Gathering Lies
MIRA Books, April 2001
ISBN # 1-55166-807-6
A Gathering of Women . . . A Gathering of Dread . . . A Gathering of Lies . . .
Six women have come to Thornberry, a small writer's colony on a tiny island north of Seattle. They have come to work on their own writing at this secluded resort, but they have also come to hide, each harboring her own secret.
A devastating earthquake quickly shatters the haven these women have found. The resort is partly in ruin, communication has been cut off from the mainland, and the women are forced to rely on each other for basic survival. Then a man washes up on shore. Is he the salvation they've been looking for . . . or an even greater threat to their survival?
Sarah Lansing, former Seattle public defender, remains suspicious of the man - someone she loved in the past. And when another man arrives - this time a stranger - and one woman dies in an apparent accident, Sarah suspects that they are stuck on the island with a murderer. But which man poses the greatest threat? And, most importantly, which of the remaining women hides a secret so devastating that it could put all their lives in danger?
Question: How did Meg happen to write a book about a Seattle earthquake an entire year before the real one occurred? Is she psychic, or what?
When I speak in public, people always want to know where I get my ideas. It's a question most writers don't know how to answer. "They just come," we say lamely. "From the ether, maybe." Well, I pretty much know how I came up with the plot for GATHERING LIES. The thing is, I really wanted to write a sequel to I'LL LOVE YOU TILL I DIE, my most successful book to date in that it's still around after six years - in a time when most paperback originals have the shelf life, as they say, of a carton of yogurt. My then publisher incredibly let it fall out of print, so you can't get it through Amazon or in most bookstores. Still, it's been sold to France (as Erotica! How did that happen?), and can still be ordered from the Doubleday Book Club catalog here in the US. Well, given all this, it seemed to me a sequel and reissue of this book would be a great marketing scheme - but try convincing Marketing in any publishing house these days that an author's dreams can translate into sales!
Which left me with having to come up with a new idea, and quickly. A friend suggested I write about women at a writer's colony. That sounded nice - but maybe too nice. I'd spent three months at a writer's colony a few years ago, and though it was lovely, there wasn't much happening in the way of murder and mayhem.
On the other hand, I'd also spent three years in Los Angeles - and during those three years there were earthquakes, fires, floods, and riots. The fires, floods and riots didn't leave me with nightmares, but the earthquakes sure did. Not to mention that I'd been through the San Francisco quake in '89, too. After that, I'd developed an interest in earthquakes in general, and I'd been researching them for years - largely in an attempt to exorcise them for my mind; throw light on the subject to dilute the fear.
So . . . take five women, put them on an isolated island in the San Juans north of Seattle, and throw in a Seattle quake - (sorry!) - to shake things up.
Little did I know that just two weeks before GATHERING LIES hit the shelves, a real quake would hit Seattle. I live north of that dear city myself, and the morning the quake struck, I was at my computer e-mailing with several other MIRA authors for the first time. They'd asked me to tell them something about my work, and I sort of off-handedly told them that in my latest book, due to come out April 1, I'd destroyed Seattle in a devastating quake. Then I went to take my shower. I was in the shower, stark naked and all soaped up, when everything started to rock and roll. An old hand at this by now, I got out of the shower as calmly as possible, struggled to get clothes over my soap-scummy body, and went back to my computer. In that short amount of time, several e-mails had come through from my fellow writers saying, in effect, "Wow, Meg, you sure write mighty powerful fiction!"
And that's how it came about that half my friends think I'm psychic, now . . . while the other half wonder if I somehow mysteriously caused the Seattle quake by writing about it. I sure don't know. But if pressed, I'll be happy to claim that I caused it, if only because I love a good mystery.
Oh, and by the way, my current book-in-progress is set in a nicely recovered Seattle, a year after the quake. Also, I've deep-sixed the plot I had in mind about Mt. Rainier erupting. We've had enough excitement around here for awhile!
"The women are faced with the task of relying on each other and surviving. This is a must read book for one and all. The author holds her audience in suspense, wanting to know what is going to happen next. "
Rendezvous, February 2001
"Riveting, sharp...sure to keep you guessing" is how our staff reader described this hot new hit from the author of Club favorite 'I'll Love You Till I Die'.
Doubleday Book Club
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