Zu Vincent

by Zu Vincent

Isabelle Allende calls writing “an exercise in nostalgia,” a long, slow dance in an ever-widening circle of memory. I like that. I think we forge the details of this dance from love and longing, remembered place and the rub of character against character.

The idea for my novel The Lucky Place was sparked by an early memory about a white horse. When my mom would see this white horse in the field near our home, she’d lick her thumb and stamp it on her palm for luck. As a child I was sure this would work, and that our family would stay charmed forever.

But no family stays charmed forever. And in The Lucky Place, I wanted to write about what happens when this early magical belief meets reality. So I created Cassie and Jamie, threw them into a messy family relationship and watched their story unfold.