Musings on Spencer and Lily
January 9, 2011
A fan over on the Facebook page asks: Why did I decide to return to Spencer in another story, not his own? Because I felt after Red Leaves that Spencer’s journey was cut off in the middle, was left unresolved. In Red Leaves he made himself a life in Hanover, New Hampshire, only to have that life go up in flames by the end of the story. I really liked him as a character and wanted to revisit his life at some later juncture. There were so many things that happened to him in Red Leaves that I wanted to see how those actions affected his life, and whether he suffered consequences because of them. The Girl in Times Square didn’t start with Spencer, because it is clearly a book about Lily, but he fit like a perfect piece of the unfinished puzzle into it. When I was imagining Lily’s story and saw that a detective had to come to the diner where she worked to investigate the disappearance of her roommate and best friend, I didn’t see a detective, I saw Spencer. And whereas Red Leaves is a straightforward mystery, The Girl in Times Square is much more of a drama and a character study, where Spencer’s and Lily’s separate journeys and combined road are more fully explored. P.S.
I met Spencer first in “The Girl in Times Square”, loved him and the book!!!!!!!!
I am so glad to read this and to find out that Spencer and Lily aren’t done with you yet. Every time I think of 9/11 I think about them, which I hope isn’t disrespectful to the real people whose lives were changed forever or ended by that day, but rather an illustration of how far reaching and varied the effects were on people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Spencer intrigues me. Lily delights me. Like when I read The Bronze Horseman, and Tatiana and Alexander haunted my dreams for – years – while I wondered and waited (they have left me now because their story is done), so now sometimes I dream of Spencer and Lily. I was sure their story could not possibly be finished, so it’s good to read here that it might be the same for you too!
I love that they are still talking to you! Looking forward to the next instalment one day
Yay! I thought it was fantastic the waySpencer resurfaced in The Girl in Times Square. I can’t wait to see what you do with Lily and Spencer next, they were both incredibly interesting characters!
So so so glad to hear that you aren’t done with Spencer and Lily! Can’t wait to read more about them! <3
Really?? Oh my… I really do hope (please please please – do I sound like begging? LOL) that there’s a book coming out to tell the rest of their story. Gosh.. I remember buying it by chance in 2007 (??) here in Portugal and red it in a week or so. We’re on holidays and my mom told me I was going insane. Reading by the swimming pool, reading in the beach, reading in the airplane back home. I was 23 back then. I red it 4 more times since that first episode. I started to read it and see the images like a movie. (If there was a movie for this one, it was an Oscar nominee candidate for sure). But suddenly.. when I was in the last couple of pages, that sentence with the date strucked me. I stool still, I just couldn’t believe it! I didn’t go angry or anything, I just thought it was an IMPOSSIBLE situation. Why on Earth did she (you…
) wrote that??? What can of end is this? AHHHHHRRRRGGG! And for a while I expected a new book. Now I just wonder how can we change the end? What more terrible things could come after it? Or good things?? Do your best Paullina, but keep imagine Meryl Streep as Lily’s mother. 
All the best for 2012…
Claudia
… terribly sorry for the spelling mistakes: 1st I’m writing with my gloves on (freezing cold at my office), 2nd, writing fast brings mistakes.. as in Portuguese or English.. BAH..
* What can of end is this = What KIND of end…
and probably verbal conjugation with read.. paste tense = red???
Thanx…
I LOVE that you’re not done with Spencer and Lily!