October 26, 2022 | Issue #116 |
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Latest News From "The Fab Four"
Kristin Harmel had a lovely time speaking to the Valencia Women’s Club in Wellington, Florida last week and looks forward to speaking at the Amelia Island Book Festival Celebrity Author Luncheon tomorrow. The weather was beautiful in Florida last weekend, and she went on a long bike ride with her husband and son on the West Orange Trail (a 22-mile biking trail mostly built on old railroad alignments).
Mary Kay Andrews has been enjoying the fall colors in Atlanta and decorating her house for the Halloween party she’s hosting for her grandchildren this weekend. She’s got a full slate of upcoming signings for the paperback of The Santa Suit, including the Nov. 5 Holiday Open House at Seaside Sisters on Tybee Island, which you can read about here.
Patti Callahan Henry spent the week with family and friends in the NC mountains marveling at the change of season and color. She is looking so forward to heading to Conway SC for the First Book Horry County’s Author Luncheon and hopes to see some of you! Meanwhile, she is working on some new things she can’t wait to share with you!
What Patti is Reading: Dawnlands by Phillipa Gregory
Kristy Woodson Harvey is looking forward to some great events next week in Greensboro, NC and Winston Salem, NC. She would love to see you there! Kristy had a really fun interview with Chico’s this week, you can watch it on her Instagram! Kristy is looking forward to one of her favorite holidays in Beaufort, Halloween!
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Get to Know Our Friend, Susan Meissner!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
I’ve always said if I wasn’t writing, I’d own a book shop that also sold pies. Or a pie shop that sold books. I would need a great business partner though because I don’t have a lick of retail business sense. I can’t make pie crust either, so there’s that. So I would need a great business partner and a fabulous baker on my team. I’ll take care of keeping the bookshelves stocked, and inviting authors in to speak, and making sure there’s a cozy room upstairs for book clubs to meet, and patting the customers’ dogs.
What's the biggest misconception people have about you and your work?
Perhaps that it gets easier. Most activities you do every day you probably find get easier for you. Practice makes perfect, or something like that. But I find with each book that I finish the next one is twice as hard to write. I think I set the bar higher each time I start a new project but I begin at the same place each time, a terribly blank page.
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve always loved to write. Always. So I feel like I have always been a writer, but I just waited until my thirties to try doing it for a living.
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
My first “book” I wrote when I was seven was called “A Bout Patsy Miller.” Yep. A Bout. I wrote it on three-ring binder paper and bound it with a shiny row of staples down the left side. It was illustrated, too. It was all about a girl named Patsy Miller who grows up, gets married, has a baby, and becomes a grandma in 12 wide-ruled pages.
Is there a particular independent bookstore or library you'd like to shout-out?
I am a San Diego native and have spent much of my life there, though I now live in the Pacific Northwest. But I will always have a special place in my heart for Warwicks’ Books, which is not only San Diego’s oldest independent bookstore, it’s one of the nation’s oldest. (And right now they have signed copies of WHEN WE HAD WINGS, autographed by all three authors! Ordering online is easy…)
The last book you raved about:
I loved HORSE by Geraldine Brooks so very much. She’s an auto-buy for me, so I knew I’d be buying it when it came out, but I didn’t know if I would LOVE it because it’s about a racehorse and I didn’t think I would be so deeply drawn into that world. But it’s not about a horse, really. It’s about people. Wonderfully drawn, perfectly flawed people. And I am sad I can never read it again for the first time. She is a master of the craft.
Tell us about your work-in-progress.
The next book on the horizon for me comes out in April 2023. It’s called ONLY THE BEAUTIFUL and it’s about two women impacted by the eugenics movement of the early 20th century. One is an orphaned teen with a sensory anomaly living on a California vineyard in the 1930s and the other is an American expat working as a nanny in Nazi-occupied Vienna. Eugenics ideology, which, at its absolute worst, defined Hitler’s most monstrous schemes, was alive and well and active in the US in the first five decades of the 20th century. You’d be surprised how alive and well… I’ll show you.
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Get to Know Our Friend, Ariel Lawhon!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
I can’t say if it would have worked out this way, but I like to think I would have been a trauma surgeon. I’m fascinated by doctors. I’m always calm in a crisis. And blood doesn’t scare me.
What's the biggest misconception people have about you and your work?
Because of the subjects I’ve chosen through the years, people often assume that I’m an historian. Or at least that I have a degree in history. In reality I simply love the subject.
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve wanted to be a novelist since I was five. Like so many others, I fell in love with books because of Narnia.
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
It was a short story for Creative Writing my Sophomore year in high school. It was based on the lyrics to The Hotel California by the Eagles and I still have it.
Do you have any writing rituals?
I buy a new copy of The Anatomy of Story by John Truby and work my way through it with every book. I make notes in the margins, underline, etc. which is why I buy the new copy. So I don’t get distracted by previous notes and ideas.
Is there a particular independent bookstore or library you'd like to shout-out?
Parnassus is my local indie. And like everyone else, I love it.
The last book you raved about:
Tell us about your work-in-progress.
It’s called The Frozen River and is based on the life and diary of a renowned midwife in the 1700’s named Martha Ballard. The story takes place over one long, cold winter in which Martha solves a shocking murder that unravels her small community.
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Get to Know Our Friend, Santa Montefiore!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
A teacher. I’d like to inspire young people to write.
What's the biggest misconception people have about you and your work?
That I pop out books with great ease. They’re actually a lot of hard work to write!
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve written ever since I was a child.
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
A story about hedgehogs. I must have been about 5.
Do you have any writing rituals?
I make myself a cup of coffee, light a scented candle, put on the music playlist I have arranged specifically for the book I’m writing, shut the door, turn off my phone and immerse myself in my story. I usually have fresh flowers on my desk too. I figure if the room is delicious I won’t want to leave it!
Is there a particular independent bookstore or library you'd like to shout-out?
Hatchards in London is straight out of Harry Potter!
The last book you raved about:
Tell us about your work-in-progress.
Having written an extra book during Lockdown, I have two in the pipeline for ’23 and ’24, so I wasn’t planning on writing at all for a year. But I’ve been inspired with a wonderful idea, so am busy writing again. I believe it to be such a hot idea that I’m going to keep it to myself for the moment!
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Listen to the F&F Podcast!
Coming this Friday, October 28th—Ron & Patti talk to publishing veteran Bethanne Patrick about her new podcast Missing Pages.
Out Now! WB_S4E12—Ron and Patti talk to Alyssa Cole and Jean Kwok about their essay contributions to the new Miss Marple collection published by William Morrow, Marple: Twelve New Mysteries. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S4E11—Ron & Kristin talk with #1 New York Times bestselling Swedish author Fredrik Backman about his latest novel, THE WINNERS, the third in his acclaimed Beartown series. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S4E10—Ron talks to Kristin Harmel all about the brand-new 10th Anniversary Edition of her novel THE SWEETNESS OF FORGETTING. LISTEN NOW!
Listen, download, subscribe, rate, review & share wherever you get your podcasts!
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News from the Friends &Fiction
Official Book Club with Brenda & Lisa
The F&F Official Book Club has been nominated for a Zibby Award in the Best Virtual Book Club category. Brenda and Lisa are NYC-bound for the awards on October 28! For a full list of categories and nominees, click here.
We’ve got some great events coming up! Take a look at our book club schedule and be sure to save the dates. All events begin at 7pm Eastern unless otherwise noted.
Dec 8: Happy Hour with Ron Block and special guest Mary Kay Andrews, 7:30 pm ET
Grab these books and start reading now!
If you missed our fabulous book club discussion about A Flicker in the Dark with Stacy Willingham on Monday, October 24th, please view it on our YouTube channel HERE.
The Friends & Fiction Official Book Club is on YouTube! You can view previous book club discussions and happy hours at your leisure. Please subscribe to our channel HERE!
Not a member of the Friends & Fiction Book Club? Join us. We would love to have you!
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Join the F&F 2022 Reading Challenge!
Join us in 2022 for a fun 12-month reading challenge. We will challenge each other all year long to read books in a different category every month. This will help all of us broaden our horizons and read books in different genres we may not have chosen for ourselves. This is a fun way to join with the rest of the F&F community and share a fun reading experience. And the F&F Reading Journal makes the perfect companion piece to this challenge, helping you keep track of all the books you read all year long. Grab your reading journal HERE.
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F&F is on YouTube!
Subscribe Today!
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Did you miss the October 19th episode with Lisa Jewell? If so, you can watch it on our YouTube channel HERE. We air our show on YouTube every Wednesday night at 7pm ET. And every episode since our show’s inception can be found there too. So if you ever miss one, or in case Facebook is being difficult, check us out on YouTube. Subscribe today so you never miss an episode and get alerted every time we post new content. We also have book trailers and highlight clips on our channel, too! Watch the October 19th show HERE.
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Join Us on Fable!
Introducing Friends & Fiction: Behind the Book
Have you joined F&F on Fable yet?! We are taking our immersive reading experience a step further by partnering with this unique social platform to form the “Friends & Fiction: Behind the Book” Premium Book Club! Let’s discover, read, and talk about great books together! Download the FREE Fable app for your phone or tablet. Join MKA, Kristin, Kristy & Patti as they talk about their own books, the books they love, and books they're just discovering together. They’ll feature a new book selection every month, plus special club events, exclusive content, and more! Join our Premium Club for just $5/month! JOIN TODAY!
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Friends & Fiction Merchandise
SHOP THE F&F MERCH STORE!
NEW! Ask and you shall receive! We have finally made the souvenir posters from the Summer 2022 F&F Live Tour available online for purchase. Visit our pals at Oxford Exchange to buy yours now. These mini-posters are a full-color original design printed on glossy heavyweight card stock and individually packaged in a protective sleeve. Every single poster has been hand signed by each one of the Fab Four. They are priced at a flat rate of $15 including all taxes, postage, and handling, shipped with care anywhere in the continental US. Get your keepsake poster now while supplies last! ORDER POSTERS HERE!
Stay on track with the exclusive Friends & Fiction Reading Journal, featuring 52 book entries (one for every week of the year), a lending library, reading list, and books you put down. With a cloth cover, gold foil embossing, a satin ribbon page marker, elastic band, heavyweight paper, and a back pocket to store notes, this is the perfect gift for the book lover in your life—or for yourself! ORDER READING JOURNALS HERE.
Cozy cotton with a flattering v-neck and our signature Friends & Fiction logo, these comfy t-shirts are the perfect way to show your Friends & Fiction pride! ORDER T-SHIRTS HERE.
Friends & Fiction wine sippies are available and shipping now from Oxford Exchange!
We can’t wait to see you model your merch!
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CONNECT WITH THE FRIENDS & FICTION HOST AUTHORS! |
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