By Helen Aitken, special to the News-Times

NEWPORT — The Friends of the Western Carteret Public Library and the Seaside Arts Council are pleased to host a Tea with Kristy Woodson Harvey on Saturday, Nov. 20 from 2-4 p.m. at the Carolina Home & Garden Event Center in Newport.

Advance tickets are $30 per person. This includes a lite table fare and a signed copy of Ms. Woodson Harvey’s novel, “Christmas in Peachtree Bluff” while supplies lasts.

Ms. Woodson Harvey is an award-winning author who spins contemporary tales that are realistic, emotional and captivating. Her Southern women’s fiction attracts nationwide readers who experience small coastal North Carolina towns with unique characters, complex family dynamics and lots of drama.

Whether it’s winning prestigious awards like the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award for Excellence in Creative Writing, or as a finalist for the Southern Book Prize, Ms. Woodson Harvey has earned the reputation for outstanding writing, and her work has been optioned for film.

For Ms. Woodson Harvey, the words “heart-felt, Southern, family and drama” describe her novels. Readers seem to “… crave the small-town connection, the friendships and the feeling of being with other people we’ve missed these last couple of years,” she said.

“Christmas in Peachtree Bluff” is the last book in the series, which was written in December during the coronavirus pandemic, when other things like tree lightings and parades weren’t taking place. A family gets stranded on an island during a late season hurricane. The story was influenced by Ms. Woodson Harvey’s experiences during Hurricane Florence.

Ms. Woodson Harvey is a New York Times Bestselling author, a USA Today Bestselling author and the Publishers’ Weekly Bestselling author of nine novels, including “The Peachtree Bluff” series, “Feels Like Falling” and “Under the Southern Sky,” released in April 2021, which received a 41⁄2 out of a 5-star review on Goodreads.

In 2022, Ms. Woodson Harvey will branch out into historical contemporary Southern fiction with the novel “The Wedding Veil,” inspired by the real-life story of a missing wedding veil from a Vanderbilt’s family.

For the Nov. 20 event, purchase tickets online at www.seasideartscouncil.com/events, or from Diane Schools at 252-646-4314,  HYPERLINK “mailto:dschools1@gmail.com” dschools1@gmail.com, or at the door. For more information, call at 910-389-4008.

Carolina Home and Garden is located at 4778 Highway 24 East in Newport. The phone number is 252-393-9004.