The lovely Mary Kay Andrews is back again with another absolutely terrific book!  Not only that, she’s here with recipes for Margaritas!  Leave a comment to be entered to win a copy of the book or her Ladies’ Night Kit with all the fixings for a great party (see photo below).

DB: Mary Kay, tell us about the plot of your new book:

MKA: Ladies’ Night is the story of lifestyle blogger Grace Stanton who, after catching her husband cheating, drives his convertible into the family swimming pool. Once her glamorous lifestyle goes up in flames, Grace, penniless and homeless, is forced to reinvent her life—while attending court-mandated divorce recovery therapy with a group of oddballs with whom she has nothing in common—except betrayal and revenge.

DB:  I must say I enjoyed every minute of it.  No one knows how to torture a character more entertainingly than you!  LOL.  Why did you chose to make her a blogger?  (self-interested question as a blogger myself.  {grin})

But before you answer, here is Mary Kay’s Sandbox Beergarita recipe.  Make yourself one and enjoy the rest of this post!

Ingredients: 1 -12 oz frozen limeade; 1 -12 oz can lemon-lime soda; 1 -12 oz bottle of beer (MKA prefers Corona); 12 oz decent quality tequila; 3 limes; Ice; Kosher salt

Fill pitcher half way with ice, add thawed limeade, fill empty limeade can with tequila and dump in.  Add beer and wait for foam to subside.  Add soda to taste and the juice of two limes.  Use third lime to rub rims of glasses and dip in salt.  Bottoms up!

DB:  Okay, now that we all have a great beergarita in hand, tells us why you made your heroine a blogger?

MKA:  As a lifelong junker, house restorer and decorator in denial, I read a lot of lifestyle and decorating blogs. I’m fascinated with the reach and range of these every-day people, who write about and document their own passions for these topics. Although my protagonist, Grace, is actually an interior designer, many lifestyle bloggers don’t have any formal training in these fields, or in writing or photography, which actually makes their blogs less intimidating and more approachable to the average gal who just wants to know how to chalk-paint an old dresser or make a farmhouse table out of discarded wooden pallets. Some of these bloggers  have millions of followers and have gone on to have book deals and even their own product lines, like Miss Mustard Seed, who has her own line of milk paint, or the couple behind Young House Love, who recently introduced their own line of lighting fixtures.

I thought it would make for great drama, and conflict, for Grace to start out having this seemingly very glamorous, Martha Stewart life, in a fabulous house—and then to have it all snatched away when her marriage fails. One minute she’s shooting a tabletop story with an imported Belgian linen runner, the next, she’s mopping floors at her mother’s run-down beach bar on the Florida gulf coast.

DB:  You usually set your novels in North Carolina or Georgia.  What brought about the new location of Anna Maria Island, off the coast of Sarasota, FL?

MKA:  I grew up in St. Petersburg, which is just across the Sunshine Skyway from Anna Maria. I like Anna Maria because it reminds me of the beaches of my youth; not too developed, sort of low-key. And I gave Wyatt a failing throw-back family-owned tourist attraction, which I called Jungle Jerry’s, because I grew up going to places like Silver Springs, Cypress Gardens and Weeki-Wachee. I was looking the nostalgia factor, and for a lost cause. Also? I wanted to go to Florida and write in January when it’s cold and miserable in Atlanta. So I rented a tiny cottage on Anna Maria and strolled the beach and ate seafood. Nice work if you can get it.

DB:  Hmmm, nice work indeed.  Do you need an assistant?  A secretary?  A dog-wallker … running out of possible job titles here.  (MKA doesn’t answer)  Okay, guess we’re on to the next question.  Which authors do you like to read in your spare time?

MKA: When I’m starting a book and want a great hook, I’ll read one of my favorite Elmore Leonard novels, like Gold Coast or Get Shorty to inspire me to leave out the stuff readers skip over. Nobody puts you in the world of a book faster than Leonard. If I’m writing a sexy love scene, I’ll turn to Susan Elizabeth Phillips (What I Did For Love)or Jennifer Crusie, (Crazy for You) who manage to do funny and sexy at the same time.  To make myself crazy with envy because she writes books with such heart and warmth, I love Elinor Lipman. I read her novel, The Family Man, when I was writing Summer Rental, and had to write her a gushy fan-girl note to tell her she’d written the perfect book.

DB:  Thank you so much for being here, Mary Kay!  This is the perfect beach read and I know my readers will absolutely love it!

Now, don’t forget to leave a comment if you’d like to be entered to win a copy of Ladies’ Night or the Ladies’ Night Party Kit!