{Giveaway is Closed}
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting author Mary Kay Andrews on a few occasions and she is just a funny, witty lady. And she loves junkin’ like I do, so I know she and I would hit it off if we got to hang out more often. In fact, now that I’m back in Atlanta, where she lives too, I hope to do that again sometime.
Pssst, Mary Kay, are you listening? 🙂 Let’s go to Scott’s!
I can imagine how fun that would be! Thrifting with Mary Kay. We junkers just understand each other on a very basic level.
Today, we’re talking with Mary Kay about her love of junkin’ and her brand spankin’ new book that has just been released this summer, just in time for a good beach read, Summer Rental.
There’s nothing better than chick lit on the beach. This one is interesting and an easy fun read. I’m about half-way through it and it’s highly entertaining.
So, get comfy and let’s have a chat with Mary Kay. There’s a book giveaway at the end, so don’t go anywhere!
Q: So. What’s with you and junk?
Mary Kay: I grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida, which some people refer to as “God’s Waiting Room.” It’s where elderly Yankees with good taste retired, and then never unpacked all that wonderful old china, crystal, linens, etc, which meant it ended up being sold at estate sales or donated to charity thrift stores. Also, my mother was a junker, and I inherited that trait. Or curse.
Q: In your Savannah series, Savannah Blues, Savannah Breeze and Blue Christmas, your protagonist, Weezie Foley, is first an antique picker, than an antique dealer. Have you followed her career path?
Mary Kay: In a way, yes. Savannah was the first place my husband and I moved as 22-year-old newlyweds. With no money and a tiny apartment to furnish, I started going to estate sales. That’s where I met pickers, and later antique dealers. After we moved to Atlanta, I continued my junking ritual. At an estate sale more than twenty years ago, I bought what I thought was a majolica piece, for a dollar. I took it to a majolica dealer at the old Elco Antique Market in Atlanta, who promptly told me it was an antique French majolica asparagus dish. She offered me $50 for it, and later marked it up to $250. I took the money and became a picker. Then, four years ago, a friend on Tybee Island, where we have a second home, asked if I wanted to rent space as an antique dealer. I dove in, and haven’t looked back.
Q: Your newest book, Summer Rental, like many of your other novels, including The Fixer-Upper, features an old house just begging to be restored. Why that recurring theme?
Mary Kay: Old homes, like antiques, seem to tug at my heart. They have tales to tell, secrets to whisper. They have a patina and a grace and energy that speak to me. I find that most of my stories do revolve around a woman’s search for home, whatever that means to her.
Q: I see your blog posts and your Facebook pictures of the junk you buy. What on earth do you do with all of it?
Mary Kay: We have a really big basement. But actually, I have a selective catch and release system. Some things I keep. We have a 1920s Craftsman house in Atlanta, and I’m always adding to my collections or upgrading my décor here. And then there’s The Breeze Inn, our Tybee Island home. Plus I have two adult children, who often become the recipients of my steals and deals. And now, of course, I buy for my antique booth at Seaside Sisters, on Tybee Island.
Q: What kinds of things do you buy for yourself?
Mary Kay: I’ve collected blue and white English transfer-ware for more than 30 years. I love Ironstone. I’ve got a soft spot for quilts, and I love to buy antique oil paintings—especially rural landscapes. My daughter calls me a linen whore, and I really can’t resist gorgeous old tablecloths and sheets and pillowcases. I love the whimsy and nostalgia behind vintage tin-litho children’s sand-pails and watering cans. And being a native Floridian, I’m a sucker for anything that screams retro Florida—that stuff ends up at The Breeze Inn.
Q: What do you buy to sell at your antique booth at Seaside Sisters?
Mary Kay: Beachy, shabby chic stuff sells really well, because we’re at the beach. I only buy stuff I really love, because if it doesn’t sell, it’s probably coming home with me! I try to buy smart so I can keep my prices low enough that my readers, who seek out my booth, can have the fun of taking home something they know I hand-picked for them. I usually have Depression-era quilts, ‘50s chenille bedspreads, rattan or wicker furniture, McCoy pottery, vintage children’s toys from the ‘20s on, fun black and white beach snapshots, anything quirky or amusing.
Q: Describe your perfect day.
Mary Kay: Right after Matthew McConaughey wakes me up with a tender, wet kiss, I throw on my size four jeans, toss back a Diet Coke, and saddle up with my girlfriends, who I call my junk posse. We roll up to an estate sale at a spooky mansion in Buckhead, and the hearse is just backing out of the driveway. The deceased’s daughter-in-law is standing in the driveway offering to give it all away. I load up my Ford F-150-longbed truck with a king’s ransom in English antiques, French linens, 1950s barkcloth drapes, and the entire contents of a 1940s-era small-town five-and-dime store, including crates of Shiny-Brite Christmas ornaments. Then we stop for lunch at Souper Jenny, where I take a call from my agent informing me that Hollywood wants to option the rights to ALL my books. And Tina Fey is going to write the screenplay, star and direct.
Q: That’s not a real day. That’s a fantasy. C’mon. For reals.
Mary Kay: Oh, for real? I struggle into my faded black yoga pants, spill my Diet Coke all over the console of my ten-year-old mini-Suv. I find an estate sale at a crumbling mid-town bungalow, and I wade through a mildewed basement full of stained Tupperware and forty years worth of Readers Digest Condensed Books. I finally find a 1950s Dick and Jane reading primer and some stained 1940s luncheon cloths. When I get upstairs to cash out, the snooty daughter gets off her cell phone long enough to tell me she’s seen the Dick and Jane listed for $50 on eBay, and, oh yeah, the luncheon cloths aren’t actually for sale after all. That’s reality.
Q: Ever thought of quitting the famous author business to get into the highly lucrative business of being an antique dealer?
Mary Kay: Much as I adore dabbling in the world of junking, I have finally realized that I don’t have the smarts or the desire to work as hard at that business as it takes to be a success. On the other hand, I’ve been a working writer my entire adult life. I know how blessed I am to be able to make a living at writing fiction. So I hedge my bets—I write for a living—because I can’t imagine not writing. And I junk for fun, and every now and then, I get lucky and turn a profit at it. And then I go out and buy more junk. Because I can’t not.
Mary Kay Andrews is the New York Times bestselling author of The Fixer Upper, Deep Dish, Blue Christmas, Savannah Breeze, Hissy Fit, Little Bitty Lies, and Savannah Blues. A former journalist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
That Mary Kay is a hoot! That was fun reading. Mary Kay’s latest book release, Summer Rental just hit the shelves on June 7th, just in time for your summer reading schedule AND Mary Kay is giving away to TWO of my readers a signed copy of your very own.
Mary Kay has her own family cottage at Tybee Island, GA called the Breeze Inn that is adorable as can be and she rents it out, so check that out.
For more beautiful pics of the Breeze Inn, go visit Layla. She and Kevin stayed there!
Leave a comment and tell me about YOUR summer rental. Do you go to the beach and rent a place or what sort of summer vacation do you have planned this year?
Do tell!
As you know, if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, I just LOVE the beach and there is nothing better than a beach vacation to me. Sun, sand, and seafood! The BEST!
Now if these pics don’t make you want to jump up and head to the beach to your own summer rental, I don’t know what would!
{All photos from Breeze Inn website}
Today, I’m also thrilled to be over at Beth’s participating in her How to Decorate for the DIYer Series. Hop on over to see what I’m talking about! 🙂 She made this cute little button just for me!
I love MKA and have read all of her books. Aren’t you lucky to have met her in person?? I’ve never been to Tybee Island and now I want to go and I know exactly where I’d like to stay!
I’ll be staying with my mom for the next two weeks on the Outer Banks in her beach cottage. She bought it after my dad died and fixing it up was a much needed diversion for her. We’ve enjoyed the Outer Banks every single summer since I was a child.
I love MKA, too! I just got back from Savannah, and I swear the whole reason for wanting to go there was reading the MKA books. I wanted to go to Tybee while we were there, but didn’t get the chance.
On Saturdays in the summer, I treat myself to coffee and a bagel at the local bagel shop, then drive around listening to NPR (Car Talk and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me) while hitting all the local estate sales.
The only sad part is that I have no basement or garage!
I love MK Andrews because for some darn reason, she and I are on the same wavelength. Junking and Savannah, (Beaufort) Tybee, Atlanta — love it all. We rent a cottage on Tybee or a condo on Fripp. Depends on the time of year. Each has it’s own special charm. Nature verses old time beachy galore!
I’ve seen Layla’s posts about the Breeze Inn and would love to stay there sometime. MK sounds like such a fun person….would love to meet her.
We don’t get to the beach as often as I would like as we have a vacation home on a lake. When I was growing up we had a cottage at Nags Head. We moved to California so had to sell it. Ended up moving back to NC five years later. Wish we could have hung on to it as it would have been fun to fix up, was right on the beach and a short walk to a fishing pier. Great childhood memories of summers at the beach! I really want to go back!
Pick me, pick me for the giveaway! I need a good read and my birthday is next week 🙂
I’ve read all of her books and can’t wait to dive into her latest, so hope I win! My summer plans are not set in stone yet, but hope to make a short trip to Panama City Beach for the first time. I’ve been to Tybee Island and would love to go back for a longer stay.
We have a cabin in the mountains! We live on the Mississippi Gulfcoast! But I would absolutely love to go to Tybee Island for a vacation!
For over 30 years we vacation on the gulf beaches near Bradenton. Sometimes twice a year – once in the summer and then again at Thanksgiving. Can’t get enough of it!
Love MK’s books and would love to take Summer Rental with me in a couple of weeks! Thanks for the great interview with MK!
I love MK’s books, and summer reading is a big part of my vacation. I’ve been known to start stockpiling beach reads in April for a trip that doesn’t happen until August! I love pulling those books back off the shelf in winter and seeing those little ripples at the bottom of the pages where I held them against my seawater-soaked tummy after a dip in the ocean. Mmmm…beach reading.
I remember reading the article in Better Homes and Gardens last year about the Breeze Inn. It’s decorated just like my fantasy beach house would be. My last bedroom before I got married was decorated in the same style, which my parents lovingly called “beach trash.” My favorite pieces in that room were the Florida-related crafts my great-grandmother made when she would travel to Florida for the summer and then bring back to Tennessee to remind her of her trips.
My all-time favorite beach destination is Emerald Isle, NC. It’s a family beach without a lot of commercialism and just the epitome of relaxation. We’ve been renting various houses there for almost 25 years, ever since my grandparents planned a trip for us there. They have both since passed on, but my family never feels their presence more closely than when we make our annual trek to the sand.
I watch for each of MKA’s books to come out so this would be great! We have rented places on the beach all over the South and recently got back from the Pacific Northwest where we rented a house on the Hood Canal in Washington. It was gorgeous country and we were able to collect oysters right off of our back steps.
My hubby and I love to go to a small beach and rent a house down there. We can take our two pugs on the beach and drive on the beach, two big deals for us. We set up a tent, grill on the beach, play bocci ball, run around with the dogs and just relax. We always go late in the summer so there are fewer people and it’s just beautiful. Thanks, Rhoda and Mary Kay, now I can’t wait to go to the beach! 🙂
I adore MKA– she is so fun to read and follow on FB. I wanna be her when I grow up!
We just returned from a weekend at Lake Rabun and will be headed down to Destin before too long — our perfect travel plans: lake to beach. Maybe we’ll put the Breeze Inn on our list, too. 🙂
Thanks for hosting, Rhoda!!
My in-laws have a condo on the gulf that we visit during the summer. We like to hang out at the pool and also go down to the beach. I have just recently started getting into the “junking” and I love it.
Usually it’s the Green Mountains of Vermont but no summer vacation for me this year as hubby will be having major back surgery in a few weeks. I hope to get some beach time with a good book once he’s feeling better.
Thanks for such a great giveaway and a fabulous post! I read Mary Kay Andrews books as well. We are going to my dad’s for a week this summer(my kids will love to see Grandpa). Sadly, we aren’t going to the beach, but a girl can dream right? I had never been to estate sales and not too many garage sales either, until we bought our home a few years ago, and I have been trying to find pieces to furnish it with. We are on a very tight budget as I am a sahm mom, but we enjoy the hunt for good finds. Even my 5 year old loves to go, and she likes it that I usually let her get one thing at a garage sale, and especially loves it when someone at the garage sale will give her something free. Thanks again for a great post!
My parents had a summer farm to go to! I remember many summers going
down to the farm in hilly southern Indiana~ it was a big farmhouse with rolling 150 acres~ A long driveway would enter the farm passing over to rickety bridges, I would count one then two then the house would appear!
it was over the hillside from my grandma’s farm, that you could see the top of her roof. We had moved from Georgia to Indiana and my mom came home to our house in the city and told her there was a farm for sale close to her mothers home , dad bought the property! I think since we were in Georgia for so long we all missed grandma! I love Mary Kay Andrews one of my favs. Thank you for sharing your wonderful interview. And someday I will get back down to Georgia!
As I type, I am sitting on the comfy red sofa at our little piece of heaven at Lake of the Ozarks (MO). In between doin’ nothin’, we are making a few updates and touch ups, this summer. Our favorite summer rental, isn’t a rental. It’s our year round getaway haven.
A favorite getaway rental is a cabin at Big Cedar Lodge (MO).
I would love to win a copy of Mary Kay’s book.
I read all of MKA’s books last summer from the library, I loved every one. I read the last one while we were on vacation at a rental house in Harbor Springs, Michigan. It was so wonderful to spend time with my whole family, kids played at the beach, adults had great conversations and we walked the downtown in the evenings. I would love to read Mary Kay’s next book this summer.
I’ve so enjoyed reading this post! What a fabulous person to know…maybe I’ll get that chance through reading the book. Ah, summer! The beaches of south Alabama or the Florida panhandle always call my name and it will happen again this year…anywhere near the water or a pool to help beat the heat. Thanks for this opportunity.
Oh… yes! The beach! A cottage and fresh seafood! What else? Oh, yes… a hammock would be nice too! 🙂
This post made me wish I was on the beach right now. We live by the sea, but it’s pretty chilly today. Let’s pray for more sunshine!
I hope you have a beautiful day, my friend!
xo
Luciane at HomeBunch.com
I have been reading Mary Kay’s books(and Kathy Hogan Trochek as she is also known!) for years. Love her mysteries that are set in Atlanta. My husband’s sister has a beach house at Tybee. Her house is actually part of old Fort Screven that was based on Tybee Island. We have spent many happy summer days there. While many enjoy the South End of Tybee, near the pier, we prefer the North Beach where is is relatively quiet. I was afraid that after The Last Song was filmed there, the secret of Tybee would be “out”. I enjoy Tybee because it is fairly undeveloped for a beach town. If you have never been there, it is certainly worth a trip. I hope I win Summer Rental…loved loved loved The Fixer Upper!