Slightly South of Simple
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enhance your book club
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1. Neither Caroline nor Emerson have particularly “Southern” diets. Consider sharing some gluten-free and vegan sweets or smoothies for your book club. Great (and delicious) vegan recipes can be found at ChefChloe.com and gluten-free recipes can be found at GlutenFreeGirl.com.
2. For your next book club, read Kristy Woodson Harvey’s other novels, Dear Carolina or Lies and Other Acts of Love, Mary Alice Monroe’s The Summer Girls, or Elin Hilderbrand’s The Rumor. Do these novels remind you of Slightly South of Simple?
3. Interior design is a big part of Ansley’s life. Talk to your fellow book club members about a possible renovation you’ve been considering. Take the time to research new interior design techniques and processes or take a class together at a local art school.
4. Connect with Kristy Woodson Harvey on Facebook, Twitter, and visit her official website at: KristyWoodsonHarvey.com. Consider inviting her to Skype in with your book club.
a conversation with the author
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1. Have you ever lived in the Northeast or in New York? Do you think there’s a real appeal for Southerners to leave for another place and return home? Is this something you saw with your own family and friends from North Carolina?
Yes! We lived in Manhattan half the time when I was a little girl. I always thought that I would move back. Even now, I’m very comfortable there, which might be a little surprising considering every town I’ve lived in since had a population of less than 50,000. I think there is definitely a tendency for Southerners to grow up and move to the big city. There’s something very exciting about the unknown, about the idea of “making it” in New York. But I think sometimes it’s just too big of a change! I read somewhere that the average Southerner makes it about eighteen months in New York. Maybe it’s the winters. Who knows!
2. You studied journalism at UNC Chapel Hill and also have a master’s degree in English. Is your process in researching your novels at all similar to any of the skills you learned while studying journalism? What is different for you about your process?
Oh, absolutely. I learned from writing columns how to find my voice as a writer, and that is definitely a skill I have used as an author. I learned how a story “feels” when it is complete. In addition to that, that’s where my love of story-telling comes from. I still love telling true stories, but it’s so much fun to get to make them up. I also have a long list of research “dos and don’ts” in my head from journalism school and am always keeping in mind what are acceptable sources. On the flip side, it’s very nice to know that, from time to time, I can make something up if I need to.
3. In that vein, you keep a design blog, Design Chic, with your mother. What is your process for researching new posts for the blog? Do you think you’ll open a design shop like Ansley’s in the novel?
The “research” is the most fun part because it’s usually just Mom and me and some coffee and a lot of chatting. We both read tons of magazines and are always searching for new designers, new trends, new brands, new things we think our readers will love. It’s so much fun to look back six years when we started the blog and see what we were writing about then and what we are writing about now. It’s like a working time capsule of the evolution of our tastes and design trends. I never say never . . . I do have this thought in the back of my mind that it would be so fun to open a bookstore where all of the displays are antiques for sale. But, in reality, I know what it takes to run a business, and it’s always more fun in your mind than in reality! But you never know!
4. Further to the above, can you tell us a bit about working with your mother? Does this change the dynamic in your relationship?
My mom and I have always been very good friends, so working together has been great. There is definitely a business side to our relationship that wasn’t there in the past, but we live five hours apart from each other so brainstorming ideas, choosing new designers to profile, even negotiating with advertisers, keeps us close.
5. “Gransley” is a unique way to refer to a grandmother. The combination of Ansley’s name and “Grandma” are sweet. Was this nickname inspired by someone you know personally?
No. But grandmother names are very important! Speaking of my mom, she picked the names for this book. I told her about the characters and she went to work finding the perfect names for them. She suggested Ansley for the mother, which I loved, and when I started writing I realized that “Gransley” would be a fantastic grandmother name. Then I was totally sold!
6. Your portrayal of Caroline, Emerson, and Sloane’s relationship is a vibrant picture of sisterhood. Do you have sisters or brothers? Is their relationship inspired by people in your life?
I am an only child, actually, so I feel like, in some ways, I’ve been studying family dynamics my entire life. My mom has three sisters, and we are a very close-knit family, so I spent a lot of time with them growing up. I’ve always been fascinated by how close they are, and a lot of those dynamics played into writing the Peachtree sisters. These characters aren’t like my mom and her sisters, but that bond between them is very true to life.
7. Where did you spend your summers as a child? Did you travel to a place similar to Peachtree Bluff? Where in the South would you recommend your readers travel to experience a similar place of beauty?
We went to Debordieu, South Carolina, every summer, which is an incredibly beautiful part of the South Carolina Lowcountry. But Peachtree Bluff is heavily inspired by Beaufort, North Carolina, where I live now. The islands and sandbars, the small town full of quirky characters . . . It’s all a part of where I live, and I have been dying to write a town like this for some time. More than any of my other books, Peachtree Bluff becomes a character. I hope that readers love it as much as I do.
8. You come up with a pretty clever way to force reconciliation between Ansley and Mr. Solomon. Where did you get the inspiration to literally have the fence removed? Was this inspired by an event in your life, a friend’s, or perhaps another book or film?
Don’t we all have a fence in our lives? Mine happens to be, literally, a fence. Let’s just leave it at that.
9. How did you come up with the title, Slightly South of Simple?
In all honesty, I don’t know! I usually write the book and then choose the title, but this book was unique in that I brainstormed a huge list of titles before I was finished writing. Slightly South of Simple struck me right off the bat and, when the editorial team at Gallery picked it from a huge list immediately, we all knew we had found a winner.
10. What inspired you to write contemporary fiction? Do you think you’ll explore another genre, say historical fiction or fantasy?
I read a lot of contemporary fiction, so I think when stories started coming to me that was the genre I was daydreaming. But I also love historical fiction, and I do have some historical characters that have always fascinated me. I can’t imagine that I would ever write fantasy or mystery simply because I think that’s a whole different type of imagination! For now, contemporary fiction is perfect. I think I’ll stick with it for the foreseeable future.
11. Do you have a favorite book that you return to year after year? What makes a book special to you? Do you find yourself more interested in plot-driven or character-driven works?
Yes! A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I read it for the first time in third grade and have read it every year since. It wasn’t until much later that I realized Betty Smith actually lived in North Carolina. I was this North Carolina girl who had never had any real problems and I felt so connected to Francie Nolan, a Brooklyn girl with an alcoholic father living in poverty. We thought and felt so many of the same things. I think it was the first time I realized the power of story to connect us. I’ve been fascinated by it ever since, and every year, I find something new to love about this book. I am for sure most moved by character-driven stories, and I think I write them as well. The inner workings of people’s minds, even as they pert
ain to the simplest things, always fascinate me.
12. Is there a particular reality show you modeled Ladies Who Lunch after? Are you a fan of reality television programs? If so, which ones are you currently watching?
Well, it was supposed to be a bit like The Real Housewives. I’ll catch an episode of The Real Housewives of New York from time to time, but I’m not a devoted fan. I have to admit that I have watched every season of The Bachelor since it first aired when I was in high school. All of my high school friends would get together every week to watch it, then my college friends, and even in grad school. Now, I always tell myself that I won’t watch the next season, but I always do. I’m not sure if it’s the good memories or what, but I can’t stop myself!
13. Can you share a bit about your next project or the next book in the Peachtree Bluff series?
The next book in the Peachtree Bluff series is Sloane, the middle sister’s, book, and I am so excited about it. She is going through quite a bit of turmoil in her life in the present. Her love story, which takes place through a series of flashbacks and letters, is one of my favorites I’ve ever written. We also get to delve deeper into Ansley’s relationship with her mother and her brothers, which is fun—and a little tricky. I also haven’t been able to keep myself from writing just a bit of Emerson’s story. Let’s just say, the future for the women of Peachtree Bluff still might be Slightly South of Simple. But it’s looking bright all the same!
About the Author
JAY ACKERMAN
KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY is the author of Dear Carolina and Lies and Other Acts of Love and the founder of Design Chic, a popular interior design blog. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications and websites, including Southern Living, Domino, Our State, Houzz, Salisbury Post, and the New Bern Sun Journal. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and son. Visit Kristy at kristywoodsonharvey.com or on Instagram @kristywharvey.
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Gallery Books
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 by Kristy Woodson Harvey
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Gallery Books trade paperback edition April 2017
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Interior design by Davina Mock-Maniscalco
Cover design by Janet Perr
Cover Images © Susan Fox/Arcangel
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Woodson Harvey, Kristy, author.
Title: Slightly south of simple / Kristy Woodson Harvey.
Description: First Gallery Books trade paperback edition. | New York : Gallery Books, 2017. | Series: The peachtree bluff series ; 1
Identifiers: LCCN 2016049826 (print) | LCCN 2017003143 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501158056 (paperback) | ISBN 9781501158063 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Domestic fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Contemporary Women. | FICTION / Family Life. | FICTION / Romance / Contemporary.
Classification: LCC PS3623.O6785 S55 2017 (print) | LCC PS3623.O6785 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016049826
ISBN 978-1-5011-5805-6
ISBN 978-1-5011-5806-3 (ebook)