J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer should be notified that a new writer is looking to join them in the higher ranks of successful female authors. Former Newton resident Emily Chesshire Thompson is looking to launch herself into that stratosphere as her debut novel, “The Fine Line,” is set to drop this spring.

“Basically, ‘The Fine Line’ is a story about an American girl who goes to Mexico, and one day she shadows a prison chaplain,” Emily said. “And she becomes consumed with the people and the setting, and she never goes back home. She ends up moving in with the chaplain’s family and ends up going to the prison every day. It’s really a story about what happens when you cross that fine line you have in your own mind and that society has of the fine line of what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s acceptable and what’s unacceptable.”

For Emily, penning the book serves a few purposes. Part of protagonist Maggie’s experiences in Mexico were based on Emily’s own missionary trip to Mexico when she was 19. This book is a way for her to tell what she saw and add a bit of spice to it.