Emma is the star, but in her marriage she has to become smaller and smaller to cater to her husband’s failures. So, I wanted to explore that with the Dunhams. We’re professionals at the untaken compliment. I wanted to explore why we, as women, are very comfortable hiding our light under a barrel so as to talk up someone else. So, he became this failed novelist who took out all of his frustrations on his far more successful wife. Liza Palmer: I knew Jamie Dunham was going to be a killer, but in the beginning he was going to be this big, hulking guy and I thought… no, let’s make his power over Emma be purely psychological. Who am I kidding? SheKnows: What gave you the idea to write Emma’s husband as a killer? I think in my 20s, even into my 30s, I would have given anything to switch places with any number of women I perceived to be perfect. When someone who seems effortlessly perfect is actually the opposite - and how her silence is partly our fault. And More Like Her is about what happens in the extreme. Unfortunately with women, being human makes you a target. Why are we so competitive? What mystique do we think will be shattered if we admit raising kids is hard? Or maybe you’re having a rough patch in your marriage - or maybe you fear you married the wrong guy? Why can’t we say these things without other women relishing in the cracks of our lives showing. According to the other women in the PTA, the Junior League or just your local coffee shop, their marriages are blissful and raising their children is akin to seeing a double rainbow.

That poor starlet hasn’t had a cheeseburger in decades. We’ve all heard celebrities intone the usual rhetoric: They dropped all the pregnancy weight just by “chasing the baby” and that stick figure starlet “loves cheeseburgers!” Not true. Liza Palmer: I wrote More Like Her because, for some reason, women have to be effortless in their pursuit of perfection.

Where did the idea for this story come from? And is there any woman who you have wanted to trade lives with, even for just a day? SheKnows: Your latest novel, More Like Her, showcases Emma as an enviable woman to her friends.

More like her by liza palmer