Today I’m delighted to feature author Chelsea Iversen, who writes novels with a hint of magic. Her latest book, published on 28th July is The Whisper. It’s a sweeping, atmospheric thriller following a group of friends seeking justice for their murdered friend. A decade after Quinn’s death they come together and follow the rule they ignored – when the trees whisper, listen. It’s perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman and Riley Sager’s Middle of the Night.
Chelsea has been making up stories since she was wiggling baby teeth to try to get them loose. She is a mom of two amazing kids and a high-energy doggo, and has a husband that somehow helps her make it all work. She lives in Colorado, which is where The Whisper, her most recent atmospheric thriller, is set.
Over to Chelsea:
Which five pieces of music/songs would you include in the soundtrack to your life and why?
Doo Wop (That Thing) by Lauryn Hill – This song sparked my love for memorizing lyrics to songs, a lifelong obsession I have had. And The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was one of the most formative albums of my youth!
Spaceman by The Killers – The Killers have so many classics that practically defined my college years and beyond, but I have a personal rule about this song in particular. If I hear it, no matter where I am or what I am doing, I must must must stop and dance.
Stay Alive by José Gonzáles – This was my wedding song, but it’s also just one of the most beautiful songs of all time. I am also highly obsessed with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and so this song just feels like it’s a part of me.
Bones Shake by Hazlett – This song moves me so much and fits the vibe of my most recent book, The Whisper. It’s brooding and dark and nostalgic, and I listened to it about ten thousand times while writing this story—so often that my husband has now accepted it into his personal canon and it plays over our house speaker practically every night.
She Calls Me Back by Noah Kahan – Noah Kahan is my most recent obsession, and this song has everything I love. It’s upbeat (a little ironically), and the lyrics are complicated and yearning and feature gorgeous metaphors. Of course I had to memorize this one, so it’s forever lodged in my brain as a favorite that must be played over and over again at an unreasonable volume.
What five things (apart from family and friends) would you find it hard to live without.
Headphones – I am constantly listening to an audiobook. I mean constantly. I bring my headphones with me every single place I go because you never know when you might sneak in a minute and a half of audiobook listening!
Chapstick – I always have Burts Bees on my person, and if I don’t, it’s a very bad day (or night) until I can get to the store to buy some more. This is perhaps less of a love of the product as an addiction. Yikes. But I do love it.
Coffee shops – I mean, right now I’m at home a ton because I have a new baby, but my happy place will absolutely always be a coffee shop. The more hipster the better, as long as there are great vibes, wifi and, most important of all, good snacks!
Tiny book light – I keep a booklight that I can clip onto my current bedtime read right next to the bed. I hate bright lights, especially at night, and so this is the perfect little thing to keep me reading when I need to, which is every night. I am absolutely the kind of person to read just another chapter…even though it’s midnight and I should be asleep because I have to get up early and function (or in the middle of the night with the baby!). I just can’t help it. I love to read, and this little book light helps me get my fix.
Eye mask – Guys, I don’t know how anyone sleeps past sunrise (or on an airplane or in a hotel or during a nap) without an eye mask. I honestly have no idea. If I slip this bad boy on, I can sleep all day. Plus, one of my favorite things to do in the world is dream, and this helps me tap into my subconscious and play there for a few more hours a day. What’s not to love?
(Recognizing that I have listed an embarrassing number of sleep-related items here…maybe it’s because I have a newborn and a toddler and I’m bleary eyed and sleep deprived? Or maybe it’s just because I stay up way too late reading at night?!)
Give five pieces of advice to your younger self?
Keep going – I struggled through several years of infertility, endometriosis, IVF, and setbacks that hurt so bad I sometimes didn’t know if I could keep going. I’m not going to go so far as to say that the pain was worth it because it sucked. A lot. But here I am, incredibly, on the other side. I wish I could sit down with my younger self when she cried for the fifty-third time when she discovered she was not pregnant again. I’d hold her and tell her that she will, one day, have everything she yearns for. She just has to hold on.
Write books – I would want to go back and kick my younger self in the pants. I’d tell her to just start writing. It was always my dream to write books, for as far back as I can remember, and I did a lot of other writing in the meantime but never actually wrote a book until I was in my thirties. I wish I would have started sooner. I could have discovered how amazing being a novelist was early and skipped all the soul searching!
Read – I’ve always been a reader. I have always loved books. I average about a hundred books a year at this point in my life. But just think of all the books I could have read if I had been going at this rate for my whole life!? One thing that makes me sad is that I will never be able to read every book in the world. It would be impossible. How depressing is that?
Use cash – Credit cards are great, but are they really? Are they?
Look around you right now – There have been lots of times in my life when I did not appreciate what I had when I had it. Funny how, in hindsight, the good and the bad things tend to happen in conjunction. Infertile? Yea, but you have a sweet apartment in San Francisco right near the most epic cliffside hikes. Struggling financially? Fair, but you have an incredible group of friends right outside your door. Hate your job? Okay, but you get to travel and explore amazing new places. I guess my advice to my younger self would be to look around, maybe try to see the difficulties more as sheer curtains rather than walls. On the other side of the hard stuff, there is often something good. I’m not saying I should have ignored the hard stuff. That’s impossible. But I think I could have at least tried to see past it—see through it—a little more.
Tell us five things that most people don’t know about you
I have endometriosis – Five years of infertility and two years of secondary infertility after years of thinking that period pain like that was normal. I know I’m far from the only one, and it makes me so sad and so angry. Come on science, let’s do some research on a disease that one in four women suffer from so we can find answers.
I have a masters degree – I have a Masters of Science in Gender, Development and Globalization from the London School of Economics.
I’m a terrible baker, but I love it – I have more baking fails than anyone I know. Probably because recipes are like guidelines to me. I make lots of substitutions (sometimes living to regret them), and I am very forgetful (chocolate chip cookies without the sugar anyone?). But baking makes me happy. Probably because I love snacks so much.
I have curly hair – I honestly don’t know how to style it without it looking crusty or greasy, so I always straighten it. If someone has some tips, please let me know.
My favorite snack is blueberries and chocolate chips – My sister calls me “an ingredients person,” which I guess I am. I have to have snacks when I write (non-negotiable), and I find it hard for one of those snacks to not be chocolate. A while ago, I discovered that the combination of dark chocolate chips and blueberries was life altering, and so now when I’m at home, I can’t sit down to write without this weird ingredients-based snack.
Tell us five things you’d still like to do or achieve.
I want to be a bestseller – I know we’re not supposed to say things like this. Somehow, it feels like saying it out loud means that you’re shallow or don’t treat writing as art. But it would truly be amazing to write as a career author for the rest of my life and not have to rely on a secondary income. A bestseller lists isn’t automatically going to get me that, I realize, but it would be a tangible step in that direction.
Write for TV – Ever since I watched The Office and subsequently learned that Mindy Kaling wrote more episodes than anyone else on the staff (and then learned how exactly a writers room works), I’ve thought it would be amazing fun to write for TV. Writing novels is, of course, my first love and always will be. I am a solitary worker, and it fits just right. But something about bouncing ideas and jokes back and forth to come up with a comedic plot sounds like a great time.
Travel – I have lived in several different places throughout my life, both abroad and in the States. And now that I have kids, I want to give them the travel bug too. There are so many places I’d like to take them to and explore with them. Traveling can be such an eye-opening privilege, and I’d love to do much more of it in the years to come.
Learn piano – I know, I’m an adult. But gosh, it would be so cool to learn how to play the piano! My Gram tried to teach me a bit as a kid and then I half-assed my way through a piano class in college, but nothing stuck (except maybe Middle C?) It’s an instrument that I love the sound of and would be so eager to learn to play.
Become fluent in another language – I have an okay level of conversational Spanish that I’m often too shy to use. I’d like to be braver and become fluent in Spanish. I’d also love to learn a second language—French, maybe—once I’ve got that one down pat.
Many thanks for joining me today Chelsea, I’ve loved learning more about you. It’s always good to see the Killers on a playlist, but I’ve fallen in love with the Hazlett track. I’ve not heard of him before so I got a little lost down a Hazlett rabbit hole on YouTube, and I wasn’t sorry! I’m also a lover of an eye mask, especially for travelling, combined with ear plugs I can cope with most things. Having recently started to listen to more audiobooks I can understand your headphone obsession. I have a pair near my reading chair, another near the bed and a pair in every bag I tend to use so I won’t forget them when I’m out and about. Nothing more frustrating than looking forward to listening to your current audiobook and realising you’ve not got headphones. Blueberries and dark chocolate chips sounds a great combination actually, I can really see the appeal. Regarding the wanting to be a bestseller I’d say think of it less like being shallow and more like manifesting – that just makes it a positive affirmation. Definitely continue with your language learning, trust me, it becomes much harder once you’re older. I’m on a constant struggle to learn Spanish, but I wish I’d started when I was much younger. Though as is often the case, when we’re younger we don’t appreciate the value. Good luck achieving your dreams, or should I say buena suerte!!
Chelsea’s Books
(NB This post features Amazon affiliate links from which I earn a very small commission on qualifying purchases)
The Whisper
Rule 1: When the trees whisper, listen.
Rule 2: Don’t go into the woods alone.
In the small mountain town of Whisper Ridge, the girls were inseparable. Joey, Quinn, Sophie, and Elena. Together, they channeled magic in the woods, living by six simple rules. The first being: when the trees whisper, listen.
But all rules are forgotten, all bonds broken, when Quinn is found dead in the trees.
In the aftermath, the friends scattered. All except Joey, who still can’t move on. Until now, over a decade later, she again hears the trees whisper.
Those woods remember some of Quinn’s last words, and for the first time, Joey realizes she may learn the truth of what happened to her best friend. And so, the friends return to Whisper Ridge, to the woods that once held their magic and their secrets. But unearthing the truth about Quinn puts them all in danger, and in order to survive they’ll need to channel their power for the first time in fifteen years to finally put the past to rest.
The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt
A lush, enchanting story of a woman who must use the magic of the fantastical plants that adorn her crumbling estate in Victorian London to thwart the dark plots of the men around her…
Harriet Hunt is completely alone. Her father disappeared months ago, leaving her to wander the halls of Sunnyside house, dwelling on a past she’d rather keep buried. She doesn’t often venture beyond her front gate, instead relishing the feel of dirt under her fingernails and of soft moss beneath her feet. Consequently, she’s been deemed a little too peculiar for popular Victorian society. This solitary life suits her fine, though – because, in her garden, magic awaits.
Harriet’s garden is special. It’s a wild place full of twisting ivy, vibrant plums, and a quiet power that buzzes like bees. Caring for this place, and keeping it from running rampant through the streets of her London suburb, is Harriet’s purpose.
When suspicion for her father’s disappearance falls on her, she marries a seemingly charming man, the first to see past her peculiarities, in order to protect herself. It’s soon clear, however, that her new husband might be worse than her father and that she’s integral to a dark plot created by the men around her. To free herself and discover the truth, she must learn to channel the power of her strange, magical garden.
The Witches at the End of the World
Rage burns brighter than any spellfire…
Deep in the birchwoods of Norway, magic courses through the veins of two sisters. For years they’ve been alone, but sweet-tempered Kaija is tired of living in shadows and longs for a life filled with community, even if it means stifling her magic. But Minna is a witch through and through, with wrath always simmering just below the surface. Different as they may be, both will never forget the day they were driven from their village. The day their mother burned.
When Kaija leaves to pursue a new life, Minna is left alone in the darkness of the forest. Devastated and outraged at the betrayal, Minna casts a curse to punish those who took everything from her. What she doesn’t realize is that this act will incite a deadly chain of events. Soon it will destroy everything, including the life Kaija has lovingly built. But once a witch’s rage boils, regret means nothing—she can’t take back what’s already done.
Someone will have to burn.
