For Maine author Shannon Parker, the process of writing her new novel Love & Lobsters was as she describes it a lot like falling in love, fevered and intoxicated, as the story poured onto the page in under three months followed by roughly a year of editing.
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| Author Shannon Parker will appear at Sherman's Maine Coast Book Shop in Windham from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8 to meet readers and discuss her new novel 'Love & Lobsters.' It is Parker's third book and copies will be available at Sherman's during the author's visit. COURTESY PHOTO |
The concept for Love & Lobsters came about as Parker was oddly thinking about how lobsters are cannibalistic when trapped together. A friend and I were texting about my weird thought when she made me laugh out loud.
“And in that moment, I was so grateful for hilarious banter with friends,” Parker said. It was really that random, four-minute exchange that inspired the main character and her best friend and the truth about lobsters. If you think about it, Mainers are some of the few who know lobsters aren’t holding claws under the slate sea, forever linked in love. Because of the popularity of the TV show Friends, Phoebe Buffay has spawned an industry devoted to love and ‘you’re my lobster’ devotion. So, I thought about how two friends could expose the world to the truth about lobsters in a funny, uniquely Maine way. I wrote a blog post in the main character’s voice, and then she began to take shape in my head. Her relationship with her best friend became clearer and funnier. And soon the entire cast of characters were crystal clear, as if they’d always lived in my head.”
According to Parker, her goal with this new novel is simple.
“When a reader finishes Love & Lobsters, I want them to hold the book close to their chest for a beat and love it enough to immediately gift it to someone they love,” she said.
She’s previously written The Rattled Bones, published under S.M. Parker, which explores the erasure of Midcoast Maine’s Malaga Island.
“The inspiration for that story came to me nearly 15 years ago when I was listening to a Maine Public Radio segment called: Malaga Island, a story best left untold. I disagreed,” she said. “My debut, The Girl Who Fell, explored how intoxicating first love can too easily become toxic. The idea for this story came to me when I was working with young adults in Rockland and a brilliant teen told me she was going to pass on her college scholarship because her boyfriend was afraid college would make her ‘too smart.’ The book explores how even the most accomplished, driven, intelligent people can fall for the wrong person – and what it takes to recover from a debilitating relationship built on the foundation of gaslighting.”
The most interesting aspect of this new novel though is how the main character tries to make sense of human relationships through the lens of lobsters, but readers have overwhelmingly connected to the community and kindness in the book, Parker said.
“Down East magazine called Love & Lobsters a ‘love letter to Maine,’ and that feels spot-on. There’s rugged beauty. Independence buoyed by community,” she said. “Characters who feel like people you know, or people you want to know. The hardness of life balanced with hilarity. Each reader will connect with the book differently, of course, but I think it would be a mistake for anyone who loves Maine to dismiss this as ‘just a romance’; it’s a novel that explores all the ways Mainers uniquely show up for one another as we live among bounty and beauty, love and wonder – and I hope that feels like a gift to everyone who reads this story.”
A native New Englander, Parker lives in Damariscotta, and didn’t know how to pronounce the name of the town when serendipity dropped her into the little village.
“I saw an old, neglected Greek Revival with its sagging roof, scars of disrepair, and swinging ‘For Sale’ sign and bought it two days later. I think my husband still has whiplash,” she said. “When my mother completed some genealogy work a few years later, we discovered my maternal great-grandparents lived 10 miles from my home. I’ve traveled to 38 countries across five continents but had still managed to return home in a way.”
Canadian author Margaret Atwood is Parker’s favorite author, full stop.
“In my writer-fantasy-mind, we are best friends, and I call her ‘Maggie’ and we laugh a lot. Like, a lot. She was, in many ways, the formative voice of my youth,” Parker said. “I grew up quite poor, in a home without books, and I redeemed cans to purchase tattered paperbacks at tired yard sales. Margaret Atwood has this famous quote, ‘a word after a word after a word is power’ and that woke something in 12-year-old me. It was both a road map and permission to follow that path. One step, then the next. Then the next. And then, a story. A voice.”
Parker calls herself a morning writer, and says she tries to slip away from kids and chores and other work on the days she writes.
“In addition to being an author, I’m an English professor and grant writer. I’m also in my thesis semester of my third master’s degree,” she said. “It’s a full, busy work life, for sure. So, I try to schedule two to three mornings a week to keep momentum. When I’m at the computer, I typically write for three hours at a stretch. But Love & Lobsters was largely conceived while I was kayaking. I’d return to my truck post-paddle and dictate my ideas into my phone. Then, I’d email the notes to myself. When I’d return to my working manuscript, I’d have entire scenes developed. Paragraphs of dialogue. Cures for plot or character holes. It was an amazing experience – unlike any process I’d ever engaged before.”
Simon & Schuster published Love & Lobsters, and it’s something Parker is grateful for.
“I’ve had such a great experience working with publishers and editors and agents. Really, I’ve been so fortunate,” she said. “My first two books were classified as Young Adult and were released by Simon & Schuster. Love & Lobsters is my adult debut, and it didn’t fit into the tidy ‘romance’ category for publishers – which is fair; it is definitely not a traditional romance. Love & Lobsters is my Maine take on romance because I am 1,000 percent in love with Maine’s coast, its tenacity, and its people. So, I took all I’d learned from working within the industry and struck out on my own, betting on Maine for interest in the book. Within days of its release, I had a major studio interested in film rights, as well as a smaller production company. The book’s been a bestseller at Sherman’s since its release. Creating a unique path for this book to be in the world was the best decision I ever made.”
Her family has been supportive of the new novel.
“I live in a house full of boys and they don’t read. They might be allergic. Unless it’s a technical manual, printed words on a page hold exactly zero interest for them. But this book was different,” Parker said. “They rallied around this story. I think it’s because we all see ourselves in one of the characters, or a bit of ourselves in each of the characters. As a family, we have a habit of honoring Big Love and Big Nature, and both are themes in the book. I recently lost my 20-year-old son in a car accident and the sorrow has been unbearable. Deafening and suffocating all at once. Like you’re leagues underwater but somehow, miraculously, you can still breathe. My son came to me in a non-traditional way and our love was fierce. But we had hard shells when we met; we’d both been hurt. We had to trust in the process of trust and keep showing up for each other. And we did, and it was beautiful. It is beautiful. And if I had to do it all over again, I would take the same leap of trust with him. Even now. Even knowing the heartbreak that sits on the other side of loss. Because this is love. It is immeasurable. Expansive. Terrifying. It both makes and breaks us. And it is worth it. Every time.”
She’s excited to meet Windham readers and discuss Love & Lobsters at Sherman’s next month.
“Meeting people is one of the singular joys of living. I love exchanging smiles and stories and dreams,” she said. “And Sherman’s is great. I mean, it’s Sherman’s. And readers should only consider buying a copy of Love & Lobsters if they want to read about love in all its forms – the love for land and sea; the love between grandparents and grandchildren; love found later in life; the love shared by best friends; love for the way the past shapes our present…and future, and the love that we are all capable of. Because love begets love begets love begets love. And who couldn’t use more love?” <
