Sisterhood has been on Kate Myers’ mind lately.
The Annapolis-based author recently had her second daughter and released her second book, “Salty,” which is about two sisters navigating a complicated relationship. Though having another baby while writing a book was a “hormonal fever dream,” she tried to channel a lot of girl-mom energy into the writing process.
“Creating sisters has certainly been top of mind for me lately,” she said. “Having a baby in the middle of the writing process definitely inspired the story.”
Myers’ latest novel centers on uptight Denise and fun-loving Helen, who reconnect while working on a luxury yacht and plotting revenge on some shady local real estate developers. The story also explores the lifestyle of millionaires and their relationship with their employees as a luxury condo collapses and a dead body turns up beside it.
Myers will join The Banner Book Club on Wednesday at 6 p.m. to discuss “Salty” with us. We spoke to the author ahead of her visit to learn more about the inspiration for the story and how she approached writing her second book.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Setting a book in a yachting community and on boats is unique. How did you first come up with the idea for this novel?
I love the idea of a workplace that brings together all kinds of people from all walks of life. They get in over their head and into a bigger, greater adventure than they’re prepared for. They’re stuck with their coworkers, you know, people that you don’t necessarily ask to participate in a crisis with.
I also love the upstairs-downstairs relationship within the boating world, that you have the owners of the boats, the people that work on the boats, the passengers and the mechanics. It’s a fun social hierarchy.
I love the relationship between Helen and Denise in this novel, and how you can watch them grow together and reconnect. What inspired that?
I have a brother but always wanted a sister; it’s a pure fantasy on my part. Then having a second daughter while I wrote this book was so special.
The sisters in this book have a 10-year age gap, which is also something I wanted to explore. My husband and his brother are 10 years apart, so I also took inspiration from that. It’s interesting to see them as siblings over the years because they basically had completely different childhoods, just like the characters Denise and Helen.
The characters and their lives intersected in such interesting ways. How did you sketch out this book and organize all of the smaller storylines?
I’m a real organizer, which really helped.
I want to already know what’s going to happen so that I can focus on describing the setting or making a joke. I used Excel spreadsheets, index cards and whiteboards.
Speaking of humor, you did a great job of writing funny characters, which is not easy. How do you approach that?
I love a character who is out of their depth but don’t necessarily know it. They think they’re doing a great job and getting along, and it’s all going okay for them, but they really have no idea it’s going really badly for them.
It’s a really delicate dance to write someone who may not be the brightest because I don’t want to look down on them; I want them to be endearing.
I feel inspired by the Coen brothers [writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen] because they often pull that off in their films. They have people trying to do things all wrong and show how a very small person that’s part of a bigger system can really screw things up.
Your debut novel, “Excavations,” was a huge hit and is now being turned into a Peacock series starring Amy Poehler. How has your writing process evolved since “Excavations”?
With your first book, nobody’s asking for it so you can spend seven years on it, for example. You have a lot of time to make it weird and specific. The bar is very high for your first book because it’s hard to break into publishing.
This time was very different. I sold this book [“Salty”] during my book tour for “Excavations,” so I was on deadline and under contract.
I also have a baby, so I was a little bit crazed. But honestly, it was really powerful. I took so much inspiration from my daughters and creating sisters in real life. I channeled that into this book for sure.
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