A Conversation with Paula Treick DeBoard

The novel deals with female friendship, sexual assault and political scandal. Why did you decide to bring these three elements together to form the narrative? What was your inspiration for this story?

I’ve learned that with most of the things I write, the end product isn’t what I initially envisioned. Somewhere over the course of writing the first draft of this book and letting the characters really speak to me, the story that I planned changed. I initially envisioned these two very different girls as college roommates driven apart and reunited years later, but the idea of a sexually charged political scandal only came to me later. I’m an avid news watcher and an obsessive news reader, and some of what I was watching and reading sneaked into my story as I was going. The more I wrote about Lauren and Megan, the more some of this story line felt natural and even necessary for me to write.

The relationship between Megan and Lauren is complicated and intense. They love each other but they also get frustrated, jealous and angry with each other. Can you speak to their dynamics? Did you draw on your own female friendships?

I’ve dedicated this book to my sisters and my female friends, who have blessed my life in immeasurable ways. As I grow older, I value these relationships more than ever, which is not to say that friendship can’t be full of complexities. Megan and Lauren are young, and due to the events of the book, their relationship doesn’t get the chance to grow and change, and they don’t get to experience each other at different stages of life. Thankfully, my friends and I are over the drama stages—mostly we cheer each other on and comfort each other when things don’t go well, and find new ways to make each other laugh.

Here We Lie is told in alternating first-person perspectives and moves between the past and present. Why did you choose to narrate the story this way?

I thought it was very important for each of the main characters to have a voice in the story. I liked that Megan and Lauren came from such different backgrounds and as a result saw the world in such different ways. In my early drafts, I focused on the years they were in college, and later it was fun to craft their lives fourteen years down the road. They did get to have a mini college reunion, only not under the best of circumstances. I wanted the time gap to represent the ways that our words and actions have consequences, sometimes resulting in years of hurt and resentment.

The book is set in a private all-girls college in New England. Why did you choose to do this? Have you personally experienced this type of setting? What did you draw upon to create this world?

I attended a private liberal arts school in Iowa—not an all-girls school, but one that at times did feel secluded from the rest of the world. Keale is mostly a product of my imagination, but it’s an imagination formed by reading and watching and listening, and I hope the result is a place that feels authentic. It wasn’t until I was in college, on my own and more than a thousand miles from my family, that I really began to think for myself and learn who I was and what I was capable of doing. I wanted Megan and Lauren to have these realizations, too, although they came to them in somewhat different and more challenging ways. I can also vouch for the fact that the friends you meet in college can be your friends for life, even when you live in different countries and communicate via social media. That’s how it is with my good friend Sarah. We went “potluck” as roommates our freshman year, lived together for four years without managing to kill each other and still keep in touch.

Lauren feels like an outsider in her family and is deeply against following the traditional Mabrey path. What did you seek to explore through Lauren’s attitude and disregard for her family’s ideals and values?

In my mind, Lauren just wanted a “regular” family. Most of the time in this book, she’s blind to the privileges that come with wealth and connections, and she just wishes she could have a life where she doesn’t have to live up to the expectations of others. It might not be easy to have sympathy for a character like Lauren when there are so many people struggling against very real challenges, but she represents what it’s like to grow up in a politically charged pressure cooker. Ultimately, she’s rejecting not just her family but being inauthentic; ironically, that’s part of what draws her to people like Megan and Joe.

It’s revealed early in the story that Megan feels she is responsible for helping her father die, and this weighs heavily on her mind. Where did this idea come from? Do you know anyone who has had to live with such a secret?

I’ve known many family members and friends whose lives have been affected by cancer, and I struggle with the idea of a medical system that prolongs life beyond what might be natural and at great cost to patients and their loved ones. While I was writing the first chapter about Megan and her father, I found myself wrapped up in their situation. Megan wrestles with a terrible sort of moral complexity there, and ultimately, that’s a burden that stays with her over the years. I haven’t experienced a situation like this myself, and don’t know of others who have—but I do know that we all carry secrets and burdens, and those do have a way of sticking with us and shaping the people we become.