Changes

Melissa Leet: When I close my eyes, I see most the expressions of my family and friends as they tell me what they liked (and disliked) about the novel. Eyes closed, I feel again the unexpectedness of having them share their interpretation of a passages passage from angles that I had never considered.

ML: I write to explore questions that are preoccupying me. In ''Landslide’s'' case, I consider the nature of resilience after catastrophic loss. By the time I started the novel, my mom and three close friends had died. My husband had also battled cancer. Before death (or hardship) came again -as it inevitably would given our aging ageing parents - I wanted to understand what death meant to me personally. While writing Landslide, we have lost two additional friends, and my husband’s entire nuclear family - father, mother and sister - all gone. While writing Landslide did not stop the pain of the subsequent passings, I believe it did help me face death with greater grace, presence and love.