Behind the Book, Big & Lily
As the eldest of four children, I set out to write a book that lets me explore my fascination with birth order theory. I’m a classic firstborn: in-charge, organized, goal-oriented, and reliable, with a skosh of perfectionism and a dash of anxiety. Are these traits nature or nurture? Was I born to mother hen my siblings or was the task assigned to me? Is Eldest Daughter Syndrome, a subject that’s gotten a lot of press lately, real? And was there ever any hope of reinventing myself or were these first-born order attributes part of my DNA?
This love story between these two wonderfully funny, enmeshed sisters, Bridget and Lily gave me the opportunity to dive down a rabbit hole on the topic. In finding my own answers, I hope I have also created characters that my readers will relate to, laugh at, cry with, and learn from.
"I’m a classic firstborn: in-charge, organized, goal-oriented, and reliable, with a skosh of perfectionism and a dash of anxiety. Are these traits nature or nurture..? This love story between these two wonderfully funny, enmeshed sisters, Bridget and Lily gave me the opportunity to dive down a rabbit hole on the topic."
Big & Lily is set against the backdrop of an Alaskan wilderness adventure modeled almost exactly after the one I took with my husband a few years ago. Although more of a homebody who relishes sitting on the couch binging Brit Box, than the world-traveling, adventure junkie I married, I am nothing if not a good sport and so, as I had so many times in the past thirty years, I said a conditional “yes.”
I gave him my list of demands—no flying in tiny planes (fear of heights and motion sickness,) walking on rocks (the year before I had slipped on a wet rock and broken my leg,) or navigating ice (lifelong fear of slipping and falling.) None of these conditions were met—turns out you can’t travel through the real wilds of Alaska without a prop plane, piles and piles of rocks (called scree) or that slippery stuff that they make glaciers out of.
"Just like Big and Lily, I quickly found myself in over my head and out of my element to the point of becoming the main character in my own sketch comedy show. Nevertheless, I persisted—as eldest daughters do."
Just like Big and Lily, I quickly found myself in over my head and out of my element to the point of becoming the main character in my own sketch comedy show.
Nevertheless, I persisted—as eldest daughters do. And what I found on the mountaintops and wooded trails, glaciers, streams, and lakes was nothing less than magical and transformative. So when I sat down to brainstorm my book about two sisters and the ways in which birth order has affected their relationship, I realized Alaska was the perfect place for Big and Lily to find themselves—and each other. If they could just survive the journey.
