Mary Kay Andrews: Summer Rental Book Giveaway

{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!

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