We chat with author Lo Patrick about The Sins of Summer Daughters, which follows a woman must confront the buried secrets of a summer long past when her granddaughter is accused of murder—because she can try to forget, but the Georgia land remembers.
Hi, Lo! Welcome back! How have you been since we spoke last year for Fast Boys and Pretty Girls?
Things have been great in my world. Thank you for having me back!
Your latest novel, The Sins of Summer Daughters, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Does anything ever go away?
What can readers expect?
The Sins of Summer Daughters is a slow burn, character study about two separate tragic deaths that are connected by one blood line. A grandmother, Meg Gregory, in trying to help her granddaughter Lucy through a murder accusation relives events from her youth that have shaped who she is, however hidden she kept them from herself. It’s got snake venom, fortune tellers, confused young girls, and layer upon layer upon layer of secrets.
Where did the inspiration for The Sins of Summer Daughters come from?
I am a slave to memory, a nostalgia junkie, a person constantly ruminating over or longing for the past. We tend to present memories and the past as inevitable, things that we consider without really being aware of it, but what happens if a person intentionally forgot something that happened to them, and it won’t stay forgotten? I remember everything-even that which I would love to forget. Memory is fascinating in the way it shapes us, abuses us, comforts us, but never abandons us.
Can you tell us a bit about your process for planning out and working on The Sins of Summer Daughters?
I am a true pantser (as opposed to a plotter) and do not do any planning or plotting. I find I am most successful when I let myself write without any guardrails. I have to do a TON of editing and more or less rewrite the book a half dozen times but that is the system that has worked for me. I let my characters tell me what happened and follow their lead. There is a moment when working on a manuscript when I finally understand what I’m writing about—that is when I am able to really sink my teeth in…and have to go back and edit the entire thing!
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved writing Meg. We are not alike but I related to her struggle to find her voice in the world. A lifetime of frustrations, hardships, and mistakes. She didn’t have the infrastructure to face what she had to face…the same could be said of probably about eighty percent of the population.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
I always end up having to cut a lot from my books—because it’s necessary!—but that takes a toll. I do fall in love with a lot of passages that don’t serve the final product. A lot of what I write is how I get to know my characters and how I get to know their world, so in the end it is not important to the story but rather just to me as the story’s creator.
What’s next for you?
I have a book called A Study in the Girls Forgotten coming out next year.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?
I have been reading and thoroughly enjoying Akashik’s Noir series—currently reading both Accra Noir and Amsterdam Noir. Before that I read They Shoot Horses Don’t They? I’ve been in a dark place literarily! But the writing is fantastic!
