TWE 275: Author Laura Munson on “Willa’s Grove” and Women at their “Now What?” Crossroads

Laura Munson invites you to the rest of your life!

Be sure to tune in to a BRAND NEW episode of The Women’s Eye podcast with Stacey Gualandi as I chat with New York Times bestselling author Laura Munson about her eagerly anticipated debut novel Willa’s Grove (Blackstone Publishing, March 3, 2020)

I first met Munson in 2011 while she was on the speaking circuit promoting her memoir, the international smash This is Not The Story You Think It Is. (It was published in 9 different countries!) 

Since then, she has become a member of the TWE family, joining me several times on the air to talk about being an author, starring as the main character in her own book, and teaching her Haven Writing Retreats in Whitefish, Montana, where she calls home. 

Now Munson is on the road, promoting her first novel Willa’s Grove, a story she says took her almost 8 years to complete.

“[My first] book helped a lot of people, but this book is going to help a lot of people too,” says Munson. “It’s just a delight to be able to shine its light on this important message of women supporting women—coming together in community—and taking it across the country.”

Munson says she was inspired to write this story by watching what happens to the women who attend her writing retreats.

“This book in no way is a writing retreat, but it is about 4 women taking a break from their lives who all are at major crossroad moments, and they need to answer the burning question we all ask, ‘So, now what?’”

So, now what’s next for Laura? Well, if she has her way, she hopes Willa’s Grove creates a new kind of women’s movement.

“What I’m hoping is that people will read the book, and then say, ‘You know what I want to do? I want to host a week-long retreat like this, up at my lake house in Wisconsin, and call it Stacey’s Grove.”

Sounds like a great idea to me, Laura! (I just have to get a lake house. Ha!)