Akin to a baker's dozen, my Farmer's Dozen is a quantity
of a dozen or so questions - a series of questions with fellow designers,
authors, tastemakers, friends and Southerners alike
I've read almost all
of MKA's books... The latest one is tempting me to take off for the summer and
read the hot days away... But alas I must keep my day job!
Kathy aka MKA is a
delightful dear friend of mine. Anyone who reads her works feels befriended by
her - her writing voice is such a part of her natural persona that each page is
akin to a soulful conversation with a longtime pal.
Kathy and I share a
passion for blue and white, antique shopping and IGA fried chicken - what
better foundation for a friendship? Whether we are shopping at Scott's or
lunching at Tybee whilst gazing onto the steely Atlantic or emailing throughout
the week words of encouragement, plans for book launches or just to say
"hey y'all," any time or text with MKA is a jewel! I'm sure y'all
would agree!
Ladies and gents,
without further adieu, please enjoy this Farmer's Dozen with JTF and
MKA!!
Mary KayAndrews is the New York Times bestselling author of Ladies Night,
Christmas Bliss, Spring Fever, Summer Rental, 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.
Farmer’s Dozen: Mary Kay Andrews
2.
Whether
at Scotts or your Tybee Island cottage, I love the times we’ve had to eat,
laugh, and visit. Where do you go to write and rejuvenate? I love
to look up from my laptop to see beautiful scenery, whether it’s our beach
house Ebbtide, on Tybee Island, a borrowed house on a lake in the North Georgia
mountains, or just my front porch, where I’m working right now, looking out
past the fern baskets and pink knock-out roses.
3.
My favorite
book of yours is Hissy Fit. I love that you write about
fictional people in real places. What was your inspiration for the setting and
characters in Hissy Fit? For that book I needed a
good Southern girl who is provoked into throwing the biggest hissy fit ever. I
made her an interior designer, because I’m a decorator in denial, and I set the
book in Madison because I wanted a real small town where old secrets suddenly
come bubbling up from the past.
4. Which
character in your books closest resembles you? All my
characters have a bit of my DNA in them—only they’re younger, cuter, thinner
and smarter than me. And they definitely have more man problems!
5. What did
you call your grandmothers? Share a story about them…maybe something you
inherited from her? My maternal grandmother was “Gram.” And my paternal grandmother
“Nanny” was an Irish immigrant who lived in Chicago, so I only saw her once a
year, in May, when she came to visit. My mother’s mother was a piece of work.
She had all kinds of memorable expessions, like “hold your horses, Sister
Perkins,” or “that girl looks like country come to town,” or “looks like a
sack-full of cats going to the river.” Maybe I inherited my love for colorful
language from my Gram.
6. Who
inspires you? I’m inspired by people who are selfless and giving, by women from
all walks of life who face immeasurable obstacles, but still soldier on,
raising children, feeding hungry people, getting things done without a lot of
fanfare. I’m inspired by those who dare to dream—and then keep trying.
7. What are
some of your favorite heirlooms? What do you love about them? How have you
incorporated them into your décor? I have a few old black and
white snapshots of family members at the same beach in my hometown in St.
Petersburg, Fla. One of my mom, at the age of 17, modeling a swimsuit on the
beach. Another of me, as a toddler, in a droopy cotton swimsuit on that same
beach just a few years later. There’s a grainy one of my grandmother, in a
depression-era dress and hat, camping on that same beach. And yet another black
and white, of my son, maybe age 8, hamming it up for the camera on another
Florida beach. I have them all framed and displayed in the stairwell of our
beach house on Tybee. I love the sense of continuity in the pictures, the
care-free memories they evoke, and the visual link to members of my family who
are now gone.
8. What are
your favorite scents from the home and garden? I love
the smell of gardenias—we have a huge shrub in our font yard. Anything lemony
or citrusy. I burn Archepilago’s Red Currant candles when I write.
9.
I think a
coffee table says a lot about your life and style. What’s on your coffee table
right now, and what is your coffee table? I have stacks of
decorating books and coffee table books, like Dinner on the Grounds, a
huge tole tray painted with flowers, a Disney princess coloring book and a
lidless white ironstone tureen full of crayons for my grandchildren. The table
itself is an antique oval pine harvest table, cut down to coffee table height.
10.
If you
were a color, what would you be and why? Blue—it’s the color of
serenity, calm, deep water. All of which I crave in my life.
11. What’s
your favorite room in your home? Probably the little
sun-room off the living room in our 1925 Craftsman cottage. It’s where I wrote
large chunks of my latest book, and where I take catnaps.
12. Do you
collect anything in particular? If so, how did you start? I started collecting blue and white
transferware after my mother gifted me with a few pieces of Blue Willow from my
grandmother’s house. I have a nice collection of vintage tin lithographed beach
toys, which I display at our beach house, like sand pails, shovels and watering
cans, that started when I found two toy watering cans at an estate sale for a
couple bucks.
13. You’re
having a dinner party could invite anyone… Including any character from
history, who would be at your dinner party? (Pssst, I am included on the guest
list) Hmm. Audrey Hepburn, because she was beautiful and compassionate
and involved. Julian Fellowes, so I could ask him about next season’s Downton
Abbey, Amelia Earhart—I want to find out what happened to her. And Truman
Capote, who knew everybody important in the last half of the 20th
century—and who loved to dish the dirt about all of them.
