Interview with K.C. Hardy, authors of 'One-Way Ticket Home'
Kristie Hardy, whose life is the inspiration behind this
book, holds a B.S. in Education, a minor in English, and is a former
teacher. But her most recent profession
as a private investigator spawned a desire to unearth the long-suppressed
details of her own personal story. She
is a mother of two, and a thirty year metastatic breast cancer survivor. Kristie
currently resides in San Antonio, Texas
with her husband.
Cate Hardy, Kristie’s daughter and co-author, is a graduate
of the University of Texas
at Austin. Cate lives in San
Antonio, Texas with the loves
of her life: her husband and two children.
Kristie and Cate are the mother/daughter writing team of
K.C. Hardy. Their latest book is the Christian inspirational fiction, One-Way
Ticket Home.
For More Information
About the Book:
Days before boarding the plane to Italy
for her daughter’s wedding, Julie Whitaker receives an unexpected phone call
from her past. The memory of Mark Jennings, a handsome and charming Top Gun
pilot, had haunted her for decades. Their fairy tale wedding was everything
she’d ever dreamed of, but it quickly turned into her worst nightmare.
Starting a new a life without Mark proved to be much harder
than Julie had imagined. But in her darkest hour, God revealed Himself in a
miraculous way, giving her the strength she needed not only to battle
depression, but to face a diagnosis of breast cancer that threatened to cut her
life short.
Now, amidst the splendor of the Italian Alps, on the eve of
her daughter’s wedding, Julie’s thoughts are catapulted back to Mark and the
reason for his call. After thirty years,
will Julie have a chance to see him once again? And would she even want to?
Based on true events, One-Way Ticket Home will take you on
an unforgettable journey of love, loss, hope and forgiveness. With grace,
candor and an indomitable wit, K.C. Hardy reminds us that it is often in our
darkest hours, that the strength of the human spirit shines the brightest.
For More Information
- One-Way Ticket Home is available at Amazon.
- Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.
Q: Welcome to The Writer's
Life! Now that your book has been
published, we’d love to find out more about the process. Can we begin by having you take us at the
beginning? Where did you come up with
the idea to write your book?
One-Way Ticket Home is based on my
mother (Kristie Hardy’s) life. Kristie
is a 30-year breast cancer and domestic abuse survivor with an amazing story
that I know will inspire so many women who see themselves in her journey. However, in order to counteract the
often-times heavy subject matter, we transformed it into a heart-warming novel
that takes place against the enchanting backdrop of a wedding in Varenna,
Italy. Most women will be
able to relate to Julie’s experiences—the memory of your first love and the
heartache when things go tragically wrong.
Q: How hard was it to write a
book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make
the journey easier for other writers?
Perhaps it was because our novel is based on true life events that my
mother lived through, this book was oftentimes very hard her to relive and
recount. My advice to other others
embarking on this journey for the first time is to take your time—don’t rush
it. Eight years ago we never dreamed
that our manuscript would take eight years to complete. But we aligned ourselves with brilliant
editors, took their constructive criticism even when it meant discarding entire
chapters, and the end result is something we are extremely proud of.
Q: Who is your publisher and how
did you find them or did you self-publish?
After coming very close to having it traditionally published we decided
to self-publish in order to maintain more control over the content. The most important thing was for us to
maintain true to the manuscript’s underlying authenticity and themes so that we
would be able to connect with our readers.
Q: Is there anything that
surprised you about getting your first book published?
How long it would take us to finish it. What I thought would be six months turned
into eight years!
Q: What other books (if any) are
you working on and when will they be published?
We are working on another book and hope to complete it within one year,
as opposed to eight!
Q: What’s one fact about your
book that would surprise people?
I think
that people might have a hard time believing it is based on a true story. The truth is, that we actually decided to
leave out a lot of my mother’s story because I was concerned that people might
find her story hard to believe.
Q: Finally, what message (if any)
are you trying to get across with your book?
That there is always hope. It was Kristie’s desire to share her story
and struggles with women everywhere in order to help them victoriously face
their own personal battles. She wanted
to show how God had brought her through and healed her from metastatic breast
cancer. She feels that if her struggles
even help just one person then it will all have been worthwhile. It was also important to Kristie that women
realize that God is not a respecter of persons.
We don’t have to be perfect for him to love us and reach us right where
we are. His word does not return void and He desires to heal us—whether that be
physically, mentally, emotionally or all of the above.
Q: Thank you again for this
interview! Do you have any final words?
We just wanted to thank you for the
opportunity to do this interview.
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