Caitlin Shetterly: On Building Characters and Finding Friends in Books
Caitlin Shetterly is the author of Modified and Made for You and Me, and the editor of the bestselling Fault Lines: Stories of Divorce. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, Orion, Elle, Self, and on Oprah.com, as well as on This American Life and various other public radio shows. She is the editor-in-chief of Frenchly, a French arts and culture online news magazine.
A Maine native, she graduated with honors from Brown University and now lives with her two sons and husband in her home state. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Caitlin Shetterly
Daniel E. Davis
In this post, Caitlin shares how Covid influenced her debut novel, what writers should leave unfinished each day, and more.
Name: Caitlin Shetterly
Literary agent: Lisa Grubka, United Talent
Book title: Pete and Alice in Maine
Publisher: HarperBooks
Release date: July 4, 2023
Genre/category: Literary Fiction
Previous titles: Fault Lines; Made for You and Me; Modified
Elevator pitch for the book: Pete and Alice in Maine is a novel about a New York City couple and their two daughters who flee to their second home in Maine during the spring of 2020, when Covid descended. Reeling from a painful betrayal in their marriage, and with more than enough time on their hands, they try to hang together during this extraordinary time in world history.
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What prompted you to write this book?
A lot of people were escaping to my home state of Maine in the early months of Covid. I’d go out running and see Massachusetts and New York and New Jersey license plates. At first it annoyed and worried me; Maine is a poor and aging state, we don’t have many hospital beds, we didn’t have enough ventilators, we were rationing toilet paper. I was born and raised here. So was my husband. Like many Mainers, we do a lot of odd jobs to keep body and soul together here.
But then I wanted to know what people with more privilege and from away were fleeing, beyond just Covid. What about their lives prompted them to want to find refuge here in Maine? Alice came to me in April of 2020 and started talking. She insisted I write her down.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I started writing in April of 2020. I was finished by April of 2021. My agent, Lisa Grubka, sold the book to HarperBooks in August of 2021, five days after she went out with it. Though other editors were reading and we were going to auction with the novel a few days later, the reaction was so moving and totally right from Sarah Stein at HarperBooks we took her pre-empt.
The book was a joy to write. As I wrote, and the world of Covid unfolded around me, I was able to really get to know Pete and Alice and their daughters, Iris and Sophie. I felt they became real people for me.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
I have never had such an amazingly supportive or blissful publishing experience. Friends read the book, Lisa supported and championed the book, Harper was a dream to work with—my entire team there is so smart, talented, and effective. My friend Selina once said to me, “It takes a village to raise a kid, raise a dog, have an old house, write a book.” She is right.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
The only surprise was that when you are writing fiction you really do create real people out of thin air. This ridiculous idea that some people have that actually your characters are basically you is hogwash. You do and can craft people who are so real, you can almost touch them, and they come from deep within you but are not you.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I have aimed to write an honest book about marriage, family life, being a Gen-X woman, the experiences of young girls in a family with problems and about America. I just hope a reader says to themselves, “Oh, finally someone understands me.” And that they feel I am their friend. We all need friends in books.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Leave an unfinished sentence each day to finish the next day.
While there’s no shortage of writing advice, it’s often scattered around—a piece of advice here, words of wisdom there. And in the moments when you most need writing advice, what you find might not resonate with you or speak to the issue you’re dealing with. In A Year of Writing Advice, the editors of Writer’s Digest have gathered thoughts, musings, and yes, advice from 365 authors in dozens of genres to help you on your writing journey.