Award-winning, number one bestselling author, Book Doula, and Nashville local Rea Frey has done it again, placing another heartfelt and memorable novel under her belt.
In Every Life explores love, impossible choices, and second chances, and will debut August 6. Frey is a lifelong wellness-lover and an accomplished writing coach who makes sure her dreams turn into reality with a story as interesting as her novels. We chatted with Frey about her latest novel, career journey, holism, and more.
About The Book: After an unexpected diagnosis, Ben urges Harper to find a new partner. Staring at the precipice of her love life and desperate for answers, Harper performs a moon ritual, petitions for the best outcome, and wakes up to find herself in a parallel universe where her what-ifs become a reality. A story of hope and heartbreak, this exploration of love, life, and the possibility of ‘what if ’ in the face of death lingers long after the story has ended.
Writing Inspiration: When I was 19, I had to get brain surgery for an arachnoid cyst that was on the verge of hemorrhaging. I was a competitive boxer at the time, and it was a devastating diagnosis. I truly thought I might die, and it really put my life into perspective. It also gave me insight into the body’s amazing ability to heal. In 2020, my business partner at the time got married, and then his wife was promptly diagnosed with leukemia. While they were just starting their lives together, they were also thrust into this harrowing journey where they had to fight for her survival. Their relationship inspired my two main characters’ marriage, Ben and Harper. They have just started their life together when Ben gets diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer and is given just months to live. All of a sudden, their lives are thrust into focus: What really matters? What should they do with the time they have left? Harper, our heroine, starts to examine some of her big what ifs in her life: what if she’d become an artist instead of an art teacher? What if she’d moved to Manhattan instead of living in Chattanooga? What if she’d chosen a different man? All of her what ifs become a reality when she makes a wish and ends up in a completely different reality. I think it’s fun to play with time and the big questions we have when we wonder what our lives would have turned out like had we made different choices.
What Ifs: Every day, we make a series of choices that lead to certain results. But most of us are completely unconscious, thinking the same thoughts, taking the same actions, and creating the same outcomes over and over again. But yet so many of us live life with what ifs, so I wanted to explore that with Harper. What if she had become an artist? What if she had ended up with another man? Would her life be better or worse? For this book, I played with different sections: What Is, What Was, and What If. A lot of us ruminate about the past and think about the future, but we are so rarely in the present moment. I wanted to explore all the ways this affects us, or could affect us in the end.
Navigating Heavy Subjects: My last book, The Other Year, was the hardest book I’ve ever written, because it dealt with the loss of a child. I always explore tough themes in my books... things I fear, things I’ve faced, things I might face. I love going deep because it’s a form of therapy for me. If I can put myself in the characters’ shoes and realize they will make it through, then maybe so can I!
Hard Work Pays Off: I’ve always loved to write, but like so many people, I thought it was more of a hobby than a career. I didn’t see anyone else in my life who had become a professional author (though my dad is a wonderful writer), so I wasn’t able to “see to believe” it was possible for me. However, I decided to go to college for creative writing, and before I graduated, I wrote a novel that got published, though the experience was far from wonderful. I realized I’d been in such a rush to get published that I didn’t understand how the industry worked. My professors didn’t offer a single class on the business of publishing. Instead, it was all about the craft. So, I took it upon myself to pursue other positions: I worked with literary agencies and publishers. I became a ghostwriter, an editor, and an editorial manager for magazines. I was a journalist on numerous death row cases. I wanted to work in every facet of the industry, so I understood it. That being said, I was also equally passionate about health and wellness and became a certified personal trainer and nutrition specialist at just 17. I worked in that industry for years (and even co-owned a gym for a while), and I had four nonfiction books traditionally published in the health and wellness space. I found that I could mold my love of health and wellness with writing too, but deep down, I always felt that tug to return to fiction. By the time I got an idea for my debut novel, Not Her Daughter, I had worked in the publishing industry for over a decade and understood how it worked, so I really felt ready to step back into it.
Frey will be at Parnassus Books during the first week of August and can discuss the intersection of self-care and self-discovery, and how to position yourself as a writer, as well as practical tips for fostering wellness and navigating life’s challenges with grace. Learn more about Frey from her Instagram or website. (reafrey.com)