When I created the fictional world of Mirror Lake for For Sale: A Summertime Cottage with a Lifetime of Memories, I wasn’t starting from nothing. The lake may not exist on any map, but it was shaped by the very real places that marked different seasons of my life. Each lake I’ve spent time on—Lake Winnipesaukee, Lake George, and Squam Lake—left its own impression on me, and pieces of each one found their way into the novel.
These lakes are part of why Mirror Lake feels so vivid. They shaped my childhood, my young adulthood, and even my most recent years. In many ways, Mirror Lake is a blend of them all.
Lake Winnipesaukee: The Summers That Started It All
As a child my family would spend 2 weeks every summer at Lake Winnipesaukee. Those early years made a lasting impression on me—the long docks, the cool morning air, the sound of boats cutting across the water in the distance. It was a kind of freedom and simplicity you don’t fully appreciate until you’re older.
Those memories stayed with me. Every time I wrote about Olivia walking down to the water or noticing the stillness of the lake at dawn, part of me was remembering Winnipesaukee. The lake had a way of holding onto moments, big and small, and that feeling became one of the foundations of Mirror Lake.
Lake George: Friendships, Traditions, and a New Chapter of Life
Later, when I got older and married, my husband and I visited Lake George many times. Those trips were different—adult vacations, new experiences, and new people. We met wonderful friends there, friendships that grew out of a shared love for the lake and the time spent around it.
Lake George has its own personality—lively, warm, and full of stories. Some of the community feeling in Mirror Lake, the sense that neighbors and visitors cross paths summer after summer, came from those visits. The friendships we made there, and the joy that lake brought us, helped me understand how lakes become woven into people’s lives.
Squam Lake: Beauty, Peace, and a Touch of Hollywood History
My nephew and his family have a summer place on Squam Lake—one of the most peaceful and naturally beautiful lakes in New England. Squam is famous for being the filming location of On Golden Pond, and the moment you arrive, you understand why. The quiet. The scenery. The almost untouched feel of the shoreline.
There’s something cinematic about Squam. The tranquility, the surrounding pines, the soft light—it all feels like a story waiting to be told. The calm, reflective quality of Mirror Lake came, in part, from the few times I visited Squam Lake.
How These Lakes Became Mirror Lake
Mirror Lake is fictional, but its emotions are real.
From Winnipesaukee, it borrowed childhood wonder.
From Lake George, it inherited friendship, energy, and connection.
From Squam, it gained beauty, depth, and a peace you could only imagine.
These lakes taught me that places can carry memories just as strongly as people do. They shape us, comfort us, and call us back, even years later. That idea became the backbone of For Sale: a lake that holds a lifetime of stories, waiting to be revisited.
Even though Mirror Lake exists only in the pages of the book, it’s built from real lakes that will always be part of my life. And maybe that’s why readers tell me the setting feels familiar—as if they, too, have been there before.
