Peach Buzz

Fixin’ to launch a new mystery novel

As soon as the book launch invitation hit our Facebook in-box Wednesday, we made sure we got on the phone with New York Times best-selling Atlanta author Mary Kay Andrews.

Our former AJC colleague (who still allows scribbler types like us to refer to her as Kathy Trocheck) is about to hit the road to promote her latest hilarious novel, “The Fixer Upper,” officially due out June 23.

However, local fans can score autographed copies at the book’s launch party from 6 to 8 p.m. June 22 at Feast Restaurant in Decatur. Desserts will be supplied by Sweet N Sinful and the Book Exchange will bring the tomes.

In “The Fixer Upper,” Andrews introduces readers to a brand-new set of characters and a fictional Southern town, Guthrie, Ga.

That’s where high-powered Washington lobbyist Dempsey Killebrew retreats to after a political scandal results in her firing.

That’s also where she encounters the dilapidated Pepto Bismol-hued family home that’s being squatted in. And in typical Mary Kay Andrews fashion, “stuff” starts to happen.

“It’s what I love to write about,” Andrews told us. “Women whose lives are turned upside down by something and how they manage to right themselves. And if you can throw in a little decorator porn along the way, so much the better!”

Interestingly, Andrews was purchasing a similarly colorful, fixer upper last year on Tybee Island as she wrote the book.

“It was eerie!” she said laughing. “We even had a squatter too. There were some interesting parallels to what I was writing. Well, except the FBI isn’t after me!”

Chef watches ‘Star’ debut with friends

Atlanta chef Jamika Pessoa returned to her alma mater for last week’s season launch of “The Next Food Network Star,” taking in the show with friends at the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Atlanta.

“Watching the first episode, I could not sit still,” she said. A Montgomery native, Pessoa came to Atlanta nearly a decade ago to work in marketing and advertising.

“I decided I wanted to be Ms. Corporate America and pushed culinary to the side,” she said. After her company went through a round of layoffs, she decided to embrace her true passion and signed up for cooking school.

“I decided I wanted a career where I would always have a job, I would always be in demand, and that if I didn’t show up, it was going to be a problem,” she said. “In marketing, if I didn’t show up … I just missed a meeting. As a chef, if I don’t show up a lot of people aren’t eating.”

Filming has wrapped up for “Star,” which airs Sundays at 9 p.m., but contestants are sworn to secrecy about how things play out. Given that Pessoa was touting her Web site (www.chefjamika.com) where clients can book her as a personal chef, it might be safe to predict she’s not the last woman standing on the Aug. 2 finale. But she says she had a great time.

Her dream dinner party would be cooking for Oprah and the Obamas. She’s particularly concerned that the First Couple seem to spend lots of time in photo op-friendly burger and pizza joints.

“I’m like, come on Mr. President, I can feed you,” said Pessoa, who specializes in Caribbean cuisine and says cinnamon is a favorite secret ingredient.

“If they’re coming to Atlanta, you know I’m going to feed them some good Southern food. They would leave patting their stomachs.”

Richard Eldredge, reldredge@ajc.com

Contributing: Jennifer Brett and news services.

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