5 Fabulous Minutes With: Nicola Harrison

Her new novel Hotel Laguna Comes Out Today!

Does anyone remember Nicola Harrison’s debut book Montauk? I read it years ago and loved the story of a young woman named Bea who thinks she’s visiting the seaside community of Montauk to get closer to her husband. Instead, she finds herself stuck with the other society wives staying at the Montauk Manor that summer. She befriends the hotel’s laundress—and ultimately, finds true love, and I’m probably summing this up wrong, but all you need to know is this: Montauk hooked me from the start, and I’ve thought of Nicola’s Montauk lighthouse keeper character many times over the years.

When I saw that Nicola had a third novel coming out, this one set on the West Coast and called Hotel Laguna, I immediately wanted to know more! (She wrote a second novel called The Show Girl two years ago.) Hotel Laguna centers on Hazel Francis, who leaves Wichita, Kansas for California, determined to do her part for the war effort by becoming one of the many “Rosie the Riveters.” But when the war effort ends, she struggles with finding her purpose and remains on the west coast, falling in with artists and bohemians of the era. The novel follows her as she tries to understand where she truly belongs.

I love this particular kind of historical bildungsroman, and I love Nicola’s characters. They’re often regular girls who find themselves in the heart of society —and grapple with whether that world is right for them. I can’t wait to read more about Hazel, and we can all go get our copy because the novel releases TODAY!

Here, Nicola was kind enough to answer my questions about her writing process. In case you’re wondering what she’s like as a person, I can tell you: She’s an absolute doll.

Your last two novels were set on the East Coast. What made you set your story in Southern California? 
It was the early 2020 when I first started thinking about this book and we were planning a move to Southern California to be closer to family. When the pandemic hit I really thought it would halt our plans, so in some ways I set this novel on the West Coast as a way to manifest a move back to California. Also, with everything feeling so uncertain in those days, I wanted to escape to a place (at least in my imagination) that I knew and loved. I lived in Laguna Beach for a few years after college – it was the first time I had no roommates, a real job and my first taste of independence, and I wanted to dream up scenes and adventures with quirky, artsy characters all living their lives in this beautiful, bohemian town.

How did writing this novel differ from your previous two? What was the most challenging part to write and why? 
There were two aspects of the plot that I wanted to meld together - Hazel’s time working at Douglas Aircraft to help build airplanes for the military during WWII, and her time after the war where she’s grasping for a sense of purpose (and love) while getting caught up in the art world in Laguna. My biggest challenge was making sure I could seamlessly take the reader from the “before” days to the “after” days.

Which scene in the book did you work the hardest on and are you happy with the way it turned out? What do you hope readers take away from it? 
There’s a scene where Hazel and her artist boss Hanson have a bonding moment at Victoria Beach. We see Hanson as a father figure to Hazel and she has an eruption of emotion where she faces some deep-seated feelings about her own father. It was really important for me to get this scene right because when a person bottles up their feelings and fears for a long time it can all come pouring out of them at the most unexpected time. In the end I love how this scene turned out. It’s my hope that readers feel compassion for Hazel and really get to the heart of who she is and who she is becoming.

What was the most interesting piece of research you discovered while writing this book? What would surprise readers? 
I became fascinated with the 19 million women who took on jobs that had never been available to them before, and they excelled. It was so interesting to interview real life “Rosies” (they were 90, 95 and almost 102 when I saw them last) and hear them speak about their experiences building airplanes, using huge machinery, hydraulic presses and rivet guns, and receiving specialized training usually reserved only for men. I mean, what a feeling to have this whole world opened up to them, and have it taken away just as quickly when the war was over.

From Brooke: Yes, I’ve done similar research, and I find that especially demeaning for women. They were given the right to work on newspapers, play on ball teams, build planes, etc, but only as long as the men were gone. It’s interesting how they were forced back into the home and there was an entire campaign to convince them that is where they would be happiest.

Lastly, who did you dedicate this book to -- and why? 
I dedicated it to my parents because they are both artists and have exhibited in the galleries and art festivals in Laguna Beach. I learned a lot from them about painting, about the art world in Laguna (and plenty of behind-the-scenes scoop) that helped to bring this book to life.

From Brooke: That is so cool! I had no idea — and thought you were an East Coast girl! I love when our pasts stick their necks up into our stories. :)