Deep Dishin' With Mary Kay Andrews

Hometown author Mary Kay Andrews tells AW how she came up with the idea for her latest novel and what it was like to cover that famous murder trial in Savannah, among other juicy tidbits.

by Jennifer Dennard

November 19, 2008

" M urder is easy, but relationships are hard," Mary Kay Andrews told a crowd of about 50 fans at a recent Cobb Library Foundation fundraising luncheon at The Georgian Club,  as she discussed making the transition from writing murder mysteries to Southern chick lit, or "grit lit," as Andrews calls the genre.

Andrews wrote Callahan Garrity murder mystery novels under her real name, Kathy Hogan Trocheck, for a number of years before delving into the charming Savannah- and Atlanta-based stories she now concentrates on - stories -  like her latest, Deep Dish, and Savannah Breeze and Hissy Fit, among others - that have gained her an entirely new,  and some would say, much bigger,  fan base.

"I was ready for a new challenge," she told the audience, in answer to why she decided to make the switch. "It was my idea, and I was fortunate to have an editor that supported me."

She admitted there was a  learning curve in moving from the framework of mystery to the murkier structure of a novel based on relationships. "I had to unlearn the rules of the genre, the conventions of mystery. [O]nce the body is found and the murderer is unveiled, the book is over. But not so when you're writing ... chick lit for grownups."

Making It Believable
The learning curve was no doubt a sharp one, because Andrews was well-versed in constructing mysteries, having been a reporter with various newspapers in Savannah and Atlanta - including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she spent 10 years as a features writer - for many years. "I was fascinated with cops and courts," Andrews said.

She covered for the AJC two of the trials that served as the basis for the novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. "It was fun to cover. It was juicy," Andrews said. "It did engender a lot of talk because [Jim Williams] was pretty well-known in Savannah social circles. He threw a Christmas party every year that was the event of the season."

Andrews even put together a book proposal based on the trial to pitch to a publishing house, but John Berendt beat her to it. Even though that particular idea never came to fruition, she was able to use certain details from it in her second Callahan novel, To Live and Die in Dixie. "I took parts of that story and turned it around - made the murder victim a young woman and put the mansion in Inman Park."

When asked why all of her novels are set in the South, Andrews replied, "I believe in write what you know, or write what you think you know. At the time when I started writing mysteries, my daughter was eight eight and my son was three, and I was still working full time at the paper. I couldn't set a book in Zanzibar because I'd never been to Zanzibar, and it wasn't like I was going to go. And this way, if I had to figure out where a body was going to go in the Chattahoochee River, I could just go there. And I did do that. One night, I didn't have a sitter and my husband was working late, so I loaded the kids in the car and we drove up and down a road in Roswell looking for a place where a car could go off the road and a body would be found."

Catchy Title? No Problem
Andrews seems to have no trouble thinking up titles for her books. "I usually know the title before I start writing," she said. " To Live and Die in Dixie, as soon as I came up with the idea for that title, I had to figure out a book that would go with it. With Hissy Fit, all I had was the idea for a title. I was taking a bubble bath one night, upset with somebody for one reason or another, I thought, 'I'm just going to go pitch a hissy fit.' As soon as I had that thought, I jumped out of the tub, called my agent and said, 'I've got a great book title.' I think that's a throwback to my newspaper days. When I finished a story, I would write a headline suggestion at the top for the copy desk, and that just carried over to writing fiction."

Cookin' Up A New Book
Deep Dish, her latest novel, is also a result of  "write what you know." The story is of two local TV chefs - a man and a woman, of course - who participate in a reality show in order to win a coveted national cooking show. Various culinary conundrums occur, a few hissy fits are pitched, and more than one romantic relationship is whipped up.

Andrews came up with the idea as a result of the friendly bickering she and her husband get into when cooking together. She even came up with all the recipes peppered throughout the book, such as Grilled Ginger Peachy and Tomato Soup Chocolate Cake - and no, that's not a typo. In order to really give the story a fresh dash of authenticity, she spent some time with Paula Deen on the set of her Food Network cooking show. "She's very charming and funny and generous," Andrews said.

What's Next?
Andrew's next novel, The Fixer Upper, should hit shelves sometime early next summer. Written in the midst of Andrews' own attempts to fix up a cottage on Tybee Island that she and her husband recently bought, the story centers on a young woman who moves from Washington back to her hometown, where she fixes up the family home in order to flip it.

You can catch up with her at the Savannah Book Festival in February, as well as April 19 at the Fayette Public Library in Fayetteville, and on April 23 at the Library Association Annual Conference in Birmingham, Ala.

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Junkin' With Mary Kay
One of Mary Kay Andrews' passions, aside from watching Grey's Anatomy with her girlfriends every week, is junkin'. An avowed extreme junker, according to her website (www.marykayandrews.com), Andrews has a few favorite spots in Atlanta she likes to hit, including shops in Decatur and intown estate sales, which she travels to with her posse of girlfriends. "Every Friday, if there's an estate sale, I'm there. We try to end up at the Oak Grove Market in Oak Grove for lunch. It's just really a chance for girlfriends to get together." She added that she's always at the Scotts Antique Market on the second weekend of every month.

Andrews also has her own antiques booth at a little shop on Tybee Island called Seaside Sisters, where she occasionally holds book signings.

For more recommendations, visit the Favorite Places section of her website, www.marykayandrews.com/content/places.asp.
To make the most of your next junkin' trip, follow her helpful tips: www.marykayandrews.com/content/junking.asp.

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Editor's Note: The Cobb Library Foundation aims to "increase the presence of the library in the community through advocacy and fundraising." To learn more about the foundation, including its Meet the Author  luncheon series, visit www.cobbcat.org/cobb_lib_foundation.htm.