Rea Frey is the author of the new novel In Every Life. Her other books include the novel The Other Year.
Q: What inspired you to write In Every Life, and how did you create your character Harper?
A: This book was actually inspired by two dear friends who were newlyweds and got faced with an unexpected cancer diagnosis. I couldn’t imagine how hard it must be to feel so excited to start your life together and then suddenly be fighting for your life. That’s where the initial idea came from.
However, when I was creating Harper, I wanted to explore a woman who once had the whole world at her fingertips: in her 20s, she wanted to be an artist. She wanted to live in New York and make her dreams come true. She fell in love and had everything she ever wanted. But because she believed she didn’t deserve it, she self-sabotaged and gave up her dreams.
When we meet her, she’s created a new life: she’s an art teacher, she’s fallen in love with someone new, and finally feels she’s on the right path. And then her husband gets diagnosed with cancer, and everything shifts.
Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: Choosing a title is always a collaborative process! My agent, editor, and I bounced ideas around, and we all loved this one.
I’m someone who believes in the quantum world. I think, right now, there could be many versions of ourselves, living out our wildest dreams (or not). I also think we don’t ever really die… we just evolve into a new life, or a new iteration.
This book is about what Harper finds in this life. Who she loves. What choices she makes. What chances she takes. But it also alludes to what she might find in every life, should she believe she gets more than one chance.
Q: The writer Kate Robb said of the book, “Frey broke my heart into a million pieces, then tenderly put it back together with her deeply moving message that sometimes the truest way we can love someone is by letting them go.” What do you think of that description?
A: I love this blurb! (I also love Kate.) My mission is to always write books that move people. It’s lovely to be entertained or to have everything wrapped up in a pretty bow, or to only focus on romance, but that’s not real life.
I want my readers to feel something. I want them to ask themselves what they would do in my characters’ situations. I want them to remember the book.
Q: Did you know how the story would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I am an author who often sees the ending before I know exactly how I’m going to get there. I always knew how I wanted to end it… though the middle did change quite a bit on the journey!
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I actually write in two different genres with two different publishers. My latest thriller, Don’t Forget Me, just came out in March, and my next thriller, When She’s Gone, is publishing in January!
It’s about a former Olympic gymnast who was kidnapped on Halloween in 1995. Years later, her own daughter gets kidnapped on Halloween… and to get her back, she has to take someone else’s child.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: In addition to writing books, I’m also a book doula, which means I help other authors get their work into the world. This is a very tough industry to navigate, so I love helping people get clear on their goals, understand their publishing options, and birth their books into the world.
I am also studying to be an Integrative Health Practitioner, as my love for functional medicine, health and wellness, and feeling the best we can is one of the smartest things I can think to do for myself and my family. (There are lots of these themes in In Every Life too!)
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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