Chocolate Socks Book Review & Interview with Holly Durst!

If you're like me and love all things Bachelor-related, then you don't need an introduction to Holly Durst.  For the rest of you, Holly was on ABC's The Bachelor several years ago, and competed on and won Bachelor Pad 2 last summer. Holly's dream has been to write and publish children's books - and her first one came out last month!  

As you can see, her book is called Chocolate Socks.  It's a super cute story and the illustrations are fun and really colorful - a definite must for a good children's book!  I'm partial to all children's books that rhyme, so I had fun reading this story to my 3-year-old niece.  When I asked her what she thought of Chocolate Socks she said, "I DID like it!" Then she told me that she would like to have some chocolate socks in her tummy :)

I was able to speak with Holly on the phone a couple of weeks ago about her new book, her wedding, and her life with her soon-to-be-husband, Blake Julian.  

First of all, congratulations on Chocolate Socks and your upcoming wedding!  You have some exciting things happening in your life right now!

I know; two of the biggest things in my entire life are happening in within months of each other!

How does it feel to have your dream of being published come true?

It doesn't feel real yet.  I’m like, "when is it supposed to feel real?!"  People are buying my books and I’m holding my book and I still don’t believe it!  Maybe when I walk into a bookstore and I see my book I’ll believe it.  It’s been such a long time coming- it took six years so it hasn’t been able to hit me all at once that I have a book out!

What did you find to be the most challenging part of this whole experience?

Finding a publisher.  Everybody tries to publish children’s books.  It’s one of the hardest things to get into.  I got lucky!

Chocolate Socks is such a fun book for children! What inspired you to write this story?

I got a gift one time and it was a box of chocolates and a pack of socks.  I was so happy and excited about the gift because I love them both so much.  I think “chocolate socks” actually slipped out of my mouth, and when I said it a light bulb went off.  I grabbed my laptop and started writing!  

How long did it take you to write Chocolate Socks?

I wrote the first half almost 6 years ago.  I couldn’t decide how to end it, so I finished it a couple of years after that.  But it all came pretty quickly to me once I had the idea.

What message were you hoping to give to the children who read Chocolate Socks?

I just want to inspire children to not be afraid to create what they want in life, to dream big, and to go after their goals in life.  Being on TV everyone criticizes you and puts you down and you don’t even know these people!  My book is encouraging children to do what they want.  After six years I finally did what I want – I kept with it and didn’t give up.

Does writing children’s books make you and Blake eager to have children?

[Laughs] I always thought I wanted kids immediately. The older I get the more I’m like, I can wait.  I could not wait to get married and have a family.  Now that I’m with Blake and we have such a great relationship I’m afraid to have kids and mess up what we have!

What are you working on now? 

I have lots of books that I want to get published.  I’m not working on a book right now though, the wedding is my big project right now.  We have a great wedding planner and she’s been taking the majority of the issues, so I haven’t had to, which is really nice.

What encouragement do you have for other aspiring writers?

My biggest advice to them is to be patient.  Even though I wanted this so bad and I knew someday it would happen, I was discouraged so many times throughout the process.  Sometimes I thought, you know it’s never going to happen!  But I just kept at it and I was patient - very patient.

My blog is called “The Life of a Wife”, so I want to know what excites you most about being Blake’s wife?

I am so excited to be Blake’s wife… I already feel like his wife, which is good!  I love to cook him dinner and I love doing things with him and spending quality time with him.  I love everything about him!  I actually work with him now all day at his dental office.  We’re together all day and all night.  It’s been so wonderful and everyone keeps saying, "how do you guys work together and live together?  You guys don’t hate each other yet?!"  But we get along so well!  If he goes out of the room to work on patient I miss him! [laughs]  I knew from our first date that I was going to marry him.  It was weirdest feeling.   People always say “you know when you know” and I had always thought that was a myth.  But I met him and I knew from our first date!

For you mommas - this is a great book to have for your little ones!  You can purchase Holly's book on Amazon or at Barnes & Noble.