I think belonging has so much more to do with how you see yourself than it ever has to do with how others see you. What do you hope the Waverley sisters books say on those subjects? What does it mean to belong? What does it take to accept yourself, warts and all? And it was an amazing experience.īelonging and accepting yourself are two themes woven into the Waverley family history. After I finished Lost Lake, I knew I wanted to return to something comforting, and I knew readers had been asking for this, so I returned to the world of the Waverleys in First Frost. It was hard getting back into that headspace.

The right time finally came after a particularly hard book to write, Lost Lake, which was the first book I wrote after taking a lenghty time off for cancer treatment. The idea of a next made me happy, so I filed away a story in the back of my head, and waited for the right time to write this book. But then readers started asking me what happened next.

When I wrote Garden Spells, my first book, I gave everyone a happy ending, and I thought that was that. What drew you back to Bascom in First Frost? What inspired you to return to Bay’s story? We spoke about the nature of belonging, magic, and writing. Addison Allen’s books feature a splendid use of magical realism that immerses us into the hearts and minds of her characters. In Sarah Addison Allen’s First Frost we return to Bascom, North Carolina, and the magical Waverly family first featured in Garden Spells.

First frost sarah addison