In this exclusive interview, Career Authors sits down with The New York Times bestselling author Eileen Goudge, whose blockbuster page-turners have been gracing bookshelves for decades. Eileen is back with THE HOUSE ON MOUNTAIN LAUREL LANE, a wonderful story about a plucky widow who sets out to make her late husband’s dream come true–and ends up changing her own life in amazing ways.

1. What’s the title of your book—and was that always the title?

The title is The House on Mountain Laurel Lane. My original working title was A Hero Lives Here. I loved that title but it was nixed due to its military connotations.

2. Who’s the main character of your book—and was that always their name?

The MC is Jo Myers, who is first introduced in Book One of my Gold Creek series, All They Need to Know.  She’s always had that name but in The House on Mountain Laurel Lane, readers learn “Jo” is a derivative of JoEllen.

3. At the start of the book, what’s the character’s goal?

Jo is still recovering from the loss of her husband, Sean, nearly two years after his death. When Sean urges her in a posthumous video to buy the dream house they’d saved for, she sets out to honor his wish. Her goal is to start a new life without him, which seems daunting.

4. What was the core idea for this novel—a plot point? a theme?—and where did it come from?

Although I have not experienced the death of a spouse, I am no stranger to loss and could imagine what it would be like. Also, during the time I was writing The House on Mountain Laurel Lane, my husband, Sandy Kenyon, and I were physically separated—due to his job in New York City, which he was winding down while I was renovating our forever home in Sacramento, California—apart from visits back and forth. Tasks we had done as a team, I had to do myself. I was the project manager for our reno while I was writing a book. It was hard! It made think about what it would be like to be a widow, in terms of dealing with everyday life on one’s own. One of the widows I interviewed while I was researching the book described it as “hurtling through death debris.” Fortunately, my separation from my spouse was only temporary.

4. At what point did you come up with the final version of the first line?

Not until the final draft. I’m always revising. Sometimes this can be a bad thing. You risk overworking a manuscript and making it worse. Usually, it‘s a good thing. It’s when I kill my darlings. In the past I’ve been guilty of what Stephen King calls “literary elephantiasis.” Less is more!

One discipline I learned from writing YA novels is to hook ‘em with the first paragraph. Teenagers have a shorter attention span than most adults and will only read a book that doesn’t grab them if it’s assigned in school.

5. Did you know the ending of the book when you started?

I did, but the first draft had a different ending than the one in the final version. I changed it at the urging of my editors and am glad I did. I can’t say more without being a spoiler. I’ll leave it to the reader to guess how the ending might’ve been different.

6. What’s something in this book that you’ve never done before?

I wrote about an experience—widowhood—that no one who isn’t a widow or widower can truly know. I tried to honor the widows I interviewed while tapping into my own imagination.  I was inspired by their stories of how they created new lives for themselves as solo acts after devastating loss. One woman wrote a book about her experience, which she calls her “epic encore.”

7. What part of your tour (or launch week) are you most excited about?

In the early days of my career I used to go on physical book tours, which were exhausting. These days, I’m happy doing virtual tours. My favorite part of any book launch is interacting with my advance readers, many of them Bookstagrammers. They are the guardian saints of authors. They read and review our books out of sheer love of literature and not for monetary gain or recognition.  I tend to lose sight of whether a book is any good after multiple drafts. They validate my efforts when they praise my books. It tells me I wrote something worth reading after all.

8. Who in your #writing community deserves a special shout-out for supporting you in writing this story?

So many in my writing community have supported me, it’s tough to narrow it down to a few that stand out. But at the core of my community at large is my writers’ group, comprised of five other women—Samantha Bailey, Meredith Schorr, Jen Tucker, Julie Valerie, Francine Lasala, and Josie Brown. We call ourselves the Beach Babes because for years we used to meet every year at a beach house in California for a long weekend. The pandemic caused an interruption but we plan to do a reunion as soon as we can get everyone’s schedules lined up. These women are my rock and staunchest supporters, other than my husband, Sandy. And my agent, Paula Munier, naturally.

9. How do you want readers to feel when they close the book?

If I can make even one reader of The House on Mountain Laurel Lane feel hopeful about whatever situation she or he might be struggling with, after following my MC’s personal journey, I will know I’ve done my job.

10. What did you learn from this book?

I was reminded that life’s journeys are ever-evolving. The particular destinations we enter into our mental GPS systems are seldom where we end up. Life is constantly surprising us!

Eileen Goudge is The New York Times bestselling author of 20 novels, which have sold over 6 million copies worldwide. They include perennial reader favorites Garden of Lies, One Last Dance, Woman in Red, and her newly released title All They Need to Know.

Eileen draws from her own experiences in writing women’s fiction. She grew up as one of five sisters, has been married and divorced several times, and is the mother of two grown children. Hers is a Cinderella story. She was catapulted from poverty, as a struggling single mom, to overnight success with the publication of her first novel Garden of Lies. The recurring themes of  sister bonds, the joys and heartaches of romance, and reversals of fortune feature largely in her novels.

Eileen got her start as a ghostwriter for the popular teen series Sweet Valley High in the 1980’s. which went on to sell tens of millions of copies around the world, spawning a TV series and spinoffs.

She loves to cook but her passion is baking. Between cooking up plots for her novels she can often be found in her kitchen kneading bread or rolling out pie dough. In 2005 she published a cookbook, Something Warm from the Oven, filled with family recipes and recipes contributed by readers.

She lives in Sacramento, California with her husband, Sandy Kenyon, the former entertainment reporter and film critic for WABC-TV in New York City.  Visit www.eileengoudge.com to learn more about the author.