Leigh Dunlap is the author of the new novel Bless Your Heart. She is also a screenwriter.
Q: What inspired you to write Bless Your Heart, and how did you create your cast of characters?
A: Hi Deb! I guess the inflection point was when I was at my son’s Little League game in Buckhead and a mother from another team called one of our 10-year-old boys an A—H—E! Screamed it out for all to hear.
Writers are weird and we think of all the horrible things normal people don’t usually think about and I immediately thought — if someone would say that to a 10-year-old boy…well, maybe they could also kill someone. And what if they did? And who would that be? And that became, okay, let’s kill someone! My mind just wandered from there…
The characters were a combination of characters I had brewing in my mind and also the need to have certain characters be available to aid the story.
I needed a newcomer to fill the readers in on this Buckhead, Atlanta place, so I brought in a YA writer from California. I needed a voice of reason, so that was a lawyer. Someone to represent old money. Someone to represent new money. I just wanted to cover all the Atlanta bases.
Q: As you noted, the novel is set in the Buckhead section of Atlanta--how important is setting to you in your writing?
A: It’s kind of everything. As much as there’s a version of Buckhead in every place (Beverly Hills, the Hamptons, Fisher Island, Medina), Buckhead is uniquely Southern and has its own thing going on.
It’s also, through taxes, financially responsible for Atlanta at large and that causes some friction. So Buckhead versus the rest of the city is a subplot and the tension between the have-a-lot and the have-not-as-much lingers over all that happens.
Q: The writer Kaira Rouda said of the book, “Brimming with southern charm and lethal ambition, Bless Your Heart delivers a wickedly entertaining reminder that motherhood might unite women across social divides, but murder reveals who they truly are.” What do you think of that description?
A: I think it shows what a wonderful writer Kaira is! Motherhood is a very important part of the book. As much as everyone seems to look for what divides people, we also have a lot in common.
Motherhood is something that links the women in the book, regardless of their circumstances. It’s how they know each other — either through school or Little League. Motherhood makes for fierce women and that’s a fun thing to explore. Maybe they wouldn’t have anything to do with one another otherwise.
As for murder? That’s turning up the heat and seeing how people react. Usually poorly.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I knew how it would end. It’s interesting to me that some writers don’t know and they find out through the process of writing. I’m not that gal! I need everything mapped out on index cards and color coded and sorted and highlighted. I’m not clever enough to wing it.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: So many things. I have a post-apocalyptic YA love story. A cozy murder mystery (still not sure how murder can be cozy but I’m going with it) set in England, a not so cozy murder mystery about Americans in London, and a sequel to Bless Your Heart. The further adventures of Shay Claypool. Index cards surround me as I type.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I went horseback riding at the Spahn Ranch with members of the Manson Family when I was a child. Right around the time of their murder spree. I distinctly remember how nice they were. After all that happened, I could never reconcile how those nice people did such a terrible thing.
I think the ensuing drama of it all imprinted on me. Luckily it led me to write about a murder and not commit one.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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