staff: how even those who appear to have it all may never achieve a sense of belonging if they don’t feel comfortable in their own skin. How those on the proverbial outside can possess an advantage once the playing ground is leveled. And what it would be like to be Darcy or Flick, who each straddle the fence to both worlds, but ultimately belong to neither. There are basic themes of humanity that none of us can escape, no matter how bright the bubble or secure the gait. Longing and loneliness is one. Parents aching for their children is another. The fact that a family is only as harmonious as its least happy family member rings true for every family, no matter your resources or privilege. There is humanity in that, and it opens doors to creating connections we might not otherwise see in a cursory once-over.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I edit as I go, religiously- but not until I’m about fifty pages in. I try to leave the pages alone until that point. By then, my characters start to become three-dimensional and show me their true colors. That’s when the plot becomes clearer. Then, I shift gears and start each new morning of writing by re-reading where I left off the previous day. It’s kind of like wading back into the ocean instead of diving headfirst. I need to adjust to the temperature and the pull of the tide before I go deeper.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
There are many! I love food. And, as luck would have it, I get hungry when I’m producing. I’m a salt and carbs girl, so pasta is often on my mind! But as a beach read writer, I love fresh coastal dishes, especially when on book tour: New England clam chowder, a tray of fresh oysters, anything with crab. Now I’m hungry.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I have a designated writing room in my house. When I built it, seven years ago, it was first on my list. It’s not huge but it’s got high ceilings and oversized windows that spill light, and a wingback chair by one of them where my office mate (my dog) sleeps as I write. It’s decorated simply in what my teen calls ‘coastal grandma’ colors and textures. My desk is at the center, with a single white bookcase holding all my titles behind me. I like looking at nature as I work; it keeps me centered.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Elin Hilderbrand always come to mind first. She’s a beach queen, and I think she blazed a trail for the rest of us in terms of defining the genre and developing the readership. Our stories are centered with strong female (and sometimes male!) protagonists at the heart, along with family dynamics, evolving friendships, small-town fuel, all set against backdrops lush enough to absorb the concussions and heal the characters. She’s supported my work with the kindest blurbs, and Elin remains such an inspiration to me. I doubt she’s hanging up her crown for good.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. I loved the raw beauty and promise of the New England prep school setting juxtaposed with the uncertainty of coming of age and the darkness of human nature and the war. Gene and Phineas stay with me when I write young characters, to this day.
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.
My first call was for a two-book deal with then Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, for my middle grade titles Franny Parker and The Properties of Water. I was out and I missed it! When I came home, I replayed the message from my agent on the answering machine twice, cried, called my parents and played it again for them. And cried again. I had no idea the world it would open up for me. Or the work it would entail to stay in that world and evolve. It’s a tough industry!
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Contemporary fiction. I love reading titles with characters that I can relate to, whether it be my stage of life, the challenges I face as a parent, a woman with a solo career, someone reinventing themselves after a major life change, love, loss: the stuff of life! Ordinary people get me every time.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
I’m a rom-com sucker, so Notting Hill, Four Weddings & a Funeral, & Something’s Got to Give reign supreme. And Hope Floats!
15--What is your favorite season?
Summer has my heart as a beach read author but fall steals my breath. I love living in New England where both call you outdoors.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I’m a summer baby, and a sentimentalist, so every year it’s the same: I go out for dinner with my husband, daughters, and parents to a favorite Inn here in Connecticut set atop a grassy hill overlooking the lake. The Inn’s outdoor dining patio is set beneath the canopy of an ancient Chestnut tree and lit by antique lanterns, so it’s very old-world European. But it’s the faces around the table that make it. Each year, now that my kids are growing up and one is away at college, and as my parents are aging, I’m reminded how lucky we are to still be seated together around that table.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Only Murders in the Building and Apples Never Fall are recent favorites. And the newest Bridgerton! I love Mel Robbins’ podcast as a daily meditation.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I love food! Since this is a summer title, coastal New England cuisine. Freshly sourced and seasonal just taste better, and local oysters and clam chowder are heaven. But don’t forget pasta- always pasta, especially with seafood. See, I told you I love food.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
As a busy mom, there’s not a lot of it, but I love to spend time with my family. Reading, sketching, gardening have long been solo hobbies. Getting outside each day is crucial-- I love to walk my dog down to the lake near our house or just sit on the back patio and listen to birdsong. When I’ve got the time and money, travel! A recent trip to Italy stole my heart.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I’m already at work on next summer’s beach read. Another coastal family-centered story. Stay tuned!
Hannah McKinnon, the acclaimed author of the “charming and warm-hearted” (PopSugar) The Summer House, returns with a fresh beach read about a group of outsiders threatening the status quo at an exclusive New England beach club.
Mayhaven is the best keep secret in Massachusetts. Tucked between old cedars and a spring-fed lake, the Mayhaven beach club has long been the ultimate escape to understated exclusivity. It’s the place where Darcy Birch is supposed to be experiencing the best summer of her life, but there are a few things standing in her way. Her high-strung mother won’t stop hovering over her, her father is consumed by his job as president of Mayhaven, where she works as a summer camp counselor and things are not as rosy as they seem, and her neurodivergent little brother is struggling to live with a measure of independence not everyone is ready for.
Then there is the matter of the new neighbors. Flick Creevy, his mother, and stepfather have arrived in town, parking their enormous RV, not to mention all-night music and clouds of marijuana, in the Birches’s perfectly landscaped backyard.
Flick is not interested in the perfect summer or the girl next door. Pushed to get a job at Mayhaven by his mother, who has her eyes on a new life for their family, his own eyes have been opened to the ways of the upper crust. Even though Mayhaven prides itself on being an inclusive association of good New England families with good New England values, the fact remains: either you’re on the inside or the outside.
As the heat of summer increases, it’s soon clear that the members of Mayhaven will have to struggle to stay cool in this sharply written and refreshing new novel that is perfect for fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Jennifer Weiner.
Women's Fiction | Romance [Atria/Emily Bestler Books, On Sale: August 6, 2024, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781668025185 / eISBN: 9781668025192]
Hannah McKinnon is the author of The Lake Season, Mystic Summer, The Summer House, Sailing Lessons, and The View from Here. She graduated from Connecticut College and the University of South Australia. She lives in Connecticut, with her family, a flock of chickens, and two rescue dogs.
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