Charleston author Alexander releases Mean Low Water

Charleston-based author Stephanie Alexander’s new book, Mean Low Water, follows a psychic divorce attorney whose seemingly perfect life in the Lowcountry is upended by the reemergence of her first love. The novel, which takes some inspiration from the author’s life combined with elements of magical realism, takes a hard look at a moment that its author said women in their mid-30s especially will understand.

“The message of this book is related to how we process things in this kind of midlife era,” Alexander said. “So many women get to the point in their mid 30s where you’re like, ‘Whoa, what am I doing here? What is happening in my life, what needs to change, what do I need to do next?’ I feel like it’s a time frame that everybody kind of bumps up against eventually. This novel is asking, How do we deal with that? How does our past, and the relationships we’ve had, inform that pivotal point?”

In Mean Low Water, a spin-off of Alexander’s magic-inspired, Charleston-based Tipsy Collins series, attorney Lisa “LeeLee” Lightstone Moretz seems to have it all — a beautiful family, a successful career and a coveted South of Broad address — but underneath the tranquil surface, her marriage is crumbling. Then, she runs into her first love, a recovering addict, and is catapulted into the missing person case of her estranged best friend Ginny Blankenship.

The story unfolds in a dual timeline narrative, alternating between LeeLee’s and Ginny’s individual perspectives over the course of two decades.

“LeeLee’s and Ginny’s deep connection is rooted in their shared psychic ability to see into the past and the future,” Alexander said. “Ginny pushes the limits of her psychic powers, while LeeLee stifles hers. Their differing approaches to this unique commonality — and a torrid small town love triangle — ultimately strain their friendship and lead to divergent life trajectories.”

Alexander added, “At its heart, Mean Low Water is about the power of lifelong relationships.”

Real life inspirations

Outside of her work as an author, Alexander is also a family court attorney. She said her time in the courtroom and her own divorce experience inform Mean Low Water and its protagonists.

“When confronted with her own marriage crisis, LeeLee must reflect on her past relationships and how they shaped her present conundrums,” Alexander said. “As an attorney, I’ve observed similar dynamics many times with clients, and even experienced them myself during my own divorce. In the meantime, Ginny is facing her own midlife strife and reexamining her choices … Through this process, both women reach life-changing conclusions.”

Another inspiration point, Alexander said, were the lifelong friendships she made starting as a freshman at the College of Charleston in 1996 (where she later served as an Adjunct Professor of Sociology).

“I didn’t know anyone, and I was kind of the outlier not being from the South. My random roommate, a girl from Walterboro, South Carolina — she and her hometown friends just really embraced me. I fell in love with these people and their intense, small town friendships. … I wanted to write about that.”

Since moving back to Charleston in 2011, Alexander has authored eight novels, all of which fall under the umbrella of magical realism. She said she makes “book club friendly stories for thoughtful, modern women.” It’s important to Alexander that her work always features strong female protagonists and relatable emotional journeys alongside a dash of the supernatural.

Part of her commitment to telling womens’ stories, she said, comes from her time as a policy associate at the International Center for Research on Women. And part of her fascination with magic comes from her childhood spent devouring the work of Stephen King.

“What Stephen King does so well is weave these speculative elements into a narrative that is very familiar, and characters that feel extremely relatable, even though they have all these crazy, supernatural things happening to them. So even in my Cracked Slipper series, which is a fairytale retelling, kind of Game of Thrones — meets — Bridgerton, the problems that my characters have are very relatable. They deal with patriarchy, with judgment, with making bad decisions.”

One of the issues that Alexander’s characters tackle in Mean Low Water is addiction.

“LeeLee’s first love is dealing with alcoholism and opioid addiction. That was something I also wanted to kind of look at in this book, because I’m reflecting on my high school and college experiences, and I saw a lot of people get dragged into that really before it was this big conversation.”

The resulting story, Alexander said, contains a nuanced mix of darker themes like addiction, domestic violence and divorce alongside shades of romance, nostalgia and friendship.

“Something I’m really proud of is that a lot of people have said they did not see the ending coming,” Alexander shared. “I was taking a little bit of a risk by covering some darker, heavier themes. But I’m really fascinated by the morally gray situations. And people really say they love the characters, that the characters feel real … All my characters and books are special to me. But I’m really proud of this story.”

Learn more at stephaniealexanderbooks.com. Find Mean Low Water, on Amazon, paperback $14.99 or kindle $9.99.