Local resident and writer Andrea Zimmermann spoke at the Newtown Woman’s Club’s annual spring Meet the Author event at Newtown Country Club on April 9. The gathering celebrated her latest novel, A Legacy of Lies: A Rock Ridge Mystery.

After everyone in attendance enjoyed a catered lunch, Zimmermann talked about her personal and professional background that led her to create her most recent book.

She explained how throughout her life, her father, mother, and older sister Roberta had a positive impact on her creative endeavors and that they were always supportive of her.

About 30 years ago, Zimmermann followed Roberta to Newtown and began working at The Newtown Bee.

“Working at The Bee was such a pleasure,” she said. “As a feature writer I interviewed so many people — a huge cross section of town — and met such interesting people.”

Zimmermann went on to be a freelance writer for regional magazines and newspapers including The New York Times’s Connecticut weekly section.

“I loved writing for The New York Times. It was really high profile, and I got a chance to choose my subjects,” she said.

After doing that for five years, she took a job at C.H. Booth Library and got a master’s in library sciences for a second career.

“All that time, I was writing,” Zimmermann noted.

She wrote three local history books, did grant writing, and spent ten years interviewing people for the Oral History of Newtown series with Town Historian Dan Cruson and Mary Maki.

When she transitioned from nonfiction to fiction writing, she found that it was both liberating and daunting.

“The good news was I could make up the entire story. The bad news was I had to make up the entire story — everything: hair color, buildings, street names, back stories, dialogue,” Zimmermann said.

She took a great deal of inspiration from Newtown for many aspects of the book, however.

Zimmermann explained, “When writing this book, I wanted to mirror my love for my hometown of Newtown. That feeling of being really rooted in the community. I wanted the readers to meet my characters, become friends with my characters, and maybe want to have lunch in the town of Rock Ridge where Legacy of Lies is set.”

She added that the name of her fictional town came directly from Rock Ridge Road in Newtown.

While discussing the process of creating her main and secondary characters, Zimmermann also credited her work in Newtown as having a strong influence.

“I was inspired by the many people I interviewed through The Newtown Bee and the oral history project,” she said.

Zimmermann wanted unique characters, she said. One of her muses she specifically cited was the late Newtown resident Al Penovi. She shared how he ran a plumbing supply store on Washington Avenue, where his property was filled with toilets. Postcards were even made with pictures of the infamous toilets at one time, she noted.

“He was part of the fabric of Newtown,” she said. “That’s what I attempted to do, to have a myriad of characters populate my fictional town. Even if they were eccentric, they were really human and played an important part in that community.”

Zimmermann also did research on the history of the Fairfield Hills campus as a mental institution, because her book has an abandoned mental institution in it.

She concluded her author talk by saying, “In these worrisome times of war and COVID and everything on our minds, I hope this book provides some respite and that you all find it a fun, page-turner of a story. Thank you very much.”

Zimmermann then answered people’s questions and sold copies of her books.

Reporter Alissa Silber can be reached at alissa@thebee.com.