After spending over a decade in the marketing and advertising industry as a copywriter, Heather Dixon began a freelance career writing for businesses, as well as writing content for top parenting sites such as Red Tricycle and Pregnant Chicken. Her writing has appeared in a number of established sites, including Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, Motherly, SavvyMom and others. She has appeared on CBC radio and in print in the Globe and Mail. She lives just outside of Toronto, Ontario with her husband, her three young daughters and her Bouvier, Zoey.
Her debut crime novel, Burlington, asks, "What happens to the mean girls when they grow up?" In Burlington, they become a clique of alpha moms at the gates of their children's posh elementary school that Mae Roberts only stumbles into when they decide to accept the new mom in their fancy suburban neighborhood. And everything seems peachy keen until Mae begins slipping more deeper into a world of odd dinner parties, secrets, and rumors of suicide attempts. It's only when one of the Riverpark moms disappears, and then another, that Mae must decide what's more important—fitting in or uncovering the truth. A fresh take on belonging, obsession, and schoolyard politics, Burlington is a suspenseful debut novel that explores the exclusive world of wealthy mothers and demonstrates how privilege can come at a devastating price.
Heather Dixon stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about writing and researching the novel:
My debut novel could probably be best categorized as book club fiction with elements of suspense. It’s called Burlington and it’s about a mother who moves to a new neighborhood in search of a better life. Only, once there, she gets caught up in the drama and the lives of the rich and beautiful school moms. I’ve been told it definitely gives off Big Little Lies vibes, which is great because I love Liane Moriarty.
When it comes to research, my main way to prepare for writing a novel is to read books that I think might be in the same genre or cover similar themes. I know some writers can’t read similar books when drafting, but I find it inspiring. In this case, I read both thriller books and domestic suspense novels to help me get a feel for the plotting and pacing. I wanted to make sure I was writing a page-turning novel, so I went right to the source and read all I could.
Then, after getting through the first draft, I usually go online to find all the little details I might not know about the setting. For Burlington, I searched things like what kind of trees grow in Vermont, what their local newspaper is called, what the homes look like. I also love using Google Earth to get in close and get real pictures of specific things. My book is contemporary fiction, so it was fairly simple for me to find answers to my questions, because I didn’t need to know what trees grew in Vermont 30 or 40 years ago, for example.
The other thing I’ve found extremely helpful is to reach out to professionals and ask questions. For another book I was writing, I needed to know if a spouse could legally take all of their joint savings out of a certain account without needing approval from the other spouse. I asked to speak to a financial advisor who was more than willing to answer all my questions. In fact, I think he kind of wanted to be a character in the book! For Burlington, I knew of someone who used to live in Vermont, so I reached out to her to ask specific questions about the area. I sometimes worried about bothering people, but I’ve found that most people don’t mind answering questions at all, especially when it’s for a book.
For a while, I tried to stick with the “write what you know” advice, but I find that quite limiting. With a combination of both internet research, real images to look at, and help from experts or people living in the area, I’ve found you can paint a real and detailed picture, which is so important. Even if you don’t end up going into detail on the page about what kind of tree someone is walking past, I think it’s important for yourself to have the entire picture before you can start crafting the world around your characters.
You can learn more about Heather and her writing via her website and also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Burlington is now available via all major booksellers.
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