Although her new book is in no way autobiographical, the themes running through Ann Packer’s “Songs Without Words” involve some highly personal content. For Packer, who has now published two novels and a book of short stories, there is a thread of truth in every piece of fiction.

Like its nationally best-selling predecessor, “The Dive From Clausen’s Pier,” Packer’s latest novel deals with themes such as the limitations of friendship, devotion to family and the nature of womanhood.

“I think those are important themes, and I’m compelled to write about them basically because I think about them and they matter to me,” the author said in a recent interview with The Wire. “My preoccupations in life are my preoccupations in fiction, and the things that I observe in myself and the people around me furnish my fiction thematically.”

Released earlier this month, “Songs Without Words” tells the story of a friendship that is pushed to its limits by tragedy. Characters Liz and Sarabeth grew up together as neighbors in Palo Alto, California. The suicide of Sarabeth’s mother when the girls are 16 tightens their friendship, creating an almost sisterly bond. But, when Liz’s adolescent daughter attempts suicide many years later, “it has ramifications for the friendship and the family,” Packer said.

The author, who lives in San Carlos, Calif., said she often uses personal experiences or real events as the seed for a story. But, as that seed grows into a flourishing tree of words, reality is left behind and fiction takes over. Packer uses her artistic freedom as a novelist to express universal truths with stories. 

“I had a parent who committed suicide, so, of course, that had to have played a part, and I wouldn’t doubt that it did, although it wasn’t conscious,” she said. “But Sarabeth isn’t me, and her experience isn’t my experience.”

The daughter of two professors at Stanford University, Packer was born in Stanford, Calif., in 1959. She attended Yale University and later worked at a publishing company in New York before participating in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She later received a fellowship at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing and lived for two years in Madison.

Packer began her fiction career writing short stories. Her first published work appeared in The New Yorker, and a collection of short stories, “Mendocino and Other Stories,” became her first book. Madison would be the setting of “The Dive From Clausen’s Pier,” which was released in 2002 and became a national bestseller. 

Packer spent about five years writing her second novel, and she is currently touring the country in support of “Songs Without Words.” She will be at RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth on Saturday, Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. to read from the book and answer questions. Her experience writing “The Dive” helped her craft the latest novel with a pace and continuity that will keep readers interested.

“Before ‘The Dive From Clausen’s Pier,’ I’d only done short stories, so I learned a lot about the structure of a novel and the way pacing needed to be different in a novel,” she said.

Asked how the process of writing a novel differed from short stories, Packer gave an obvious answer. “Mainly in the length,” she said with a laugh. “It just becomes a much, much longer and more complicated undertaking. There’s so many different strands of a novel that one needs to follow and continually weave into the story. It’s kind of a management thing, in a way.”

Although sitting down to write a novel can be daunting, Packer said there are also advantages over writing short stories. While the structure of a short story requires an author to make every word count, the pressure is not quite so high with a novel. In both “The Dive” and “Songs,” Packer outlined the plot in her head and built off the original idea as she went along.

“I know where it’s going to end up,” she said. “In both books that we’re talking about, I’ve known where it would end in a very general way, what the main arc of the book was. I didn’t necessarily know how I was going to get there.”

Packer is known for the emotional intensity and intimacy of her books, often illuminating emotional issues that people generally prefer not to confront. While it is not her intention to make people feel uncomfortable, she does strive to bring complex inner topics to the forefront.

“My take on life is that we live with forces inside us that are often very painful and very conflictual, and I’m really interested in that,” she said. “I’m really interested in how we react to our own reactions to things.”

Packer believes that if she develops her characters well enough and paints realistic scenes in her stories, readers will be able to take something away from her writing. If she does her job well, everyone will recognize the emotions her characters experience. “I guess I believe in the universality of certain experiences,” she said.

The busy author is already well underway on her next book, which will include a novella and a number of short stories. The novella and several stories are already completed, she said, and a third novel will follow sometime in the near future. In the meantime, she is enjoying her tour in support of the latest book. Packer said she loves answering questions, and she looks forward to visiting the bookstore in Portsmouth.

For more information about Ann Packer, visit www.annpacker.com.