Christi Clancy on Her Most Recent Novel, USA Today Bestseller The Snowbirds
"I try to write about people who feel real—flawed, complicated, and not always lovable."
Writing prompt: Write a scene or series of scenes that take(s) place at a department store. Maybe your POV character is searching for an item they’re reluctantly buying for someone else. Maybe they’re shopping the sales racks and overhear a funny exchange. The possibilities of course are multitudinous. Include strong sensory details and concrete imagery.
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Two spaces remain in the April 26-May 2, 2026 retreat I’m leading for Foreword Retreats in Bordeaux, France. More details here.
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Earlier this summer I read Christi Clancy’s new novel, The Snowbirds, which centers on a harrowing mountain rescue, but is also a generous and wise (and often very funny) exploration of long-term domesticity and parenthood. Perhaps above all, however, it’s a love letter to Palm Springs past and present.
Since Christi and I met about a decade ago at a reading for Pleiades literary magazine in Chicago at the Book Cellar (hosted by erstwhile Pleiades fiction editor and novelist Phong Nguyen—whose most recent novel, Bronze Drum, is a remarkable work of historical fiction), my admiration for Christi’s work has only grown.
Despite her busy summer (which included a move from Madison to Chicago), she found time to answer my questions about her new book.
Christine/Bookish: The Snowbirds’ main characters, longtime couple Kim and Grant, are memorably drawn—rich with contradictions and complexity. How did you balance humor, tension, and vulnerability in their characterization?
Christina Clancy: I try to write about people who feel real—flawed, complicated, and not always lovable. Fiction feels like a place where we can explore the darker sides of our personalities, from the transgressive thoughts you shouldn’t voice aloud to the secrets that are better kept than aired.
Because Kim and Grant have a hard time making themselves vulnerable to each other, I decided to write the book (after lots of switching around) in first person, so the reader could access Kim’s inner thoughts. I’ve found that it’s easier to use humor in the first person. The language isn’t as elevated, and wild behavior can upset Kim’s Midwestern sensibility.
Also, it was fun to write a book with a kaleidoscopic view of a relationship. We’re heavily influenced by the way we are seen by others, and we compare ourselves to standards from personal experience and popular culture. What’s a healthy midlife relationship? What boundaries are healthy? Who knows.
CS: The novel's focal point is Grant's disappearance on a solo hike on New Year's Day. You doubtless did extensive research on how to safely hike (if that's possible!) in the mountains and on the ranges closest to Palm Springs. Would you talk a bit about this?
CC: So much of my research involved hikes. I love to head out to the San Jacinto mountains when I’m in Palm Springs and see where the trails take me.
I met a man in our condo complex who went missing for three days and survived. Although I was interested in his story, I was captivated by his wife’s account of waiting for news of his whereabouts. I got to know volunteers with the Palm Springs Mounted Police and was fascinated by the lengths people go to find a missing hiker. It’s very life-affirming.
I also interviewed a hard-core explorer who travels to old mines and trails that most people can’t get to. He told me about the danger in those more remote places, as well as the sorts of things he’d find, like old spoons and soda cans.
CS: How does this novel fit into the themes of your previous novels, The Second Home and Shoulder Season?
CC: My characters are always trying to figure out where home is. In The Second Home, an antique salt box on Cape Cod is the place where they’ve felt they’ve been their best, most authentic selves. When the future of the house is in jeopardy, they wonder if they will remain a family without this “container” of memories.
In Shoulder Season, my character Sherri returns to the small town where she grew up and needs to come to terms with the mistakes she made there when she was young. That’s a book about leaving home and coming to peace with your past.
The Snowbirds asks whether a place can change you. Will Kim and Grant be more lighthearted and fun in a sunny place? Is it easier to solve your problems when you take yourself out of your familiar context?
I was also questioning if you can live fully in another place without feeling like you abandoned the place you came from. That’s something I struggle with when I divide my time between two different locales. Would our communities and our personal ties be stronger if we stayed put?
CS: There are so many interesting facts about Palm Springs and its history in this novel, as well as the lively, free-wheeling culture (I loved your colorful supporting characters, the Husbands, Cassie, Coco, Hobie, Melody, Gene, and Jeanie). What did your research consist of?
CC: A lot of my research came through osmosis. We’ve spent a lot of time in Palm Springs and decided to buy a condo in 2020. While I couldn’t write about the city with the knowledge of a born-and-bred resident, I could write about what it’s like to be a snowbird. That said, I felt it was incumbent upon me to learn as much as possible about a place I planned to write about, so I read books, talked to local historians, and interviewed locals.
I also had a chance to visit Smoke Tree Ranch and learn about the early days in Palm Springs, and I toured boutique hotels as part of Modernism. I visited Desert Hot Springs, Joshua Tree, and more far-flung destinations in order to contextualize Palm Springs in the Coachella Valley.
I met lots of interesting people, including a former fashion designer, a stylist, a shaman, and some gay friends who took me to gay bars and shared their knowledge of the Palm Springs social scene. I couldn’t have written this novel without them.
CS: What are you working on now?
CC: I took a break from writing after I finished The Snowbirds to cleanse my palette. I’ve been enjoying this new time to mess around with a novel that keeps changing and mutating. I’m letting it lead the way, which is why discussing it makes me feel nervous, because it might end up being different than what I think it’s going to be about now.
That said, it’s set at least partially in Denver, where I’m from, and it looks like it’ll also have some scenes back on Cape Cod.
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Along with The Snowbirds, Christi Clancy is the author of the novels The Second Home and Shoulder Season. Her writing has also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Sun magazine, and in various literary journals. She splits her time between the Midwest and Palm Springs.
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Fiction writers & aspiring novelists: Beginning Monday, 9/22, I'll be teaching a 10-week online introductory novel workshop for Stanford Continuing Studies. More information and registration portal here.
Super interesting post, as always, Christine.
I wish I could join your workshop in France.