About halfway through Louise Marburg’s debut novel, Fancy Meeting You, the protagonist, Laura Harrington is at a dinner party seated next to an alpha male. She asks him about himself, an act akin to “offering a goat to a lion.” He is delighted to spend the next ten minutes monologuing withou t any reciprocal interest. The situation here is so relatable, I was nodding—then cheering— as I read. Laura’s response enacts a fantasy I have had more than once: “When people talk it’s a back-and-forth dialogue,” she tells him frankly. “You can’t be completely self-absorbed.” Everyone else at the table stops to watch the drama, but that doesn’t stop Laura. This is the kind of unapologetic boldness that makes the novel both entertaining and relevant—as Laura finds herself in scenarios that will be familiar to many readers, especially women, she says and does the things so many of us are afraid to say and do. Laura does come across as a bit of a disaster: she drinks too much, avoids hard work, lies for no reason at all, and is totally comfortable with being an underachiever. But she is also warm and brave and funny. Over the course of her fiftieth year, she meets a range of characters who, in a variety of unexpected ways, help her understand more about herself and what she really wants out of life. Louise Marburg, a native of Baltimore like her heroine, shared more about Fancy Meeting You in the interview below. Baltimore Fishbowl: You have written three previous books, all of which were collections of short stories. Fancy Meeting You is your first novel. Could you talk about the differences in writing in the two genres?  Louise Marburg: Fancy Meeting You began as a story that I assumed would be like all my stories, singular. When I finish a story, I am truly done with it and move on, but this was different. Laura captivated me and so I continued writing about her, and that was the first time I’d done such a thing! As you may have noticed, the novel is very episodic and I think that structure speaks to my love of stories; some of the initial chapters could really stand alone, though the narrative does quickly become much more linked and the reader wouldn’t understand what’s going on if they dove straight into the middle.  BFB: While the tone of the novel is light and it has lots of humor, it also addresses many of the stereotypes to which women – especially women in middle age – are expected to adhere. Was it your intention to tackle some of those issues?  LM: It was absolutely my intention. In our society the value of a woman is judged by motherhood and marriage, and I think that’s both sad and enraging. A man—such as Laura’s hapless mime brother—can never marry and reproduce and that’s just fine, nobody looks askance at him. Laura also fails to have a career even though she’s well educated. As she says she is “famously” unable to meet people’s expectations. She is reprehensible in many ways, but she is a free spirit and admirable for being so, I think. She is her own woman from page one and continued to be so throughout.  BFB: Laura may be flawed, but she is also quite self-aware. How did your sense of her develop over the course of your writing? Was there anything that surprised you about her? LM: From the beginning Laura surprised me at every turn and what a joy she was to write because of it! I love being surprised by my characters. I didn’t set out to write a character that is SO bad, a liar and an alcoholic, selfish, profane, bold as brass. But as you probably noticed, she lied and drank too much from the first chapter. I didn’t plan that. She insisted. BFB: Laura’s growth as a character is subtle, and while the novel initially seems to have much in common with romantic comedies, it doesn’t follow the traditional trajectory of books in that genre. Did you set out to subvert the standard?  LM: I don’t think of Fancy Meeting You as a romantic comedy but I guess it is? Maybe? I didn’t set out to write in any genre or any way in particular. I never do. I’m a “pantser” rather than a “planner.” I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen from one moment to the next. You’d think I planned the ending, right? But I didn’t! So it definitely happened organically.  BFB: The novel follows Laura over a year – from her fiftieth to her fifty-first birthday. Was this structure something you knew about the book when you began writing it, or did you figure out that format later? LM: No, I didn’t plan the structure until much later, quite near to the end. And it’s pretty loose; the chapters aren’t strictly month by month. It was my editor’s idea to title the chapters by dates, which I like. I think it makes the passage of time more obvious. Laura doesn’t like getting older—she says at one point that she’s as hot as a twenty-five-year-old and admits she likes to dress as one. So, it made sense that she should be barreling reluctantly toward another year. I won’t give it away, but she manages to avoid the fact that a year has passed at her best friend’s suggestion. BFB: The novel contains so much wonderful Baltimore texture! Eddie’s Market, Octavia Boutique, the Towson Mall, neighborhoods including Guilford and Fells Point, and a bar called the Chicken Box that reminds me of a few dives I’ve been to (I’m dying to know if there is a particular bar you had in mind!) LM: I’m always shy of placing stories and mostly I don’t, they usually exist in a nebulous land. I wasn’t entirely aware that I was writing a strongly Baltimore book, to be honest. I put Laura in Baltimore because I know the city and I wanted her to live in a place that’s relatively unglamorous—her job is also unglamorous (very!). I haven’t lived in Baltimore in many, many years, and it may be quite glamorous now, but when I was growing up it was incredibly provincial. I was just there for a conference and wow, has it changed!  The bar I was thinking of is Alonso’s on Cold Spring Lane. I’ve never been inside, so that part is invented. My father used to stop there to buy cigarettes and maybe a six pack (I can’t swear to the beer). From the car I’d watch him go through the door and it seemed very dark inside, and the building that housed it rundown. It was a sketchy place to my mind, the kind of bar where people could get a drink before noon. I wish I’d made up the name “Chicken Box,” but it came from a roadhouse on Nantucket Island that I think isn’t there anymore. I always thought the name was hilarious. * Fancy Meeting You will be out from Blair on June 2, 2026. For more information, buy links, and events (none local, sadly), visit louisemarburg.com. ...read more read less