Kristy Woodson Harvey, FEELS LIKE FALLING
[0:08]Hi, I'm Zive Owens and you're listening to the award-winning podcast.
[0:11]Moms don't have time to read books.
[0:13]I just wanted to encourage you all to watch some of my IG live videos on Instagram.
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[0:24]But in case I haven't told you, which it occurred to me that maybe I haven't,
[0:28]on Instagram every day at 11 o'clock Eastern Time, I interview authors live from my
[0:33]at Zive Owens account and to watch it, you just have to open up Instagram and if you're
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[3:38]Stylist. Again, it's text to number 926-848 and text ZIBBY, capital Z, or go to Stylist.com
[3:46]and try it out. And let me know what you think. I met Christy Whitson-Harvey at the Easthamton
[3:51]Library's Authors Night a whole year ago. And she came over to me and was so sweet and gave me
[3:56]her book. And since she was a fan of my podcast, and that's just like music to my ears. So I read
[4:02]her book. And then now I've read her most recent book. And she is as adorable as she seems,
[4:07]and her book was really great and enjoyable and all the rest. So let me read you a little about
[4:12]her bio. And then I hope you enjoy our episode together that I feel like it's just so nice to have
[4:17]come full circle and now get to have her on my podcast. Christy Whitson-Harvey is the USA Today
[4:21]best-selling author of Feels Like Falling, The Southern Side of Paradise, The Secret to Southern
[4:26]Charm, Slightly South of Simple Lies and Other Acts of Love, Dear Carolina, and Under the Southern
[4:31]Sky, which is her most recent book. Christy is the winner of the Lucy Bramlett Patterson Award
[4:37]for Excellence in Creative Writing, a finalist for The Southern Book Prize. And her work has
[4:41]been optioned for film and her books have received numerous awards. She also blogs with her mom,
[4:46]Beth Whitson, on Design Chic, about how creating a beautiful home can be the catalyst for creating
[4:51]a beautiful life. Design Chic is an inaugural member of the Design Blogger Hall of Fame, sponsored by
[4:57]Traditional Home. Harvey is a Phi Beta Kappa Summa Cum Laude graduate of University of North Carolina
[5:02]Chapel Hills School of Journalism and holds a Master's in English from East Carolina University
[5:07]and her writing has appeared in numerous publications websites like Traditional Home,
[5:12]our state, Today.com, The Washington Post, Marie Claire, and many others. She's a proud member of
[5:18]the Tall Poppy Writers and Serves and the Board of the Beaufort Historical Association
[5:23]and is a member of the University of North Carolina's Women's Leadership Council. She's a
[5:27]frequent speaker at fund raisers, book conferences, and private events. And she currently lives in
[5:31]North Carolina with her husband and son, where she's already working on her next novel. So enjoy
[5:37]my conversation with Christy. Thank you for having me. Okay, I do have to let you all know right
[5:44]off the bat. I am sort of on the Camille train. I live on the North Pole in North Carolina. Like
[5:48]you just said, we're having a major thunderstorm. So if you hear anything crazy, we walked around the
[5:53]the house and we're like, Hey, what's quiet? Let's cry it. So hopefully it won't be loud. And it's
[5:58]kind of dying down. But if you hear something crazy, that's probably one of those. Okay.
[6:01]It's also a huge storm where I am. So what is up? I mean, it's it's bad enough that it's a Monday
[6:08]morning quarantine. Now you have to have like thunderstorms and like right. The only thing you're
[6:12]saying is a lot of weather. I mean, what are we going to do? Oh my gosh. I mean, I don't know better
[6:17]Monday than Sunday. You know, so I guess it's nice. Yeah. Yesterday was gorgeous. So this is kind
[6:24]of the payback, I guess. And I feel like it's been a hundred years since I met you last summer.
[6:30]That's for the East Hampton Library. That was so nice. And you were like, so radiant and like,
[6:35]oh my gosh, it was so nice to meet you. So that's nice. Well, it was so fun. I was so excited to meet
[6:39]you. I was like, Van Girl and really hard. You probably remember, but it was probably
[6:43]sorry. But that was such a fun night. And I'm going back again. So I'm really excited to be there.
[6:48]That's the next August. So hopefully I'll see you again. I hope that events are so going on in August.
[6:53]I do too. I do too. I actually I usually go on like a six week book tour when I have a new book come
[6:58]out in this year for some reason, some really smart person said, let's split it and we'll do
[7:03]four weeks in like April and May and then two weeks in August. So I'm hoping that we can at least
[7:08]salvage that August part. I mean, if we can't, we can't. But I love going on book tour. Like,
[7:13]it's just fun to get to go meet readers and cool people like you. Well, I feel terrible for all
[7:20]you guys. You can't go on your book tours. I mean, it's so sad to get to the finish line of a big
[7:24]project and not be able to sort of celebrate it and make sure you get to the right hand. So
[7:28]it's gonna be so interesting though to just like do something completely different and like do
[7:33]things like this and see what happens. I mean, you know, I feel the worst I think for people who
[7:40]were, you know, this is their first book and they've been really, you know, just waiting to do
[7:45]this book tour. I feel terribly for them because that is so exciting. It's kind of like the culmination
[7:49]of all that hard work that you've done in all those years. And so that is that is really sad for
[7:55]them and hopefully they'll be able to move theirs. But I'm just so grateful they're not moving my
[7:58]book really state because I was afraid that was gonna happen or I was gonna have to happen
[8:01]because we weren't gonna, you know, have books. But, you know, putting out a book a year. I started
[8:06]thinking about that logistically. And I was like, first of all, this is not really a book that you
[8:10]want to come out of November. That's not an ideal time for the beach cover. But I started thinking
[8:16]I was like, oh my gosh, well, if it comes out in November, we're already gonna be starting
[8:20]promotion for under this other sky, which is much 2021 books. So people are gonna be like,
[8:24]enough. We've had enough of you. Oh my gosh. Well, I mean, that's like a pretty great problem to have
[8:29]is that you're reading so much good content that you can't even figure out how it went to promote it
[8:34]all, right? That's good. That's great. So is that your schedule one book a year every summer? That's
[8:41]just like, you know, I mean, I'm not saying I'm married to that for the rest of my life or anything,
[8:47]but it's worked for me really well. Like we've just kind of we're in the groove. That's how it's
[8:52]going. I kind of have my bearings with that situation a little bit. And actually it was, oh my gosh,
[8:58]I'm super grateful that I had a book to be working on because my edits were due like two or
[9:03]three days ago on under the southern sky. And so it just gave me something. I was like, it's normal.
[9:08]I'm working. I just have to have to focus on the book. I can't think about, you know, all the
[9:13]craziness going on. And focus on, I mean, of course you're thinking about it and feeling terribly
[9:18]about it. But I, you know, it gave me something to kind of an outlet. So I wasn't like sitting
[9:22]there watching the news 12 hours a day and like all the terrible things going on. I was in my
[9:27]little writing cave for at least a few hours a day kind of focusing. So what are you going to do
[9:31]now that you've been freed from the cake? Well, I mean, we're so the new book comes out April 28
[9:37]and we are sort of scrambling to get this virtual tour put together because you know, it takes like
[9:43]nine months to put these tours together. And so then to kind of turn around and put together,
[9:48]you know, some semblance of a virtual tour, we will be working nonstop all that. And we
[9:52]didn't want to do it too early because like I said, we didn't know if we were going to have
[9:55]books. So I have heard now that the books have shipped to the distributor.
[10:00]or so, you know.
[10:01]And at the very least, I mean,
[10:03]I know you feel this way, and so do I.
[10:05]I'm a huge proponent of independent bookstores.
[10:08]I love them, they are so amazing.
[10:11]And you know, I hope that this is a time
[10:12]when people will, you know, choose to support them
[10:15]and, you know, we're bored, we're at home.
[10:18]Go buy a book, pick it up at the curb side,
[10:21]have them deliver it to your house.
[10:23]I mean, they're getting really creative.
[10:24]It's impressive.
[10:25]That's true, yeah.
[10:26]I actually, I went on this walk yesterday,
[10:28]which is the first time I've like walked into the town
[10:30]nearby.
[10:31]It was like out of desperation.
[10:32]Anyway, there was one little store
[10:34]that I never really go into,
[10:35]but there was a sign on the door and it says,
[10:37]if you really need a cozy sweater,
[10:38]call this number and we'll drop one off for you.
[10:41]And I will.
[10:41]I can choose another cozy sweater,
[10:43]but this is like 100 cents.
[10:44]I know.
[10:45]So I think I might have to call.
[10:46]I don't know.
[10:47]We'll see what turns up.
[10:48]Anyway, back to you and your book and all of this greatness.
[10:52]So can you hold it up again?
[10:53]And can you explain a plot and what it's about?
[10:55]Because the plot is so great for this book.
[10:58]Thank you.
[10:59]So it feels like falling is a book about Gray and Diana,
[11:02]who are two women from very different worlds,
[11:05]who sort of come together to form this like odd couple
[11:09]friendship.
[11:10]They meet on a day when they're both having a really,
[11:13]really bad day.
[11:14]You know, those days where it's just like nothing's going right.
[11:16]And so Gray is at a point in her life.
[11:18]And she could really use some good karma.
[11:20]And Diane is at a point in her life
[11:21]where she could really use some good luck.
[11:23]And instead, Gray inadvertently gets Diana fired from her job.
[11:28]So it sort of thrusts these two women together
[11:30]that on the surface seem to have nothing in common.
[11:34]Sorry, that was a thunderstorm shutter blow.
[11:37]But in reality, they have so much in common.
[11:40]They've both lost their mothers,
[11:42]albeit in very different ways.
[11:43]They're both dealing with the loss of a partner,
[11:46]although again, in different ways.
[11:48]And they're both sort of at a crossroads
[11:49]in their career, which is, you know,
[11:52]a major situation in both of their lives.
[11:54]And neither of them know it,
[11:55]but they're both about to embark
[11:57]on a really great love story too.
[11:59]So that's how I was one of my favorite parts.
[12:01]But there are a lot of issues that come up in this book.
[12:04]There are a lot of things that these women
[12:05]are dealing with that real women are dealing with.
[12:07]But I think it's also, I think it's my funniest book.
[12:11]I hope I tried to make it.
[12:12]I felt like when I was really going through the process
[12:16]of writing this, we were out of our house
[12:17]from Hurricane Florence.
[12:18]And I was like, I just need some comic relief in my life.
[12:21]And so I sort of feel like it was like this omen of,
[12:25]okay, we're also going to really be needing
[12:27]some comic relief in our life when this book comes out.
[12:29]So I'm happy for that,
[12:31]because I do think it's a funny book.
[12:32]I think people can really escape into this book.
[12:35]It's set in the fictional town of Cape Carolina,
[12:38]which is based on Morehead City,
[12:40]which is near where I live.
[12:42]So you get to see that, you know,
[12:43]it's one of those fun, beachy, low cows.
[12:47]And these women are just great.
[12:48]They sort of warmed their way into my heart.
[12:50]and I hope that they will for readers too.
[12:52]That's so great.
[12:53]So you wrote it during a hurricane.
[12:55]And now coming out during a pandemic,
[12:58]I'm like, it's in my bad luck.
[13:01]What's going on?
[13:03]I know, so strange.
[13:05]But actually the really funny thing about this book
[13:07]that makes it sort of unusual and different
[13:09]from my other books is that I wrote it in 2016.
[13:13]And it's actually coming out now.
[13:15]So I wrote this book.
[13:17]I got contracted for the Petri Buff series.
[13:19]So I wrote all three of those books.
[13:21]They came out and then I spent, you know,
[13:23]eight or nine months completely tearing,
[13:25]feels like falling apart and putting it back together.
[13:27]It was such a cool exercise because
[13:30]I had changed so much in four years.
[13:32]The world had changed so much in four years.
[13:34]And the way that I felt about these women
[13:36]and what they would be doing
[13:37]and how they would be handling these situations
[13:39]and their lives had completely changed.
[13:41]So that was so interesting for me.
[13:43]I try not to go back and read my earlier book
[13:46]just because it kind of makes you cringe a little.
[13:48]I feel like, because you hope that you've grown
[13:50]from book to book.
[13:51]And you're like, oh, why did I say that?
[13:52]Or why did that character say that?
[13:53]Or why did they do that?
[13:55]So it was sort of this great opportunity
[13:57]to get to like go back and totally rewrite this book
[14:00]for where we are today.
[14:02]So I think it's good timing.
[14:04]Like I really do.
[14:05]I feel like it all worked out the way it was supposed to.
[14:07]And I'm glad this book is coming out now
[14:09]and that it didn't come out in 2016 when I wrote it.
[14:12]And what about your next book?
[14:13]The one you were just talking about.
[14:15]Yes.
[14:17]OK, so under this other sky comes out 2021.
[14:19]We don't have a pub date yet.
[14:21]I think April ish.
[14:22]But I'm really excited about this book.
[14:25]It's actually a book that I've been thinking about
[14:27]for like five or six years.
[14:29]And I don't know.
[14:30]I haven't really talked about it much.
[14:31]So I don't even really know how to tell you about it.
[14:33]But essentially, the protagonist of this story
[14:36]is a man.
[14:36]This is my first male practice.
[14:38]I'll have four female protagonists also.
[14:40]But Parker is kind of the center of this book.
[14:42]And his wife has passed away three years earlier.
[14:45]And when the book is sort of opening,
[14:47]a childhood friend of his, who is also a protagonist of this book,
[14:50]has sort of accidentally discovered
[14:51]that these embryos that he's frozen with his dead wife
[14:54]are about to be destroyed because they haven't
[14:57]been able to get a touch on them.
[14:59]So it's sort of like, first the story
[15:01]why it opened about, you know, what do you do?
[15:03]You have this piece of this person who's gone
[15:06]and you know, what's the next right stuff?
[15:08]So there's of course a lot of other storylines going on,
[15:11]but that's the main one.
[15:12]Oh, wow, that sounds really good.
[15:15]How do you just have like, is it hard for you
[15:17]to come up with ideas or do you just have a tent
[15:19]or do you keep a notebook or like, what's your process like?
[15:22]So I have a ton.
[15:23]I keep a separate word documents on my computer
[15:26]and just whenever I have something kind of interesting
[15:29]that comes up, I'll like pop it in a word document.
[15:31]But usually I don't know where a story is going to go.
[15:33]And like even with this one, I mean, a friend came to me
[15:36]and said, you know, I have these embryos,
[15:38]what am I supposed to do with them now?
[15:40]And I just sort of jotted that down,
[15:41]but I didn't know what the story was
[15:42]until I actually sat down and started writing
[15:45]and thought, okay, who are these characters?
[15:46]What are they like?
[15:47]What's happening to them?
[15:48]And even it feels like falling.
[15:50]I mean, I remember finishing this story
[15:52]and I was, my husband was at a work conference
[15:55]and I had gone with him,
[15:56]so I could just finish this book and be done.
[15:57]And I met him downstairs for dinner
[15:58]and I was like, that ended the exact opposite way
[16:01]that I thought it was going to.
[16:02]He was like, you're the one writing it.
[16:04]What do you mean?
[16:05]But it is just so cool how the characters,
[16:07]they just take over the story and they really come to life.
[16:10]And I'm a person I like to be character driven stories
[16:13]and I like to write character driven stories.
[16:15]So I do think that's a big part of that.
[16:16]That the plot is important,
[16:18]but it's not usually what's on the forefront of my mind.
[16:21]But then narrowing it down and trying to figure out,
[16:23]okay, what is capturing me next?
[16:26]Like what is it that won't let me go,
[16:28]that won't let me sleep at night
[16:30]because I'm so excited about writing it.
[16:32]And that's usually where I go next.
[16:34]And a lot of times I end up sticking
[16:36]a couple stories together at some point.
[16:38]And one idea isn't the best one.
[16:42]And so that kind of combines with another one
[16:44]and then it's the right thing.
[16:46]So it's a really interesting process.
[16:49]Having written all of these books,
[16:51]do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
[16:53]I feel like you've turned this into like a system
[16:55]and you have it down.
[16:57]Yeah. And I do think that that is if I,
[16:59]when I tell authors, new authors or aspiring authors,
[17:02]like it's a business and you have to do it as such.
[17:05]And I feel like the creative part of it is what lights us up
[17:09]and keeps us coming back to it.
[17:11]But the business part of it is what allows us
[17:14]to actually be able to do this as a career.
[17:17]And so I am very systematic about writing much 2,000 words a day.
[17:22]It's the first thing that happens
[17:23]because if I don't have any book to put out,
[17:26]I don't have a job anymore.
[17:27]So that's sort of the most important thing for me.
[17:29]And I'm not saying that everyone has to do that.
[17:31]I mean, it's whatever schedule works for you.
[17:34]But I think treating it like something real
[17:37]that is really gonna happen.
[17:39]And you are the queen of talking about this.
[17:41]But finding the time is so difficult.
[17:43]And people tell me all the time,
[17:45]I don't have time, I don't have time.
[17:46]I don't have time.
[17:46]And I'm like, I get it.
[17:48]Like I wrote Dear Carolina.
[17:49]I had a two week old baby when I got the idea for that book.
[17:53]And I would sit in my closet at night
[17:54]while I was breastfeeding and like jot down Dear Care.
[17:57]Like that's how Dear Carolina came to life.
[17:59]So there was no like, oh, I went on this six week retreat
[18:04]to Italy and wrote this beautiful.
[18:06]No, like, oh my gosh.
[18:08]No, like books are rewritten in the midst of dirty diapers
[18:11]and, you know, homeschooling now.
[18:13]So I think it's just like everything else.
[18:15]And I just gotta get it done, right?
[18:18]Got it.
[18:21]Well, Christy, thank you so much for coming on.
[18:23]And so I still finally get to chat with you.
[18:26]And I have a storm there passes.
[18:27]And thanks for giving us great things to look forward to reading.
[18:30]Oh, thank you.
[18:31]Thank you so much for having me.
[18:32]This was so fun.
[18:34]That's great chatting.
[18:35]Thanks again for listening to my podcast.
[18:37]My moms don't have time to read books.
[18:39]If you liked this episode, please follow me
[18:41]on Instagram at zippyowans
[18:43]and at moms don't have time to read books
[18:46]and sign up for my mailing list at zippyowans.com.
[18:49]So you can always hear about the latest things I'm up to.
[18:51]Thanks a lot.
[18:52]Today's episode has been sponsored by Stylist.
[18:55]Please try out Stylist.
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[19:05]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan
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[19:09]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
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[19:14]You can always email me at zippyowans.com.