A young girl and her father are riding a snowmobile in upstate New York. As they cross the open fields, the blue light from television screens emanates from houses they pass. The girl doesn’t know what she’s seeing because her family lives off the grid.

That image arose in the mind of author Laurel Saville one day as she drove the rural roads of New York where she lived before moving to Vashon five years ago. The random vision resonated with her, piqued her writer’s imagination and eventually became two novels. The most recent title, “Beneath the Trees,” is the chosen book of the month for the Vashon Land Trust Book Club. Saville will attend the book group meeting, which is open to all islanders, and talk about the novel at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, at the Land Trust building.

While Saville’s creative process may start with an image or a phrase, the route to a finished book, essay or article is all about writing and more writing.

“I don’t outline,” she said during a recent interview. “I start writing and chase (the image or idea) down. Eventually, I write my way there. I’ve had to chuck a lot, but that is all part of the process.”

In fact, Saville wrote her way to “Beneath the Trees” via her first book, “North of Here.” To better understand the young girl in her vision, she began to write about the girl’s parents. The girl only appears as a baby at the end of the story, which describes four different adults and how their paths crossed in the Adirondacks.

When the book came out and sold well, Saville’s editor asked about her next book. Since she’d never written about the young girl, Saville decided to tell that story. “Beneath the Trees” is about the baby in that first book, who is now in her late 20s.

“She’s a wildlife biologist, searching for moose and beaver and how they interact, how the lot of one animal affects the lot of others,” Saville said. “But what she meets while doing her research is not what she expects, and that is the arc of the story.”

The book has a strong conservation message and takes a look at Adirondack Park, which Saville said is a unique model for a park, something not used or understood in the West.

“It is an interesting place. Unlike other parks, it is mixed use,” she said. “People live there; there are shops and then big swaths of open land for various recreation. They are always trying to balance all the needs. It is a big park of 6 million acres.”

Saville’s writing often draws from the areas where she has lived, making place a character in her books. “North of Here” and “Beneath the Trees” are set in the Adirondacks, an area she often visited while living for 10 years in New York and 15 years in Vermont, where she received her master in fine art for creative writing and literature from Bennington College. Born in Los Angeles, Saville wove the history of that city into her first book, “Unravelling Anne,” a memoir about her mother. Her second book, “Henry and Rachel,” was set in the Caribbean and New York and was about her grandparents. When asked if Vashon would appear in a future book, Saville answered with a firm “maybe.” It’s too soon to tell, she said.

Whether pulling information from her own lived experiences, her grandparents’ letters or her imagination, or shaping it to help her corporate clients with marketing and branding, Saville said she likes working with ideas.

“I’ve written so much — novels, essays, corporate work, articles on design — so many different kinds of things,” she said. “I love the challenge of it. I like the intellectual wrestling match.”

And while Saville is a writer, she also trains dogs. Her business is called Ragtag Dog Training, which coincidentally appears as the name of the rescue organization in her new novel.

“And because I’m interested in animal rescue and dogs, ‘Beneath the Trees’ has a lot of dogs in it,” she added with a broad grin.