Girl Meets Boy Again Plus Floral Fun: A Look at Orly Konig’s Love Story - 119

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Kristi Leonard [: 00:00:03

Welcome to Author Express. Thanks for checking us out. This is the podcast where you give us fifteen minutes of your time, and we give you a chance to hear the voice behind the pages and get to know some of your favorite writers in a new light. I'm one of your hosts, Christy Leonard, owner and host of Writers in the Wild retreats, nonfiction voice over artist, and president of WFWA. I'm excited to share with you a little about today's guest.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:00:36

Today's guest is still deciding what she wants to be when she grows up and loving every minute of it. After years in magazines and corporate communications, she discovered fiction writing almost by accident during a workshop taken purely for fun. Writing has since become her favorite escape and form of therapy. When she's not juggling story ideas or consuming far too much coffee, you'll find her crocheting adorable yarn creatures, appeasing her feline overlords, or dreaming about a future home filled with animals, cats, dogs, pigs, goats, and maybe an alpaca or three. I am delighted to say welcome, Orly.

Orly Konig [: 00:01:21

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here with you. Oh my gosh.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:01:25

Okay. So full disclosure, everyone. Orly Konig is one of my favorite people. This is her third book that we're gonna talk about her third book today. But the big thing that most of us know her for is one of the founders of the organization that I am currently running, the Women's Fiction Writers Association. So super warm hugs from me to you for starting this amazing organization.

Orly Konig [: 00:01:51

Yay, Kristi, for taking no way.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:01:54

Yeah. Right. Somebody's gotta do it. Well, we always start with the same question. Tell me the most interesting thing about where you're from.

Orly Konig [: 00:02:04

Well, the most interesting about where I am right now is that it's cherry blossom time, and I have a gorgeous cherry tree right outside my office window.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:02:11

Awesome.

Orly Konig [: 00:02:14

And a little squirrel that's made itself quite cozy nest up there.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:02:19

Awesome.

Orly Konig [: 00:02:20

She's been stealing stuffing from my cushions on my front porch. So I see her running up the street with the stuffing in her mouth.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:02:27

Okay. My writer brain is, like, coming up with the whole storyline to go with that. I'm sure if you're sitting there watching, you have the same thing. Right? Too funny. Alright. So we really like to get to know our authors. I've been told I might ask difficult questions, so forgive me. I'm hoping that I'm not gonna put you on the spot or anything.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:02:48

If you could revisit your younger self at a pivotal age, what moment would you choose, and what would you say to her?

Orly Konig [: 00:02:57

Oh, wow. I think it would probably be my first couple of years of college, maybe my first year, and tell her to get her shit together. I went in as an art major, and I think within that first year, I changed majors four times. Oh, wow. To not settle down, and then sort of coasted into a major for better or worse. Yeah. And just continued with it. And I've loved where it's taken me.

Orly Konig [: 00:03:30

But I think deep in my heart, it wasn't where I would have chosen Right. If I had been paying attention.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:03:37

If we could all go back and kick our younger selves in the butt. Right? Mhmm. Yeah. Totally get that. So my question I already know the answer to this because it was in your bio. But outside of writing, what's an unexpected passion or hobby you've discovered that significantly shaped who you are today? Is it the little creatures that you make, or is it something else?

Orly Konig [: 00:04:02

I don't necessarily know that that I think it does go back to art and my love for the creative side. I love anything to do with art. I think that it's really just art that's shaped me. I always look for creative outlets. It's also one of the reasons that got me into writing because I kinda got bored with what I was doing and needed a creative outlet. And when I thought I was gonna go back for a PhD and my husband felt like crazy, just try writing. Try writing. And here I am.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:04:40

Wow. I love that. Well, now we get to the part that I really love to talk about, which is the book, and I read it. It's called The Arrangements. And we really like to challenge our guests and ask them to describe their book in one sentence. Can you do it?

Orly Konig [: 00:04:58

Can I give you two different things?

Kristi Leonard [: 00:05:01

Anything goes.

Orly Konig [: 00:05:05

Okay. So I like to say that it is Cyrano de Bergerac meets my best friend's wedding.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:05:10

Oh, I have to think about that. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I can see that.

Orly Konig [: 00:05:14

And then the the actual one line that makes more sense to people is, a wallflower florist must learn to trust her heart when she begins to fall in love with her best friend while helping him win over his dream girl.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:05:31

Yep. Spot on. Spot on. I'm so impressed. Yes. This was such a fun book to read. So we're gonna talk a little bit about hopefully, this is generic enough. So you did mention that it's two best friends.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:05:46

So Callie and Nate are the characters. Callie and Nate's friendship is the emotional core of your novel. What intrigued you most about exploring the complexities that arise when lifelong friendships shift into romantic territory, especially when the characters are so opposite in personality?

Orly Konig [: 00:06:09

I think it's really a question of, can friendships really always be friendships? You know, I think back to when Harry Met Sally. Friends you know, many way we can never be just friends. Right. I was like, I'm gonna prove him wrong. Yeah. Maybe not. There's something that that develops in friendships that is so deep, and I think we can convince ourselves that it really is just a friendship. And then what I loved with this the way the story unfolded is also that as you start to see somebody from somebody else's point of view, you start to see what you've overlooked in them.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:06:47

Mhmm.

Orly Konig [: 00:06:48

And suddenly they become a completely different person. And even though this person that you think you know so, so well, you find these little secrets about them that are very intriguing and can create new emotions and new feelings.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:07:03

Yeah. I really loved reading their friendship. You wrote that so well. They're just the way that they bounced off each other and interacted with each other and just all the banter and everything. Super, super fun. So Cali's journey involves confronting deep seated feelings of unworthiness and family betrayal. How did you approach balancing the heavier emotional themes with the lighter playful elements of floral sabotage and romantic mishaps?

Orly Konig [: 00:07:35

Life is never easy, is it? No. There's always so much that goes on. And I think one of the things I really loved about Cali and writing Cali is that, you know, I tend to look at life with a bit of a I'll always try to to switch humor into something. It's just the way I am. Yeah. And, you know, I admit when I was writing this book, I was going through a very difficult time in my life, and this book kinda became my outlet. Oh, yeah. It was my way of letting things out and letting things go.

Orly Konig [: 00:08:10

It wasn't the book I started out to write, to be honest.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:08:13

Oh, interesting.

Orly Konig [: 00:08:15

And it just flowed. This is one of those books that really wrote itself.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:08:21

Wow. Well, nice.

Orly Konig [: 00:08:24

I had a completely different idea when I went into it. And I guess because of what I was trying to work through in my own life Mhmm. It just became this book that dealt with the hard stuff, but with the reminder that there's always something good Mhmm. In life. And there are ways you don't have to spiral into the heaviness that's thrown at you.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:08:47

Yeah. I think probably a lot of readers don't spend a lot of time thinking about how much the author's life and what they're going through really just focuses in on what your book could be about or, like you said, changing what you thought you were writing into something else. I do find writing to be very cathartic, and I think a lot of people do. But when you're writing a novel, it's Yeah. A little bit bigger of an undertaking. So I think that's really fascinating. Very, very cool. So we really, really like to get to know our author process.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:09:28

One of the we do have a lot of authors that listen to this podcast, and I'm sure readers as well would be curious about, you know, sort of how authors do their thing. So every author has their own rhythm when it comes to crafting a story. What does your typical routine look like? What parts of the process energize you or challenge you?

Orly Konig [: 00:09:51

I think it's more about every book has its rhythm rather than every author has its rhythm.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:09:57

Okay.

Orly Konig [: 00:09:59

I have found that I will have a process, and it works beautifully with this one book. And then I start to write the next book, and I try the same process, and it falls to pieces.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:10:10

Interesting.

Orly Konig [: 00:10:11

And it's really more about what the book needs.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:10:14

Yeah.

Orly Konig [: 00:10:15

Rather than what I think the book needs. And some of it is like this particular book, I spend a lot of time doing research on flowers.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:10:26

Oh, I meant to ask you about that. Did you know a lot about flowers? Because it really felt like you knew a lot.

Orly Konig [: 00:10:34

I love flowers. I am the worst at growing flowers or anything else. I have always wanted a green thumb. Don't have it. The joke in my family is why would you buy a plant when you know you're just gonna kill it? So but I love flowers, and I love the idea of what flowers mean. And when you put arrangements, you know, put flowers together.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:10:58

I had no idea.

Orly Konig [: 00:11:00

What the significance is.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:11:01

Oh, cool.

Orly Konig [: 00:11:02

So I did a lot of research into that, and looked at what different and a lot of flowers have multiple meanings. Oh. And which is where the little floral sabotage comes into play, the fun sabotage that Callie does with some of the bouquets. So for this particular book, I did a lot of research into flowers, and I had my office was wallpapered with cards of the different quotes that are in there.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:11:28

Oh, I loved all those quotes. That was so cool.

Orly Konig [: 00:11:31

Those were a lot of fun to do. And then it was really just looking at the characters and who they were, and that unfolds to me as I write. I am not one of those people that can plan a lot ahead of time. I don't do deep sketches. I don't like to look at pictures of what characters may look like. It all has to be in my head. I have an idea for the beginning. I have an idea for the middle, and I have an idea for the end.

Orly Konig [: 00:11:58

But then the in between part just sort of shows up. Not without a lot of editing. I will say it doesn't just show up clay. I a lot of editing.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:12:08

Yeah. As someone who is working on the third rewrite of the first book that I did as a NaNoWriMo, fifty thousand words two years later, so I'm understanding that.

Orly Konig [: 00:12:20

I think the arrangements probably went through four, five, five, maybe six is like revisions. Yeah.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:12:28

Okay. Okay. Yeah. Every process is different. That's what's so interesting when we get to talk to the authors to hear, you know, how everything everybody approaches things differently. And then you get all these beautiful, different, amazing books out of it. So cool. Yeah.

Orly Konig [: 00:12:42

And the book my fourth one that I'm well, not the fourth one I'm working on, but the next probably the fifth book. The process is completely different.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:12:51

That's wild. So we always like to ask for where folks can find you. I assume that is your website. Yes?

Orly Konig [: 00:12:59

My website's probably the best place. Website and Instagram. Both are just Orly Konig.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:13:05

Okay. And that'll be in the show notes as well. So we end always with this fun little ditty. What book or story inspires you the most?

Orly Konig [: 00:13:17

I was thinking about that, actually. And it is a bit of a cop out because I can't name one, but I think it's more a question of the stories that allow you to lose yourself and feel like you've been seen.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:13:30

Okay.

Orly Konig [: 00:13:31

I like the stories where I feel like the characters are people who I'd wanna be friends with and who I can recognize.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:13:40

That is a great answer. I love that answer. You win for the most creative answer to that question. Best way to dodge the actual question. I'm biased. I'm just kidding. Well, believe it or not, fifteen minutes is up, and we are done talking, but I could sit here all day and chat with you. I'm so thankful that you were able to come on, and your book is amazing.

Orly Konig [: 00:14:05

Thank you. Thank you again for having me. It's been fun.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:14:10

Thanks for joining us. We hope you take a second to give us stars or a review on your favorite podcasting platform, and we'll be here again next Wednesday. Follow us on Instagram at author express podcast to see who's coming up next. Don't forget, keep it express, but keep it interesting.