Bookwild - Leigh Dunlap's Bless Your Heart: Buckhead Betties, Racial Tensions and a Murder

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

This week, I chat with Leigh Dunlap about her darkly comical debut thriller Bless Your Heart. We dive into her inspiration for the story, how her screenwriting background influenced her novel writing process, and how her relationship with her son formed the story.Bless Your Heart SynopsisAnderson Tupper, a member of one of Atlanta’s richest families, has been murdered in the dugout of the Little League field where he was a volunteer coach, and it’s up to Detective Shay Claypool, a single mother from the other side of town, to find his killer.With the exclusive area of Buckhead threatening to secede from the city of Atlanta and take its tax revenue with it, Shay is under pressure to solve the murder of one of Buckhead’s own. Accustomed to handling drug dealers and prostitutes, she must now contend with an even more sinister the Buckhead Betties, the insufferably entitled women of Georgia’s most affluent zip code. One of them might be a murderer, but who? Is it the old-money queen of Buckhead? The mysterious new girl in town? The drug dealing trophy wife?It seems secrets and lies are as plentiful as luxury handbags in Atlanta and everyone’s guilty of something. Shay’s investigation will make her examine her own prejudices and discover that, as women and mothers, she might not be that different from the Betties after all. And if she isn’t careful, they just might take her down with them. Get Bookwild MerchCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackCheck Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck out the Imposter Hour Podcast with Liz and GregFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrian 

This week I got to talk with Lee Dunlap about her southern snarky mystery thriller, Bless Your Heart. And we talked about how her relationship with her son even impacted writing this. We talked about what a buckhead Betty is and why she wanted to write about them. So here is what it's about. Anderson Tupper, a member of one of Atlanta's richest families, had been murdered in the dugout of the Little League field where he was a volunteer coach. And it's up to Detective Shea Claypool, a single mother from the other side of town to find his killer.

With the exclusive area of Buckhead threatening to secede from the city of Atlanta and take its tax revenue with it, Shea is under pressure to solve the murder of one of Buckhead's own. Accustomed to handling drug dealers and prostitutes, she must now contend with an even more sinister group, the Buckhead Bettys. The insufferably entitled women of George's most affluent zip code. one of them might be a murder but who is it the old money queen of buckhead the mysterious new girl in town the drug-dealing trophy wife it seems secrets and lies are as plentiful as luxury handbags in atlanta and everyone's guilty of something shade's investigation will make her examine her own prejudices and discover that as women and mothers she might not be that different from the betties after all and if she isn't careful they may take her down with them this one is combed to like Maycob and Geneva Rose books and I can't agree with that more. If you're needing something to read after watching The Hunting Wives, you definitely want to look at Bless Your Heart. And also,

if you loved One of Us as Dead by Geneva Rose, I really think you will love this one. So that being said, let's hear from Lee. I am so excited to talk about Bless Your Heart for people who are watching on video. It is a very pretty cover. But I did want to get to know a little bit, about you first. So I know you've been a screenwriter as well. When did you know you wanted to write or what was the first idea you had that you wrote? How did that journey happen for you? I always wanted to write since I was a little kid and honestly I'm terrible at math. So there weren't a lot of other options. But, you know, obviously sort of had had some kind of affinity for it. And I grew up in Studio City, California. I was born in Missouri, but spent most of my life in Studio City,

you know, literally where there are studios. It's called Studio City for a reason. And I went to school with like kids who were the children of TV actors and stuff. So you're always kind of surrounded by it. So writing scripts wasn't like a crazy idea. And I'm sure for maybe other people who didn't grow up in Studio City, it might seem. seemed impossible. But that's what it was just dawning on me. Like if you grow up around it, you probably do think it's more attainable. Yeah, yeah.

You just think, oh, that's just, it looked like you hear it, the industry town. It's an industry town. It's like working in a town that has coal mines or something. That's just what everybody does. And so I decided that's what I wanted to do. And of course, you know, I was a child of television. I was my babysitter. So I grew up on it and love movies.

So I went to USC film school and studied screenwriting specifically and then struggled for a long time. And worked at a talent agency. So stayed in the business, learned a lot. And then did have some success, which was great. It was definitely not overnight. A long struggle. It still continues to be a struggle. But then came up against the pandemic.

with you know like everyone else what do I do now and then the writer strikes so it was really a one-to-punch there so decided I'll try to write a book so I did yeah I am amazing um what is your writing process like and like and did writing screenplays affect how you kind of built your writing process for novels. Probably. You know, I know there, obviously there are books that are very literary and, you know, going unexpected places. I think mine's very plot oriented. And that definitely comes from screenwriting. Yeah. So that's just how my mind works. You know, you tell me a story. I'd instantly kind of break it down. And I'm that annoying person that goes to movies and like, I know what happens, you know, kind of thing. You're that you're that, too. It's a novel. And now I'm like,

I'm like, Tyler, this feels like the midpoint. Is this a midpoint? I mean, the third act. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah. So it definitely impacted how I at least set out to write it, you know, and the structure of it. And then all bets are off, you know. I kind of been laughing talking about it because it's true that you have to use so many more words

in a book than you do in a screenplay. Because literally, and that sounds so simple, but in a screenplay, I have to give you the most information I possibly can in this very, very tight space. And so I'd sit down to write whatever scene in a book, and I even feel weird calling it scenes, you know, chapter in a book. It is.

They're like their scenes. You know, and I would do that. And I would get frustrated a little bit, because I just want to say, you know, she enters. he exits this happens just it will know you know you've got to actually describe it how they're walking not just like walk them out yeah yeah they're just like they're gone well people will understand um yes so so that was an adjustment but it was a fun one you know it's a whole it's a whole new thing it's kind of a different language but at the same time

i guess it's more like a different dialect you know you're speaking the same language but there are different things about it yeah yeah That was my experience. Yeah. That's really cool. What was your inspiration for setting it in Buckhead? Well, or just the inspiration in general. What was your inspiration for this story?

Well, I lived in Buckhead. I lived in Buckhead. I lived in Buckhead. It was not a Buckhead Betty. But I lived there for almost 10 years. And my son spent a lot of his youth there, and he played Little League baseball. And literally there's a scene. opens the book at the baseball field and at a little league game for like 10 and 11 year olds

and another mother from another team says a very bad word, yells it out at one of the kids. And that happened at a game, one of our first games that we were at. And I remember sitting there thinking, what is this? Like, that's crazy. And evidently, it's not crazy. Evidently, just happens like that's not unusual anywhere. But it was a surprise for me. But then I thought, like, what else are these people capable of?

And it just kind of went from there. And these Buck had bettys, which are like the Karens of Atlanta. I thought somebody needs to write about these people. And I thought, well, it would be fun to write something funny about them. And then there's no plot. So, you know, come up with something to write. And just went to murder. Yeah.

I mean, the fun part with thrillers, like you're saying, you need plot to happen. but the like darkly dark comedy just does so well in uh in a thriller as well like I love the tone of it all too oh good good good yeah I mean I wanted it to be fun and it feels weird to say that because someone dies but I know yeah still I wanted it to be fun yeah and I know I was I was just I was just looking at it um again when I was reading the synopsis for the intro And the Geneva Rose and May Cobb Cops are so good because it did it totally reminded me of one of us is dead. I think is Geneva. Yeah.

Which takes place in Atlanta. Yeah. Which I didn't know until after I read my book. I was like, oh, there's another book about Buckhead. It was a great book. It's that popular. Yeah. I remember going to.

Yeah. We were, we did some behind the scenes on one of the sets in Atlanta. like one of my basically i i produced a podcast for a comedian named miss pat and she had a show that filmed there so we went there and i even like before i had read either of these books she was like she was like she's like they're fancy they're crazy up there but it's a lot like um it's a lot like a city here in indy called carmel and she was like you just you just don't need to go there i mean it's everywhere right there's it's beverly hills it's the upper east side, west side, whatever it is in New York, you know, in Charleston, I'm sure, too.

Yeah, I'm sure. They exist everywhere. They just happen to have a name in Atlanta. Yeah. Yeah, they do. So the main character, she is, she's a detective. And she is not, she doesn't give Buckhead Buddy vibe. She's very, like, grounded.

Yeah. And she feels, that those women can't be complex she feels a little a little more layered a little less surface level so what was building her character like because she does kind of feel like the outsider since she doesn't like yeah fit that group what was it like building her character um well she did have to be you know the other side of this because she's the person coming into to that situation and she has all her own prejudgments about what it is to be a buckhead betty and to live in that part of Atlanta. So all that stuff was kind of easy, just what somebody would think, what probably I think,

what other people thought of me when I lived there. So that was easy, but I wanted her to be as normal and real as possible. And I always say that there are a lot of characters in this book. So six female characters. And in a way, other than one of them, you know, there's a part of me probably in every one of them in some way. And she's one of the ones that's probably closer to me and especially her relationship with her son. It's kind of like my relationship with my son. So it was kind of easy for me to riff off of her son sort of being like my son. Yeah. And go from there and to kind of touch on those kind of things about being a mom to a boy. Yeah. Yeah. And she's a single mom who's also working, obviously. But it really kind of

adds to the emotional stakes of the story, too, that she's both of those things. So do you kind of want that to be there, that there were some more, like, emotional stakes for her? Definitely. Ultimately, I think this is so much about mothers and motherhood, and particularly mothers of boys. And as much as we all like to find the differences, you know, know in every way in each other. I think there's a we have more in common than we have differences and especially mothers. So you have different experiences but you also have just a wealth of experience that you can all understand. So it was yeah it was her in

particular and that that bond with her son and like I said sort of my bond with my son that was really important. Yeah. Then with the other ladies, like you're saying, they can be related to maybe through their motherhood, but like we were talking about they're also, they're wild, they're glamorous, they're kind of dangerous, they're kind of mean. Was that just like kind of like archetypes of characters? What was kind of the inspiration of the process of creating those women? Yeah, sometimes it was just in my mind trying to think of different people I've known in my life. Yeah. And trying to find distinctive characters and distinctive characteristics of different women I've known.

I mean, these women, like I said, most of them are some aspect of me good or bad on my good days or bad days, a lot on bad days. Is that right? So, so yeah, it was just, and then it just went from. they are trying to find that one little thread to hang on too that I could build a character around. Yeah, that makes sense. So the other thing that's going on in the story is the city is even trying to secede from, I almost said Atlanta, from Georgia itself, which really brought up there are some

political layers. There's some socioeconomic layers to it. What drew you to include those and kind of talk about those? topics. Yeah, it's it is actually. It's the it's the city of buckhead trying to get out of Atlanta, which is something that they really do. Every couple of years, they try to leave Atlanta because, you know, Atlanta is a big city. Buckhead is a small area, but they pay the vast majority of the taxes for the entire city. So they get whiny every so often and try to have a vote to try to succeed it loses every time. So I did, I wanted, there had to be that extra layer. It couldn't

just be, oh, you know, hopefully we solved this murder. Solving the murder had to be important. And so that seemed like a great way to get it in, this idea of a rich area, kind of abandoning a larger city and taking their tax dollars with them and what that would do to the city. And that is the big thing that happens in Atlanta. That is the big issue every time it comes up. I mean, it would make it very hard for the rest of Atlanta to have services if Buckhead left. But Buckhead feels like they don't, they don't get services. Yeah. You know, so they're not looked after. So it's an interesting thing. And it was a great way. I was glad that they do it because it gave me that extra, extra added, we better solve this murder.

Yes. Or this thing might pass. Yeah, totally. It also kind of gets into like the racial tensions that are in the city as well that just have not gone away. Did you kind of see and experience that when you were there? Is that kind of part of why you worked it into the story as well? I don't think you can talk about Atlanta without dealing with that aspect of it.

Yes, there are there are tensions for sure like everywhere. Atlanta's one of the more progressive cities, though. So that's also something to sort of think about. But I wasn't there's no way I was going to write this book without just dealing with that. And just prejudice on a general level, whether it's, you know, because someone has too much money or not enough money or they're pretty or they're not pretty. just the preconceived notions we all come into situations with. But that's the, you know, the racial thing is really important in Atlanta.

And, you know, I have a friend group and we're very diverse and it was nice to be able to go to people and say, you know, am I okay here? You know, is this, is this okay to talk about? And it's something we talk about as a friend group, you know, and those are, they're are all girls in Buckhead and you know and in Buckhead although it's very white is also also has diversity and they you know a black person in Buckhead maybe has to deal a little bit with the idea of you think you're too good to be for the rest of us you live in Buckhead you know kind of thing so then so then you're being prejudged because of the money you have so it's kind of like

there's no winning sometimes yeah so that's not with that kind of stuff Yeah, and you just can't and you just can't care what other I mean it's hard not to be kind of has to not care what other people think mostly You got to try and just I don't know I'll be trite and just try to be nice to people You know just everybody be nice which is of course such a simplistic I know thing to such a complicated Never ending issue But it was it was good to explore it just a tiny bit But it's a part of the book.

It's not the overriding thing as much as it's a part of Atlanta and not the overriding thing. Yeah, totally. It kind of felt this was one of the things, too, one of the books, too, where the setting almost feels like a character. Like it's that important. Yeah. And was that kind of by design or was it just like kind of if you wanted to have it in this location it was just like important to have it be that both i mean yeah i mean in Atlanta i don't think

Atlanta gets talked about a lot strangely i mean obviously in tv yeah i really don't read a lot of books in there now don't read a lot of books about Atlanta and and i think you could tell sometimes when someone doesn't really know Atlanta um so i i was i was very very familiar with Atlanta and i felt like there was a lot to draw on there. And the more I could kind of weave in the real Atlanta to make it just so somebody understands, you know, what the city is. So I hope I gave a little glimpse into what Atlanta's really like. Yeah. There, so it's a, it is like a who done it. We're trying to figure out who it is. So there's, of course, like some red herrings throughout it as well. No, no. And with the,

I always wonder if the author knew where they were headed or if they were surprising themselves while they wrote it. So did you know who the murder was or did you kind of like discover as you wrote it? It's funny. You're not the only person who's asked me that. And to me, I can't even imagine that somebody can write something and not know. That's how I feel. I am always shocked by the people that are like, I like surprised more people than not. Wow. They like surprising themselves while they write. But like when I go to start something, I'm like, I need to know where. I'm headed. Yeah, right?

You need to know where you're headed. How do you build it? How do you get there? How do you even know if it's a worthy journey? Right. But obviously some people, I guess, do it successfully. But yeah, so no, I knew where it was going. I'm very big on like index cards and posted notes and, you know, I do it over and over and over

again until I have something kind of structure. I know, I know what's going on. And even then, I mean, I end up having to rip it apart. and put it back together again. Yeah. But I can't even imagine going from nothing to, to writing a whole book because you must totally get messed up with that. So, yeah.

I don't know how they do it. It was, I've been doing this for four years now. And I remember, like, the first person who said that, I was like, wait, what? And then it's just like, I feel like it's like 70% of thriller authors that I talk with are like, no, I don't know. I'm like, okay. All right. Cool.

Well, God bless them. They can figure it out. Yes. I don't think I could. Yeah. I don't want to rip it apart too many times to try to put it back together again. I know. Yeah, that's how I would feel.

Right. Speaking of God bless them, the title is bless your heart, which is this really fun phrase that like isn't always actually nice. It never is. Or sometimes it's the precursor to the talk shit about someone to pretend like you're not. Yeah, exactly. which kind of like mirrors some of the tension of like what looks pretty versus like what's actually happening in the book so was that kind of like just in your mind i know you don't you may not have even chosen your title but i didn't the title i had all along and literally that i fought for was

the buckhead bettys and i do like that title too i liked it um but they you know the publishers brought up a very good point that not everybody knows what a buckhead betty is and most people are actually do not know what a buckhead betty is. So they said, come up with a bunch of different titles. And I just gowered the book and Bless Your Heart was on that list. And that's the one they went with. And that one seems to be getting good reaction to. And like you said, it's not, it fits.

So that's good. And I guess it's nice not to have the learning curve of a buckhead Betty to have to deal with. That's true. So we'll see. Yeah. Was there a specific character that was like the most fun to write? Or did you just kind of like. Bertie Milton.

Yes. Bernie Milton who's sort of the Queen Bee non-filtered. Super, Uber, bad word, I won't say. Yeah. A bughead. But I think also a little complicated and there's more tour than you think. but yeah when you get to write a character who just will say anything and put anybody down yeah that's fun this is stardic i would assume like kind of like pretending like you could be a person who

like says everyone thought on your mind everything you ever wanted to say and not care yeah so my husband and i talk about it sometimes we're like life would actually be so much easier if you were just like a sociopath and didn't care about people's feelings like i guess So, yeah, if you didn't have guilt. Yeah. Or maybe you would be because you were a sociopath. That's true. That's true.

Yeah. There's that book. Don't give a blank UCK, whatever it is. And, you know, there's something to be said for that. But yeah, no, I do. So, yeah, I would, Birdie Milton would destroy me on a daily basis. Oh, yeah. So, yeah.

She goes right for the. throat. Was there something that drew you to writing thrillers and kind of specifically what we were talking about? Was there something that drew you to this like nice facade but like other stuff going on? No. In fact, I was talking about this with someone yesterday. I don't even read thrillers, which I do now because I'm trying to catch up on everybody

and learn how they all write. That's impressive. You wrote such a good one. Well, I mean, it's a TV, right? It's like, I've seen thrillers on TV. Okay, that's true. So I have the structure of that. I read almost exclusively before this nonfiction.

So, but I thought, you know, when we were talking earlier about you, well, you need a plot. So what's the most fun plot? You know, these tough, maybe sometimes horrible people. Right. Someone needs to die, obviously. So I'll kill somebody and let's see what, let's see where that takes us. So that that was it was fun to do. I originally thought, oh, I'll do a funny book about Buckhead Betty's.

But if nothing happens, who cares? Yeah, that's the hard part. Yeah, that's the hard part. It's not a column, you know. Yeah, you got to fill the pages. Got to fill the pages with something. So hopefully I came up with a good one. Yeah, well, I think you did. Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, you're welcome. Oh, I just lost my thought. I just had another question. I know, I just had another question from what you just said. What would it have been? Nonfiction, murder, killing people. Oh yeah, did you do any research about how to get away with murder or like the intricacies of that? Or had you just kind of seen enough thrillers before to kind of know how to work with it?

I'm pretty sure I'm going to get some bad comments that I don't deal with probably some things as well as I should. Oh, well, too late. But the only thing I did, and I won't give anything away in the book, but it had to do with blood. And I actually, I was living in Las Vegas at the time, so I contacted the detectives of the Las Vegas Police Department and asked them a question. and they were very nice to reply to me. So that was the only sort of big thing. I'm sure I googled things along the way. I think I spent a lot of time on Google, Googling things.

So there must have been more than that. But yeah, I know there are some writers who are very accurate. Yeah. And that's great. Yeah, it doesn't like that. This is more of just a story. Go with it or don't. When people start freaking out about,

like oh well i thought this was true because i read it in fiction i'm like well that is your problem and you should have like fact-checked yourself not just like this author said it this way and it's like that was a fictional book don't believe everything you see on tv either yeah that too um the other thing i always wonder with uh especially like thrillers that include comedy is we uh we are fans of a lot of comedians and so you hear how they kind of of like write stuff but then they made you go back in to punch it up so was this just kind of like your tone just as you wrote it or did you do anything where you kind of like went in and punched up the comedy a little bit that's funny i just i just saw nate bargatsy

um who's great he's one of my favorites and it's i think it was only the maybe the second stop on his new tour so he was definitely kind of you know trying stuff out and it'll be interesting to see what the final version is it is fun to see that it is um but But this, no, it's just kind of how I write. Yeah. And so it's just me. It's just me. I'm a weirdo.

I don't know what to say. Or you can just be with us weirdos who don't think this is weird. Yeah, we'll just pretend, right? Yeah. It's not true. Right. Well, obviously I loved it. I thought it was so much fun.

So nice to hear. Thank you. I know the hunting wives just came out on Netflix. So as well, I almost included this. in one of my posts but then I was like nobody can buy it right now um because I did a post about it like last week like here are some books to read if you loved this show but so this is this is me now saying that you guys can all add it um to the list of books to read if you really loved watching that show so I yeah I just loved it it's and I think it's perfect for summer I'm seeing a lot of people

talking about just needing like a summary bingeable thriller the end of summer read yes and this this one just feels like it so everyone needs to go grab their copy and just like giggle and solve the murder that's so nice kate thank you you're welcome um i do also ask and i read both i read nonfiction too but i do always ask if you've read anything recently that you've loved as well oh so many books because like i said i've just kind of jumped into this world yeah um all the colors of the dark Chris Whitaker's book, but it was beautifully written. Emily Carpenter wrote a book, Gothic Town. It takes place in North Georgia.

And actually, Emily and I, Evelyn's going to interview me at Barnes & Noble next weekend. So she's being very cool about that. And Caroline Cleveland has a book, because I did a lot of southern things when Ciccada's Cry. And I'm reading Hank Philippi, Ryan right now, the house guest. Yes.

So, yeah, just, oh, Christopher Swan and Carter Wilson. Carter Wilson, he has so many. He's so cool. And how do people write all these books? I don't know. I'm just shocked. Oh, and Kara Ruda. Oh, and Aggie Bloom-Thompson.

Oh, yeah. What did that just come? It just came out. Perfect. The family. Oh, gosh, was it called the Perfect Family? I can't remember, but it's so good. I feel I don't know.

Yeah, look it up. I want to get it right. She had a new one just come out. Oh, no. It's the other one, yeah. Get it for you guys. It's Boone Thompson, right? Yeah.

Yep. Oh, such a lovely family. Such a lovely family. That was a fun, fun read. How does it really pretty covers, too? And a cool cover. So, yeah, and I've got a staff. of books of just trying to catch up and someday I'll be able to get back to nonfiction but not

for a while yeah you're like I need to learn this stuff too I need to learn yeah that's that's so cool though I can't believe you hadn't read them until recently that's no it's been a fun journey I'm almost happy I hadn't you know yeah that's a good point it wasn't like whole new world what you wrote yeah and then you know like one of the one of the last books I read was the biography of Andrew Carnegie, which was huge. And I want to say it took me like three years to read. Oh my gosh. It was just so long. So it's nice to get to a book of like, oh, I can read this in like two days. Yeah. Nonfiction is different. Yeah. Sometimes there's like I listen to girl on girl is this really good nonfiction that just came out that's all about how in the 90s and in the 2000s,

the media kind of turned women against each other. Oh wow. And it was so fascinating. And that was one I was able to like read relatively quickly. I did listen to it. But I know what you mean. Then there are other non-fiction where you're like, okay, I'm going to just sit with little parts of this and take that. Exactly. Exactly. And then you know, at the end you feel like, oh, I'm, you know, I'm a little bit smarter today. Right. But it took a while. Yeah, totally. Well, those are some great options. Bookwise. Yeah, lots of great books out. I mean, And just every day there's a new one. Yeah.

Oh, I know. There is. Now I'm adding to the pile. Yes. Well, where can people go to stay up to date with all of your writing and stuff? I have a website. It's called lead dunlaprites.com. And I'm on Instagram, which is at Dunlap rights and Facebook.

Yeah. Twitter. I don't tweet, tweet too much. Twitter. I'm sorry. I just I can't keep up with all of these things. I mean, it's just weird. X.

When I do my accounting at the end of every month and I have to put in, you know, X, it's just like X. Yeah. I had to pay for my X subscription. I know it is weird. But I know I always go there for breaking news anyways. Or stuff on the Oasis tour. One or the other. Right.

Right. Awesome. Well, I will put the links to your stuff. the show notes thank you that's so nice and yeah thank you for coming and talking with me about i'm going to say the buckhead bettys but i'll bless your heart thanks kate