At Friends & Fiction we’ve partnered with our friend, the award-winning author and journalist, Brooke Lea Foster, for some more in-depth interviews with our author guests and other friends of the show. Brooke’s Substack is called Dear Fiction and we think it’s fabulous and most definitely worth your time, so definitely check it out. Meanwhile, enjoy these recent interviews that Brooke conducted with our very own Kristy Woodson Harvey to discuss her new novel A Happier Life (F&F’s June pick!) and with Jamie Brenner about her new book A Novel Summer (our July pick!).
Author Confessions: Kristy Woodson Harvey
On the tough side of publishing, writing a hit series, and what her new novel has in common with The Notebook.
An Interview with Kristy Woodson Harvey by Brooke Lea Foster of Dear Fiction
“Houses outlive the people they love.” And so begins Kristy Woodson Harvey’s latest unforgettable novel A Happier Life about one family’s ties to a beautiful old house in Beaufort, North Carolina. Keaton Smith, a young professional in NYC, leaves her high-powered job the day after she discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her with her boss. She goes home to her parents doorman building for a bit of comfort and leaves with a new agenda: Head south to Beaufort and sell her grandparents’ home on Sunset Lane, which has sat frozen in time since they died in a car crash in the seventies.
But when she arrives in the charming small town, Keaton discovers that there’s much more to her glamorous grandparents than she’s been told. Proof that you really can go home again, I found myself unable to put this one down. I loved the historical sections told through the eyes of “Becks,” Keaton’s grandmother, and her grandfather, “Townsend.” I can also tell you that Kristy isn’t just a lovely writer, she’s a lovely person, and her heart shines through on nearly every page of this book. It’s really good, guys!
I invited Kristy to Dear Fiction to talk about how this book came about! Welcome, Kristy!
I love origin stories. How did you get the idea for A Happier Life?
The book was inspired by the unusual deaths of my great aunt and uncle in the 1970s (deaths that, in my mind, were never quite “solved”) and an abandoned house that I was one of the first people to enter after it had been closed up for fifty years. This novel is the culmination of two events that have occupied my imagination for decades.
Is it true that The Notebook was part of the inspiration behind A Happier Life?
That’s hilarious! No! In fact… I’m pretty sure I’ve never read The Notebook. I just checked, and I was ten when it released, so I’m probably right about that. Although, I’ve seen the movie, of course. I think readers have made the comparison in the way that it’s kind of a big, forever love type of story.
Did you grow up on the water? Do you live there now? How has that experience shaped your novels?
I did not grow up on the water, and, honestly, I didn’t love the beach. So there’s some irony for you. I do live on the water now, and it’s such great inspiration for my novels. It is so calming and also just a little different every day. Across the waterway is an island with wild horses, and dolphins are plentiful. But I think moving to Beaufort as a small town has had more impact than the water itself. The town inspired Peachtree Bluff in my Peachtree Bluff series and is also the setting of A Happier Life.
Describe your perfect summer day in Beaufort. Please give details.
I wake up and have iced coffee from Historic Grounds on my porch and chat with neighbors as they’re walking by. Then we pack up snacks and champagne and lunch (and the dog!) and gather friends on our boat and in theirs to meet up at Cape Lookout. We set up chairs and the kids swim, and we talk for hours. There’s no cell service, and we’re totally in the moment. There’s nothing better!
Has anything that ever happened to you in publishing ever made you cry? I ask this because I feel like writers don’t always talk about the emotional side to writing.
I’m a bad person to ask this because I almost never cry, which is probably unhealthy, but here we are. The hardest thing I’ve been through was Berkley not wanting my novel Feels Like Falling. They asked me to write something else, but, even still, I 100 percent thought my career was over two books in, and I was devastated. I made peace with the fact that I might not be a career author, but a week or two later, an editor at Gallery loved the book and, better yet, suggested I write a series first. So, all’s well that ends well. But, day to day, in the little moments of writing or launching that can seem hard, I constantly remind myself that I’ve been here before, and I’ll get through it!
Tell us about where you do your best writing. Is there anything in that room that brings you joy/nostalgia/inspiration?
A couple years ago, I had the amazing good fortune of getting to build my own office in an addition on our house in Beaufort. It has floor to ceiling doors on the side out to the balcony and a wall of windows behind my desk, so it is always full of light, and the side walls are… bookshelves! I designed them with Lucite shelves so there’s the feeling that all the books are floating. Some of the shelves are full of my titles, others are full of books I love, and there are so many things I have been gifted or collected on them that bring me joy, like an etching of the New York City skyline a friend made for me when I was trying to get published, a miniature bookshelf that a reader, Meghen Kear, had made for me, my New York Times Bestseller lists framed… I could go on and on!
My husband got me a gorgeous marble desk that I absolutely coveted for my birthday a few years ago, and it has a beautiful rug by my artist friend Laura Park and big, oversized, comfy ostrich leather French chairs for snuggling up, plus huge brass library lights and a gigantic pair of oyster shell sconces that I bought because I loved them so much and had in storage for probably six or seven years before the perfect place presented itself. I love it so much in there!
Can you talk about the books that made you want to become a writer?
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was the first, I think. It made me realize the power of story to connect us to people whose lives are completely different from ours. I was in maybe third or fourth grade, but I think it sparked something in me!
Have you ever taken a risk as a writer? Can you share what it was?
For sure! The Wedding Veil was a huge risk for me because it was a new genre. And, to a lesser extent, there’s a bit of a mystery in A Happier Life, so that was a bit of a risk. But I think you have to keep flexing that writing muscle to keep growing as an author.
Lastly, if you could jump into the pages of one of your books and live that character’s life for awhile, which book, which character, and why?
Parts of Rebecca Saint James’s story in A Happier Life are certainly not things I would want to live. But I do think it would be very fun to go back to the 1970s and experience that decade for a little bit and, most important, host a fabulous Rebecca Saint James dinner party.
Yes! I would love to be get an invite to one of her epic parties, too. Congrats, Kristy!
WATCH the F&F June episode with Kristy Woodson Harvey or LISTEN to it on the F&F podcast.
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Author Confessions: Jamie Brenner
On her new book, her love of Cape Cod and the complexities of female friendship.
An Interview with Jamie Brenner by Brooke Lea Foster of Dear Fiction
It’s easy to fall into a good Jamie Brenner novel—they’re breezy and fun and teeming with depth—and I’m happy to report that she has a new one out this summer.
Jamie has been so incredibly kind to me over the years as she offered up advice and contacts as my books were coming out, and we’ve stayed in touch since. I blurbed her latest book (loved!), and we even dis an event together in Warren, RI (just outside of Newport) at Ink Fish Books.
At the event, we talked about her brand new book: A Novel Summer. Set on Cape Cod, the book follows three friends navigating their relationships while one finds love working at a charming beach town bookshop. It’s so full of charm, and it plays into so many of my fantasies. Plus, I love the Cape setting.
Jamie stopped by Dear Fiction to share insight about her book and her writing process. Wait until you hear about her “creative beer goggles.”
How did you come up with the idea for A Novel Summer?
When my 30th college reunion rolled around I thought about the best friends I still have from that time and how life gets in the way of seeing each other. The things we dreamed of in school – careers, husbands, children – are the things that keep us apart most of the time. And it’s a natural life progression, but a trade-off we never fully anticipated. And that started me thinking about a fictional group of friends who reunite a few years after graduation at the beach one summer. That was the spark.
You’ve set some of your books on the East End of Long Island. Now you’ve moved to Provincetown. What is it about P-town that captured your heart?
I fell in love with the place when I spent time there writing The Forever Summer. It has all the beauty of the Cape with the art and culture of a city. The place has a long history as an arts colony and I never fail to meet interesting, creative people whenever I’m able to spend time there. It’s just a dream place full of possibility. It’s the ultimate setting for a book, especially books about love and self-discovery.
You write about the complications of friendship. Did you have a friend that got away? Why does friendship interest you as an author?
I think in many ways our friends are our first loves. Not romantic love, but certainly the first people we meet and choose to spend time with and get great joy from knowing. And friendships inevitably have complications just like romantic or familial relationships. They’re endlessly fascinating. A friendship can pre-date a spouse and children and remain with us even as we lose our parents. I’ve had some of my friends for as long as I can literally remember, relationships that will literally be lifelong. They are a sort of miracle.
You’ve written several novels now. When you begin a draft, what do you dread the most about the process? Do you ever doubt yourself?
There’s always this weird point in writing a novel when I think things are going great, I have a few chapters written, “this one’s going to be easy.” It’s like having creative beer goggles. When I read the material a few weeks in, I realize it’s just plain bad and not a single word is usable. That moment of realization is the thing I dread the most about the process. Especially since I always have the hope that it won’t happen this time!
If you could live in one of your novels, which one would it be and why?
BLUSH! I want to live on a vineyard with my dynastic winemaking family. Plus, the house has a great library.
Lastly, if you could relive one moment of your writing life, what would it be and why?
The best moment of my writing life happened in the summer of 2018, the year I published THE HUSBAND HOUR. I was doing a book event in my hometown, looked out at the audience, and saw my high school English teacher. Nothing will ever beat that.
I absolutely love that answer. My English teacher came to one of my events this year and it made me so happy. It was like having a long lost family member show up in your life. So special.
WATCH the F&F July episode with Jamie Brenner or LISTEN to it on the F&F podcast.
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I love both interviews but especially..lucite shelves and floating books! Happy to see Brooke Lea Foster here. Dear Fiction is a treasure.