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.

“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!