Unreadable Podcast Transcript - June 2026

In this episode, Ross speaks with best-selling author Mary Kay Andrews about her newest book Road Trip, which features two estranged sisters who take a road trip across Ireland learning about their family and themselves along the way. Mary Kay shares a little about her writing background as well as her inspiration for her new book, including some of her own family history. 

Mary Kay Andrews will be appearing at the Sharon Forks Library on June 28, 2026. Please check our events page for more information.

Opening

[bouncy piano and brass music]

Ross Gericke: Hello and welcome to Unreadable, the official Forsyth County Public Library Podcast for news, upcoming programs, and recommendations.

I’m your host, Ross Gericke, the branch manager at Hampton Park.

In this episode I speak with Mary Kay Andrews, bestselling author of over 30 books.  Her newest book Road Trip features a pair of estranged sisters who embark on a trip across Ireland to discover the truth about their family’s past and about each other.  Mary Kay Andrews will be visiting the Sharon Forks Library in person on June 28th, but tickets are going fast, so make sure to reserve your spot on our website at www.forsythpl.org. Now on with the show.

Interview

Ross Gericke: Mary Kay, welcome to the podcast.

Mary Kay Andrews: Thank you, Ross. Good to be with you.

Ross Gericke: So, we're here to talk a little bit about your new book Road Trip but, Mary Kay, you are hardly new to the world of writing. As an Atlanta local, you have even wrote for the AJC for a number of years. Do you mind telling us a little bit about your time at the AJC and how you transitioned to writing novels?

Mary Kay Andrews: Yeah. I was with the AJC for about 10 years. The last few years I was a Features writer. So I covered a little bit of everything. I covered trend stories and family issues and you know just about anything that came down the pike. And around the late 80s, newspapers had changed, and I wasn't thrilled with the direction they were going in. Stories were getting shorter, and at the same time I had young kids at home. I wanted to be home when they got home from school. My mother had always worked outside the home. 

So, um, there were a group of us in the newsroom, about four or five of us, and all of us were writing in secret. We were all working on novels, and so we would meet on Thursdays and we would exchange chapters and chat about our work that we – what we were doing and so I um started writing in secret. I was working on a mystery because I'd always read a lot of mysteries. And Wednesday night was my big writing night. I would – I didn't have a computer at home, so I would sneak back to the paper at night and write on my computer, which was totally against company policy, which made me want to do it more because it turns out I have a subversive streak. [Ross laughs] 

And at the end of the year – I gave myself one year – and at the end of the year, I had a manuscript and I started sending it off and that manuscript never got published. But based on it, I got a book offer from Harper Collins for my first novel which was Every Crooked Nanny and that was in 1990. And, I quit my day job in 1991, and Every Crooked Nanny came out in 1992.

Ross Gericke: So, your novels are incredibly popular. I know because as a librarian over the last 20 years, I've had to put a bunch of your books on hold lists and pull them off shelves and put them back on shelves. So, I've handled a lot of your books over the years. Was there a particular breakthrough novel for you in terms of popularity or was it like a slow build since the early 90s?

Mary Kay Andrews: Yeah, I think there was – I think there was a slow build. Um, I wrote, you know, ten mysteries under my real name, eight of the Callahans and two with a character named Truman Kicklighter. And then I had an idea for a different kind of a book. It wasn't set in Atlanta. Uh, it wasn't one of my series, and it was set in Savannah actually with a character whose name was Eloise Foley. And I decided because it was so different from what I've been writing – I thought it was a mystery, but I decided I would publish it under a pseudonym. And it was a gamble because, you know, I had no idea whether or not my mystery readers would follow me, but I thought it was worth a gamble. So, um, the pseudonym I came up with was Mary Kay Andrews, a combination of my kids' names. And Savannah Blues came out, uh, gosh, over 20 years ago, I think, and immediately it out sold all my mysteries combined. So, I think that was really the turning point for my novels.

Ross Gericke: Was that a decision you made to use a pin name or was that like a publishing decision or how do you come to that decision?

Mary Kay Andrews: Um, it was a decision I made. I was frustrated that my mystery sales weren't growing faster. I mean, I was –  they were okay. My publisher was very content with it. I was getting good reviews. In fact, I got reviewed by the New York Times, and that's the one and only time I've ever been reviewed by the New York Times. [laughter] But I just – I don't know – I was impatient and I wanted to try the pseudonym and fortunately, my publisher was okay with it. They were ready to take the gamble, too.

Ross Gericke: So, librarians are always looking for good recommendations, but apart from your most recent book, are there any of your novels that you'd like our listeners to pick up?

Mary Kay Andrews: Well, of course, I want all of them to want to read Road Trip, my new one. But Summers at the Saint came out two years ago and that one I think was – I love that book and if you're looking – if you haven't – somebody who hasn't read one of my books I always suggest you try Hissy Fit because that was my first New York Times bestseller and I always tell people it's the gateway drug to my books.

Ross Gericke: [laughter] That first one – and at the library that first one can be free, you know. So, I read your novel Road Trip on a family trip to South Dakota that I just got back from a couple days ago. You know, I thought it was thematically appropriate. Um, is this novel Road Trip based on a particular road trip you have taken?

Mary Kay Andrews: No, it's not based on a road trip. Um, well, let me take that back. I had the idea for the book and I sort of knew what I wanted to write about, but for research for the book, I did do a road trip to Ireland with a dear friend who had been to Ireland several times before and was most importantly willing to drive over there because I was terrified at the notion of driving on the wrong side of the road. So, um, the idea for the book and the general plot of the book I had decided on, but yes, I did take a road trip to Ireland and lots and lots of the stuff that I ended up putting in the book was actually inspired by that trip.

Ross Gericke: And you mentioned in your preface for this novel that it is a little different than your previous books and maybe quite a bit more personal. Is it just the road trip aspect that makes it more personal or what makes the book more personal?

Mary Kay Andrews: Well, no, I think what makes it more personal is the fact that my father's parents, my paternal grandparents were both Irish immigrants. They both came over to the US from Ireland in the nineteen-teens and twenties. And in particular, my grandmother, her name was Mary Ellen Sherlock; she came over – she left Cobh on the west coast of Ireland. She was a 20-year-old. She'd been orphaned. She and her sister were raised by their grandfather who was a – who was a farmer, a tenant farmer. And they came over on a White Star Line ship called the Cedric. So part of what I wanted to do when I was researching this novel was to, you know, find out a little bit about my family's history. I was interested in writing a little bit about the immigrant experience, the Irish immigrant experience in America. Um, and so that part of it is personal to me. The fictional sisters in the book, Maeve and Therese, are Irish American, and they were born and raised in Savannah, which many people may know has a very large Irish population, Irish-American population. And I've lived and worked in Savannah and set lots of my books there. So, that part of it felt pretty personal to me.

Ross Gericke: So, the novel itself, Road Trip, centers around the sisters Therese and Maeve's trip to Ireland trying to authenticate the provenance of a painting that is also a family heirloom in the wake of their mother's passing. It also contains a number of flashbacks and letters centering on Kathleen, an Irish immigrant to America at the turn of the 20th century. Did you do a lot of pre-planning to keep all those plot lines straight or did you allow the story to sort of bubble-up organically?

Mary Kay Andrews: Um, I did some pre-planning. I knew a little bit about my fictional orphan, Kathleen Connor, and I knew, of course, you know, the book is fiction, so I knew I would have these sisters, uh, Therese and Maeve. I knew they were estranged. I knew I would put them in Ireland and I would take them to the west coast of Ireland. And I knew there would – they were looking for – to see if there was anyone left of their family still there. But it wasn't until I got there really that things started to unfold and the inspiration started to really bubble up from the Irish landscape.

Ross Gericke: So, you used your trip as sort of research, but was there any additional kind of research you had to do particularly for Kathleen's portion of the story?

Mary Kay Andrews: Yeah, very much so. And, I did that work at my local library. I wanted to find out what the experience was of a young Irish immigrant girl coming to the United States coming through Ellis Island. So, my librarian at the Dekalb County Library found me a book. I think it was called the Bridgets [Editor's note: The title may actually be The Irish Bridget: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930.] and it was about the experience of young Irish girls coming to America and, you know, they lived in – so many of them after they came into Ellis Island moved into tenements on the lower east side of New York. And I actually went – there's a great museum in New York called the Tenement Museum and it really shows you the experience that three different groups of immigrants had when they came to the United States and that was really a powerful experience for me. And then also I've been to Ellis Island a couple of times. My grandmother and my grandfather came through Ellis Island. And so also, with the help of the library, I could research the Cedric. My character actually – Kathleen comes over on the Cedric, the same ship my grandparents came over on. And um, I was able to see for instance diagrams of what a cabin would have looked like. Most of those Irish immigrants came over in steerage. So yeah, the library was really invaluable to me in that way.

Ross Gericke: Thank you for plugging the library. 

Mary Kay Andrews: Always.

Ross Gericke: So, what would you like your readers to take away from the story?

Mary Kay Andrews: I think I want them to think about the immigrant experience in the United States as a backdrop. Um, but the story is really about two sisters who have been estranged for a long time and their trip to the motherland and how that trip changes them and eventually heals that rift. And so, they find themselves and they redefine themselves. That's a constant theme in all my novels, women redefining and reinventing themselves.

Ross Gericke: Well, Mary Kay, this has been awesome. Thank you for coming on the podcast, and I look forward to shelving many more of your books in the future.

Mary Kay Andrews: Thank you, Ross. I look forward to being at the library.

Closing

[bouncy piano and brass music]

Ross Gericke: Thank you for listening to the June 2026 episode of Unreadable.

Please subscribe to our podcast on the Apple Podcasts app, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Contact the podcast directly with any comments by email at Unreadable@forsythpl.org.

Keep up with all the excitement happening each month on our interactive calendar available on our website, www.ForsythPL.org. You can also stay connected with the library through Facebook and Instagram @FOCOlibrary.

Our theme music is “Open Those Bright Eyes” composed by Kevin MacLeod. This and other compositions by Kevin MacLeod are available at Incompetech.com.

I’m Ross Gericke, and this podcast has been Unreadable.