Between balancing book tours and movie deals (Jennifer Garner recently signed on to star in the movie-version of Lee’s The Devil in the Junior League), Linda Francis Lee chats with EPMag about her prolific career, El Paso and the chick-lit phenomenon.
Tell me about your latest novel, The Ex-Debutante.
The Ex-Debutante is the story of Carlisle Cushing, a woman who grew up in Willow Creek, Texas then moved to Boston to find her own way. But just as she is establishing a life in a city that is so foreign to her, she gets pulled back to Texas by a family emergency. It’s a stranger-in-a-strange-land type book, first when she is a Texan living in Boston, but then again
after she returns to Texas only to find that the Northeast has changed her in surprising ways. It’s a fun story that is filled with a Texas debutante ball and a courtroom showdown.
What was the inspiration behind the story?
I wanted to continue writing about the characters in the town of Willow Creek where The Devil in the Junior League is set. But on a larger scale, I wanted to explore the meaning of roots and family, and how much you miss them when you move away.
How much of your own experiences as a Texas debutante did you draw on while writing the book?
My days as an El Paso Symphony Association’s Treble Clef Ball deb provided the foundation for what it is like to be a debutante, but the book came more from the idea that while I love living in New York City, one day I look forward to coming home to El Paso.
Where did you come up with the city Willow Creek, Texas, the setting in your two latest novels?
I wanted a fictitious town right in the very heart of Texas.
Tell me about your own career and how you became interested in writing.
After I graduated from Texas Tech, I came home and got married. Shortly after that I went back to school at UTEP. It was first through geology, then history of the area, that an earlier El Paso came to life for me. I loved to read but I had never given any thought to writing. And it was by reading Leon Metz, the wonderful El Paso author, that the idea of writing started coming to life.
You have over a dozen best-selling books under your belt. How has your writing evolved since your first?
I continue to learn about the craft of writing with every book I’ve written. Which is the beauty of writing, there is always something new to learn—better structure, stronger ideas, deeper truths and emotions.
You wrote romance novels at the beginning of your career, and have shifted towards “chick-lit.” Why and how did you make the switch?
While I love romance novels (and will probably write more of them) in both The Devil in the Junior League and The Ex-Debutante I wanted to write stories that weren’t primarily about the romance, but more about the craziness of life, love and finding your way in
this world.
How has your upbringing in El Paso influenced your work?
My great grandfather came to El Paso with General Pershing’s troops. He loved it so much that he stayed and built his family here. My parents and two of my siblings still live in El Paso, as well as my grandmother, my aunt, nephews, cousins. I met and married my husband in El Paso. As a result, no matter where Mike and I live, my sense of family and roots is wrapped up in El Paso.
How do you develop ideas for a novel?
I’m intensely curious about the world and how it works, and when something catches my attention generally a story involving that topic is never far behind.
How would you characterize your fan base?
Wonderful and supportive. Many of my romance fans have followed me to the bigger books. Though most people who started reading me with The Devil in the Junior League or The Ex-Debutante have no idea I ever wrote romance novels. It is fun when they find out I have more books, and generally the first books they go to are my El Paso based romances.
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This story was originally published in the May 2009 issue of El Paso Magazine available on newsstands at area Barnes & Noble stores.
