Planning To Live With Author Heather Wardell and a Giveaway

They say that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but that's basically what I did when I saw the cover of Heather Wardell's newest novel, Planning to Live. You see, the description of the book on the back cover was all it took to pique my interest. Read for yourself:

Thirty-something Rhiannon is an obsessive planner and goal-setter, but somehow nothing she achieves ever seems good enough to her. Determined to lose forty pounds for her best friend's August wedding, Rhiannon flees her parents' house in a Christmas-day blizzard to avoid the temptation of all her favorite foods, but her car skids off the deserted road into a tree.

Unable to escape the car, with her leg trapped and bleeding and her cell phone out of reach, Rhiannon is at first certain she'll be rescued and writes notes to her friends and family to pass the time. As the weather cools and her condition deteriorates, though, she recognizes the possibility that her life might be over. Interspersed with increasingly desperate escape attempts, her letters become deeper and more heart-felt as she comes to see what really matters in life.

Pretty enticing, right? When Heather, a follower of this blog, offered to send me a complimentary copy of the book, I took her up on the offer immediately. The book arrived just days later and within 24 hours I finished reading the story. The heroine of the story, Rhiannon, is the type of woman that we'd all like as a BFF. Anyone who has struggled with weight loss will identify with her and the thoughts that she has during the hours that follow her car accident.

After reading the story I asked Heather if she'd be up for answering a few questions about the book. The interview follows:



Karen: The main character in your story, Rhiannon, has found quite a bit of success in her professional life and tends to be a perfectionist who plans every last detail of her life. Can you explain the reasons that would hold her back from acting on those plans?

Heather: In most cases Rhiannon does act on her plans, but where she doesn't I think it's because she's made those plans without giving a lot of thought to WHY she is making them.


She's been living on autopilot a lot of the time since the death of her fiancé a year ago, and she's doing what she's "supposed to do" but hasn't examined how she truly wants to live. Since she doesn't have the strong driving force of going after a goal that really matters to her, she ends up not being able to act on her plans the way she wants to.


It also doesn't help that even when she does act on a plan and reach it, she ends up not being satisfied with what she's achieved so she doesn't get the happiness of meeting a goal to push her on to the next goal. It's so important to let yourself feel that happiness. It can be difficult sometimes, but it's crucial. If life is just a constant rush to the next goal, what's the point?



Karen: I think that many women who are struggling with weight issues will be able to relate to Rhiannon’s story. Did you draw on any of your personal experiences when developing her character?

Heather: Very much so. Her obsession with exactly how many calories she ate, with knowing whether she spent 44 or 45 minutes on the treadmill, with the only definition of a healthy body being one at a certain weight... all of those have been issues for me in the past. While they still rear their ugly heads on occasion, writing this book made it clear to me that living like that isn't really living, and so now when I feel frustrated that my weight isn't where I want it to be I think of everything I can do in this body and it helps me to let the rest go.


I've run a marathon, five half marathons, and countless shorter races. Even with that training, I'm still 25 pounds over where I want to be. This used to depress me terribly, but writing Planning to Live helped me to get over it, and now I'm working hard to keep my focus on "the things I can do" and away from "scale says I'm worthless".


I continue to work at losing weight because I think being lighter will help me run better. I'm watching my food intake and considering whether the things I eat are good running fuel, but I will never again get into the "this food is so bad, I am a bad person for eating it" game. It doesn't help. It just makes you feel awful, which then makes you want comfort, which too often turns into a tub of ice cream.



Karen: Too often in works of fiction, overweight women are portrayed as the dateless best friend, the one you can always count on to be available at a moment’s notice. You chose to create a heroine who men find desirable regardless of her size. Talk about that a bit.

Heather: This is a fascinating question to me, because it never occurred to me not to have a desirable heroine. In fact, I'm not sure I could have made her undesirable. Rhiannon is so much more than her weight: she's smart, funny, driven, caring, recovering from a terrible tragedy but still moving forward in her life. I see her as someone I'd love to know and someone I'd probably want to date if I were a man. I think women too often assume that all men want "the model body" in their women, and I don't think that's remotely true. Sure, some men wouldn't want her because she's a size 16, but many would.



Karen: It’s been said that a person often needs to hit rock bottom before they face their problems head on. In Rhiannon’s case her rock bottom is being faced with the possibility of dying before she has realized some of her dreams. Do you think that a person has to go through a crisis before they can make progress towards realizing their dreams?

Heather: I don't think it's a requirement, but I do think it makes it easier in some ways. That dramatic "my life is changing forever" moment can be a watershed, a turning point that makes you handle your life differently from now on.


It often doesn't, though. A friend who's worked with cardiac patients says that even after massive heart attacks some of them don't stick to their new healthy diet and exercise plans. Changing your life is so unbelievably hard. Each action we take carves a tiny groove, and over time those grooves become ruts and we settle into them and can't get out.



Karen: What do you hope that readers struggling with weight issues will take away from reading Planning to Live?


Heather: I hope they will take the same thing that I came to understand while writing it: life is so much bigger than what you weigh. Eat healthy foods, because they make your body feel good. Exercise, because having energy and being able to do your daily activities without fatigue is wonderful. But do not get hung up on a specific number or a dream body type. Twenty pounds overweight with an amazing life beats skinny and depressed any day of the week.



How would you like a chance to read Planning to Live yourself? Heather has agreed to giveaway a copy to one lucky reader. Just leave a comment here and you'll be entered into the giveaway. You have until Sunday, October 3 at 7:00 PM EST to enter. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, October 4.

Can't wait to get your hands on Planning to Live? You can download the book for just .99 at Smashwords or Amazon (for the Kindle.) Paperback copies are also available on Amazon here.