What if Mid-life isn’t a Crisis but a Powerful Second Coming-of-age? An interview with authors Elissa Bass and Christine Consolino

Donna Carbone
1 day ago
5 min read

Episode 70

In this episode, we explore the rising genre of mid-life fiction with authors Elissa Bass (Happy Hour) and Christina Consolino (The Marriage Debt), who are redefining what it means to find love, identity, and purpose in the middle chapters of life. Through their unforgettable protagonists, KK and Nika, these writers explore how relationships evolve under the weight of experience, shifting expectations, and hard-earned self-awareness. Together, we unpack why readers are increasingly drawn to these stories now, and how mid-life fiction balances realism with possibility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4ygKJQEk_Q

SHOW NOTES:

Book Summaries

Mid-life fiction

Connecting with audience

Inspiration

Balance

Writing Life

What’s next

What you learned the hard way

Elissa Bass

Elissa Bass was born into a family of journalists and writers, which made dinnertime interesting. After a long and award-winning career in journalism, she started her own communications business. These days she freelances, works on her next novel, teaches journalism at the University of Connecticut and thinks about ice cream. She lives in southeastern Connecticut with her journalist husband and texts memes to her two adult children every day.

Happy Hour by Elissa Bass

KK Rhinehart finds an unfamiliar iPhone in her husband’s car, and what she discovers on it ends her 25-year marriage. At the age of 55, and already feeling wrecked physically and mentally by menopause, she’s ready to give up. Desperate to hide, she retreats to her family’s Cape Cod summer beach house in the off-season.

But KK’s two siblings and her two closest friends refuse to let her waste away on the couch. Their over-the-top support ranges from makeovers to hot yoga. Then, she meets bartender Jay. With beautiful eyes and big hands, KK calls the much younger man “Surfer Guy” and can barely string a sentence together around him, but what she thinks is a one-sided, silly crush turns into intense interest from Jay.

KK might be able to find her joy again, but before that happens, she must navigate viral TikTok videos, a national debate on reverse age-gap dating, heartbreaking loss, and a whole lot of kitchen dancing. In this hilarious, inspirational take on love with a younger man, mid-life changes have never been this much fun.

Please Wait to Cross by Elissa Bass

At 18, Elizabeth “Bitty” Rhinehart leaves her suburban Boston family home, bound for college in the Midwest. Forty years later, her sister in crisis, Bitty returns to Cape Cod, and ends up rebooting her own life. She quits her high-pressure CFO job, insists that everyone calls her Beth, and becomes a school crossing guard.

Chief Mike Ponce rises quickly through the ranks of his hometown police department on the Cape, but being in charge isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Now in his mid-50s, twice divorced, adrift and dissatisfied, he begins to accept the idea that he'll be alone for the rest of his life.

What happens when two successful people who think they have it all figured out learn that, in fact, they don't?

Christina Consolino

A graduate of the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) with a doctorate in physiology, Christina Consolino taught college-level anatomy and physiology for fifteen years before concentrating her passion on writing and editing. She's the author of three works of contemporary fiction--Rewrite the Stars, The Weight We Carry, and The Marriage Debt--and she's co-author of Historic Photos of University of Michigan. Christina is a former senior editor at the online journal Literary Mama, writes romance under the pen name Keely Stephens, teaches one-on-one for her local school district, and coaches clients on how to deal with life's messes, find their authentic selves, and live their best lives. She lives in Ohio with her husband, four children, and a rotating cast of pets.

The Marriage Debt by Christina Consolino

Sex is never just about sex.

From the outside, Nika Stewart’s life looks perfect: two loving kids, a fulfilling job as an elementary-school librarian, and a wonderful second marriage to Ethan, her sexy husband. The only problem? She doesn’t want to have sex with him.

Maybe it’s the harrowing hot flashes and formidable fatigue, or maybe it’s trying to juggle a weed-junkie dad, an onerous stepsister, and the avalanche of responsibilities that have left sex just another chore to cross off the to-do list.

When an honest conversation with her best friend leaves Nika worried her aversion to sex might drive Ethan away, she begrudgingly agrees to see asex therapist. But as the sessions go on, Nika discovers that talking about sex with a therapist isn’t the same as facing the problem with her husbandand that sex with Ethan might not be the only problem after all.

Filled with humor, candor, and at least one pair of role-playing chaps, The Marriage Debt examines the hard truths about sex that overbooked womenface in their forties, as well as the joys still to come once a woman knows who she is and how to ask for what she wants.

The Weight We Carry by Christina Consolino

Marissa Raffaelo-Moretta is used to shouldering the burden. As the middle child, she's played the mediator role for longer than she cares to admit. As a mother, she's taken on the exhausting task of primary caregiver. And as a daughter and nurse practitioner, she's spent her adult life being responsible for her parents' physical and mental health.

When her stubborn and impulsive father, Frank, falls and refuses to stay at rehab, she and her brothers bring him home, and Marissa upends her life: she temporarily moves into her parents' house, which takes precious time away from her two sons and jeopardizes her job. Soon, Marissa recognizes that life as they've all known it is about to change: while Frank's ineffective legs are worrisome, her mother Angie's memory issues might be a more urgent dilemma.

A heartbreaking and emotional story of the toll that health crises can have on an entire family, The Weight We Carry reminds us of the fine line between reliance and independence, tending and mothering, and love and obligation.

Questions:

Mid-life fiction is often described as a “second coming-of-age” genre. How do each of you define it, and what drew you to write this genre?
The genre is gaining momentum—why do you think audiences are especially ready for these stories now?
Both of you write about love during the middle of your protagonist’s (KK & Nika) lives. How is love affected by the changes a woman experiences?
When writing about love and marriage at this stage of life, how do you balance realism with hope?
There’s often a mix of humor and heartbreak in mid-life fiction. How does humor function in each of your novels?
What inspired these stories?
Can you speak to how you chose the titles for your novels?
What does your writing life look like?
What’s next for both of you?
What’s one thing you learned the hard way?