It's hard to imagine anything worse for a parent than the loss of a child, but that's the nightmare heroine Ellen Banks finds herself facing one perfect summer day. In Judy Larsen's new novel, " All The Numbers", she explores both the depths and heights of the human soul - the thirst for revenge and the ability to recover from unimaginable loss.

Here's our interview with Ms. Larsen:

1) What was the inspiration for your book?

Well, I was sitting on a dock at a lake in Wisconsin with my best friend,  Her girls and my sons were playing in the water and a jet skier went by.  And I just started thinking, "What if?"  What if the kids had been out too far?  What if the jet skier hadn't been paying attention?  What would that do to me as a mother, as a friend?  The story flowed from there.  I think, in a way, I'd been writing it ever since my kids were born.  That's the biggest fear for most parents--losing a child.  So I explored it through my character.

2) What are you working on right now?

I’m deep into what I hope will be my next novel--through two different narrative lines, one set in the present and the other set between 1958-1971 it explores how women are too often defined by others’ expectations and judgments, rather than by themselves and their dreams.  I'm calling it Unexpected Grace. 

3) What is something about you that your readers don't know?

Hmm.  Probably that I'm distantly related to the only person ever convicted of cannibalism in the United States.  That doesn't come up very often.

 

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