Author Q & A with my dear friend Kristy Woodson Harvey

Q & A with Kristy Woodson Harvey 

Good afternoon Kristy and thank you stopping by my blog!

1. When you aren’t writing, do you have another passion/career? 

I also write a design blog, Design Chic, with my mom. We have written it for eight years and it has been an amazing business and creative outlet for us.  

2. Is there an activity that you like to enjoy when you aren’t reading or writing (yoga, gardening etc )?

I am actually a certified yoga instructor, so that is definitely one of my activities, although I’m really more into spin classes and barre lately. (I don’t teach because of my crazy travel schedule, but I wanted to have the certification anyway!) I live at the beach, so I really just love to be with family and friends outside, on the boat, on the beach, just walking. I love to entertain too and we do that a lot!   

3. What is your favorite book of 2017? 2018 so far? 

Definitely The Secret to Southern Charm. Hahaha! Just kidding. My favorite book of 2018 so far is Love & Ruin by Paula McLain. I love her and I love Hemingway, and I honestly think this is her best book yet! This makes me realize that I really need to commit to reviewing more on Goodreads because I read so much I have a hard time remembering what I read and what I loved! (Preaching to the choir here, I’m sure.) I know it didn’t come out in 2017, but I read A Gentleman in Moscow in 2017, and I think it was my favorite of the year. That’s such a hard question because I have so many favorites!

4. What is your favorite tv show to binge watch? 

Southern Charm. I used to be a reality TV junkie, but now I’ve pared down to Southern Charm and The Bachelor/Bachelorette. I’m maturing… I like fun TV shows that don’t stress me out so besides that I really only watch Modern Family and Will & Grace. I did binge watch Gossip Girl last year and wondered why it had taken me so long! 

5. Which of your books would you like to see made into a movie? Any actors you would love to see play your characters ? 

Dear Carolina, my debut, was optioned for film by Jamie Pressly, so, of course, I’d love to see her play Khaki! I have had a lot of interest in the Peachtree Bluff series and would love to see that come to life. I am so bad at knowing who should play my characters, but a reader told me the other day that he wanted Ansley to be played by Diane Lane and now I’m obsessed with that idea! And, I mean, obviously I’d love to see Reese Witherspoon play absolutely anyone! Probably Caroline.  

6. Do you have another book in the works? 

I can’t leave my readers hanging after The Secret to Southern Charm. I think we need one more trip to Peachtree Bluff!  

Thank you so much Kristy for joining us here today and I look forward to many more books in the future and many more chats as well!

 

About Kristy 

Kristy Woodson Harvey is the bestselling author of Dear Carolina (Berkley/Penguin Random House, 2015), Lies and Other Acts of Love (Berkley/Penguin Random House, 2016) and the Peachtree Bluff Series, beginning with Slightly South of Simple (Gallery/Simon & Schuster, 2017). Dear Carolina was long-listed for the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize, has been optioned for film and has appeared on numerous “must-read” lists. Lies and Other Acts of Love was a Romantic Times top pick, a Southern Booksellers Okra Pick and a finalist for the Southern Book Prize. Slightly South of Simple was a Southern Bestseller, a Barnes & Noble Bestseller, one of PopSugar’s picks for “Ultimate Summer Reading” and one of Glitter Guide’s “Must-Reads for April.” The Secret to Southern Charm, the second book in the Peachtree Bluff series, releases April 3, 2018.

She blogs with her mom, Beth Woodson, daily on Design Chic, the inaugural member of the Design Blogger Hall of Fame sponsored by Traditional Home and winner of Amara’s Best Luxury Blog, sponsored by Roberto Cavalli, about how creating a beautiful home can be the catalyst for creating a beautiful life and loves connecting with readers at kristywoodsonharvey.com.

Harvey is a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s school of journalism and holds a master’s in English from East Carolina University, with a concentration in multicultural and transnational literature. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications and websites, including Southern Living, Traditional Home, Parade, USA Today, Domino, Our State and O. Henry. She has been seen in Women’s Health, The Washington Post, US News and World Report, The Huffington Post, USA Today’s Happy Every After, Marie Claire’s The Fix, Woman’s World, Readers’ Digest and North Carolina Bookwatch, among others. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and six-year-old son where she is working on her next novel.

Buy Links:

The Secret to Southern Charm is available from your local bookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble

 Target, Books-a-Million, Indiebound and wherever books are sold! It is being simultaneously released in paperback, hardback, e-book and audio, so check out your favorite version!

Buy Links:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Books-a-Million

Target

Indiebound

 

Guest Post and Giveaway with Stephen McCauley

Guest Post by Stephen McCauley 

I’ve always been charmed by stories of couples who reconnect after years and even decades apart. I think they appeal to the part of me that likes familiarity and continuity as well as the part that craves the excitement of the new.  A familiar person in an exciting new context. Probably my favorite example is Noel Coward’s play Private Lives.

I don’t think I’m the only one who is attracted to this kind of story. When I mention the title of my new novel, people often start telling me about cyberstalking old boyfriends, high school sweethearts, and lost loves. “It’s totally innocent,” they invariably say. “I’d never do anything.” To which I say, “Yeah, right!”

In My Ex-Life, the previously-married couple is Julie and David. When they reconnect after thirty years, they’re both in crisis and each wants to help out the other. They still love each other, but David has since come out as gay, so their love story is not destined to end in another marriage.

I really loved these two characters who quickly began to feel as real to me as people in my life. I had no idea how the novel would end, and I’m opposed to manipulating a “happy ending,” but I really hoped things would work out for them. One of the nicest things about the response to the book has been hearing people say they, too, fell in love with the characters.

There’s a lot in the novel about college essays (I’ve been teaching at the college level for thirty years) and about Airbnb (I own a couple of short-term rentals). As a narrative device, I love the idea of people welcoming complete strangers into their most intimate spaces—their houses. It also says something about the culture and the economy right now that so many of us are doing this.

In the case of all the other novels I’ve written (My Ex-Life is my seventh, my ninth if you count two I wrote under the pseudonym Rain Mitchell) I was happy to reach the end and part ways with the characters, let them live their own lives. In this case, I was genuinely sorry to leave them. That said, there’s a melancholy sweetness about saying goodbye to friends. And since I’m working on a new novel, I’m in the process of making some new ones.

Giveaway 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

I grew up outside of Boston and was more or less educated in public schools. I went to the University of Vermont as an undergraduate and studied for a year in France at the University of Nice.

Upon graduation, I worked at hotels, kindergartens (see The Object of My Affection), ice cream stands, and health food stores. I taught yoga in a church basement and set up a house cleaning service. For many years, I worked as a travel agent (see The Easy Way Out) and was able to travel somewhat extensively and inexpensively.

Links to visit for Stephen:

Author Website 

Goodreads  

Amazon
Macmillan 

 

At Wave's End by Patricia Perry Donovan

After a childhood as unpredictable as the flip of a coin, Faith Sterling has finally found her comfort zone in the kitchen of an upscale Manhattan restaurant. A workaholic chef, at least there she’s in control. So when her free-spirited and often-gullible mother, Connie, calls to announce that she’s won a bed-and-breakfast on the Jersey Shore, Faith’s patience boils over. Convinced the contest is a scam, she rushes to Wave’s End to stop Connie from trading her steady job for an uncertain future.

When a hurricane ravages the coast, Faith is torn between supporting the shore rescue and bailing out her beleaguered boss. But the storm dredges up deceptions and emotional debris that threaten to destroy the inn’s future and her fragile bonds with her mother.

As the women struggle to salvage both the inn and their relationship, Faith begins to see herself and Connie in a new light—and to realize that some moments are better left to chance.

My Thoughts

What a nice spring read!  I love the way in which Patricia writes.  I could picture the shore, The Mermaid's Purse, and all the quirky characters perfectly! 

There are several conflicts throughout the story - mother/daughter, mother/son, boyfriend/girlfriend, town/storm and so many others.

The main conflict, faith v. herself.  What does she want for her life?  Can she reconnect with her mother and work through the past mistakes?  Can she learn to let go and live the life that she was intended to live?

All these questions and more are answered and I loved the trials and tribulations every step of the way.  The crazy family unit of The Mermaid's Purse will pull at your heartstrings and leave you wanting more. 

Drink Selection

I found the PERFECT drink!  Mermaid Kiwi Lim Julep!  How pretty is that? 

Rating

5 wine glasses for At Wave's End! 

About the Author

Patricia Perry Donovan is the author of DELIVER HER, as well as AT WAVE'S END, coming August 15, 2017. She is a journalist who writes about healthcare. Her fiction has appeared in Gravel Literary, Flash Fiction Magazine, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable, and other literary journals. The mother of two grown daughters, Patricia lives at the Jersey Shore with her husband.

Link to Purchase

Amazon

Happily Ever After Hop is HERE!

Picture it . . . the lovely month of May, where spring is springing up all over the Northern Hemisphere, and there's going to be a royal wedding, and it's International Chick Lit Month! What's a Chick Lit lover to do? Join Chick Lit Chat HQ's Happily Ever After Hop on Facebook, of course!

From Monday, May 7th through Sunday, May 13th, 49 bestselling and award-winning Chick Lit and Romantic Comedy authors will be whooping it up on Facebook, celebrating all things royal and romantic. And because our readers deserve to be treated like queens, these authors will be giving away books, swag, gift cards, and lots of other fabulous prizes (no toads or poisoned apples here!), plus the week will wrap up with an award of a blingtastic, royal-themed Grand Prize Pack worth more than $150*, and not one, not two, notthreenotfournotfive, but SIX $25 Amazon gift cards!

So, grab that tiara, hop on your unicorn, and head on over to the Happily Ever After Hop page on Facebook and join the group where you can meet and chat with your fellow readers, as well as some of the most popular authors in your favorite genres. Plus you'll find links for all the participating authors and you can enter to win the Grand Prize Pack or one of those Amazon gift cards. We look forward to partying with you!

*The royal-themed Grand Prize Pack giveaway is not open to international entrants. However, all of the individual author giveaways and the $25 Amazon gift card giveaways are open internationally.