If you look up “marketing savvy” in the dictionary, the definition should be “Madison author releasing her new book set in Palm Springs in February.”
But while Christina Clancy’s “The Snowbirds,” published Tuesday, does include plenty of hot-weather scenes set poolside and in the desert, she had deeper reasons for setting her third novel (after “Shoulder Season” and “The Second Home”) in Palm Springs.
“The Snowbirds” follows a long-term unmarried fiftysomething Madison couple, Kim and Grant, who start wintering in Palm Springs. When Grant goes missing on a hike, Kim is forced to re-evaluate their relationship as she anxiously waits for news.
Clancy will read from and talk about “The Snowbirds” at 7 p.m. tonight at Madison Central Library. We talked with the Madison author about why vacations are such fertile literary territory for her and whether she’s a warm-weather or cold-weather writer.
As someone who is also in their 50s and recently embarked on a bit of a career change, it was refreshing to read a book about fellow fiftysomethings who are unsettled and uncertain.
I know it sounds like a weird thing to say, but in some ways, it’d just be easier to be done, right? I struggled, I strived, and now I can just let it go and calcify and become even more the person I already am. It was so interesting. When we started going to Palm Springs, it’s just so different there. It forces you to think of yourself in a new environment.
All three of your novels are set in vacation spots – Palm Springs, Cape Cod, and the Playboy Mansion in Lake Geneva. What is about those destinations that interests you as a writer?
I think I've always been interested in the struggle between work and leisure, and I've been kind of fascinated that it comes through in all of my books a lot. It takes a lot of work for someone to have leisure. To be able to go someplace like Palm Springs or retire means that you had to work really hard to be able to make enough money to go there. I think a lot of people, as they approach retirement, don't know what to do with their leisure time. They really struggle with it.
Can a writer ever retire?
A lot of people think writing is easy. They say, “Oh, once I have more time, I’ll write my book.” And I’m like, “You have no idea how much work a book is. You get the idea, and that’s just the beginning.” When I was working on this book, I was on a deadline, and I literally worked 12-hour days, working and editing it and thinking about it. It's always in my head, even when I wasn't writing.
Did you know when you first went to Palm Springs that you would write about it?
It was 2011 or 2012, I went with a bunch of girlfriends. I don't think I knew then that I wanted to write about it, because I didn't know Palm Springs well enough to write about. I like to know a place really well before I write. I'm very much a writer of place.
What struck me is this feeling that it connected with me on a really deep level, and I wasn't sure why. Writing always comes from questions. And I had that question “Why did I connect so much?”
Do you prefer to write in cold weather or warm weather?
When you talk to male writers, they always like being in a cave. I really need a lot of sunshine. Most of my books have actually been written on the sun porch of our cottage. I just feel like the light there is so conducive to thinking clearly. In Palm Springs, it’s the same thing where the clarity of the light just makes you feel like your brain is working a little better. But it’s hard to write in Palm Springs sometimes, because it’s just so much fun there.
