October 12, 2022 | Issue #114 |
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Latest News From "The Fab Four"
Kristin Harmel spent a lovely long weekend staycation with her family at an Orlando resort and is headed off to Maryland this week for an author luncheon for a private organization, so she’ll be doing Friends & Fiction from a hotel room just outside Washington, D.C. tonight! She’s tremendously grateful for all the support for the 10th anniversary edition of The Sweetness of Forgetting (available now!), and she had a lovely time launching the book last week in Tampa (where she appeared on Tampa Bay 10’s Great Day Live and stopped by Oxford Exchange to sign books) and Prior Lake, Minnesota, just outside Minneapolis, where she got to meet a great Friends & Fiction crowd!
What Kristin is Reading: Bessie by Linda Kass (for a blurb) and Less by Andrew Sean Greer on audiobook
Mary Kay Andrews discovered that you really CAN go home again, after she and Mr. MKA climbed in the wayback machine to attend their big high school reunion in St. Pete. (Did you know that these two were high school sweethearts?) This week she’s celebrating the paperback release of her surprise bestselling Christmas book The Santa Suit and trying to finish next fall’s Christmas book before a spate of fall events.
Kristy Woodson Harvey had such a fun weekend in Charleston at the Lenoir event with Vivian Howard! She is looking forward to a few more fall events coming soon! She is writing some Letters From Camp that go with THE SUMMER OF SONGBIRDS that she can’t wait to share with you soon!
Patti Callahan Henry just finished a bonus story that she can’t wait to share with all of you, a story that takes place the day before The Secret Book of Flora Lea begins. Watch out for more information soon! She spent the week enjoying the autumn foliage during long walks, as well as attending two concerts in the theaters of Birmingham! It’s like life is revving back up and she wants to enjoy it. Soon she will be headed to Mrytle Beach for the Horry County First Book and hopes to see some of you there.
What Patti is Reading: Dawnlands by Phillipa Gregory
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Get to Know Our Friend, Veronica Roth!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
If you stripped away the professional aspects of it, I would be writing for fun, and I would find a job that paid the bills but didn't demand so much brain space that I couldn't write in my spare time. Before I sold my first book, I worked as a freelance copyeditor, so: maybe something like that. Or I'd write in some other medium.
What's the biggest misconception people have about you and your work?
You know, because of how well-known Divergent was and is, I think the biggest misconception I encounter is that I haven't written anything else. So, to correct that: I've written four novels since then, a Romeo-and-Juliet-style space opera duology (Carve the Mark, The Fates Divide), a "what happens ten years after teen heroes save the world?" contemporary fantasy (Chosen Ones), and a dystopian mystery about the aftermath of an authoritarian regime's collapse (Poster Girl).
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
I had a big imagination as a kid and loved to play pretend, and my mom didn't let us complain about boredom--she always had all kinds of art supplies and games and kits around, and one of them was a bookmaking kit. Basically, you were supposed to fill in the pages and decorate the cover and you could send it off to be bound. I never finished it, because I got frustrated with writing by hand, but I think that kit made me realize that creative writing was a thing I could do for fun. I started writing almost daily at that point.
Is there a particular independent bookstore or library you'd like to shout-out?
I feel like I'm surrounded by great bookstores here in Chicago. Women and Children First and The Book Cellar are wonderful stores. Semicolon Bookstore has been great at supporting Chicago kids specifically-- in 2020 they did a big book giveaway to kids in K-12 in the Chicago area, which is what initially caught my attention, and they have a literacy nonprofit you can check out HERE. And The Book Stall, which is out in the north suburbs, is awesome and where I usually have signed copies of my books in stock!
The last book you raved about:
The Immortality Thief by Taran Hunt is an awesome, action-packed space fantasy that's basically "lovable criminal has to salvage secrets from a mysterious ship that's about to be destroyed by a supernova," so if you like to watch families of choice form in real time, or you enjoy clenching your jaw for multiple hours because of the ticking clock of a dying star, or you want a character that you care so much about you feel you must guard him at all costs, this is the book for you.
Tell us about your work-in-progress.
The next thing I've got cooking is a sci-fi retelling of Antigone, Arch-Conspirator, out in February! And I love the whole breadth of science fiction and fantasy, so I think I keep poking my way into different subgenres of it-- what I'm working on now is more on the fantasy end of things, which is more challenging for me, so we'll see how it goes!
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Get to Know Our Friend, Gabrielle Zevin!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
Someone with more friends and presumably, a healthier work-life balance.
What's the biggest misconception people have about you and your work?
Some readers believe that writers never change. I am not the same writer at 44 that I was when I wrote my first novel at 25.
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
I don’t think I ever knew. I was just always writing.
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
I remember a story about a queen and her inattentive husband. She ends up divorcing him to marry the family dog. I was in third grade, and the school I went to had a printing press so this story was turned into a book.
Do you have any writing rituals?
Sometimes I’ll tell myself the story of the book I’m writing just before I go to sleep. The idea is to put my unconscious mind to work on my novel.
Is there a particular independent bookstore or library you'd like to shout-out?
Books & Books in Miami is one the most beautiful bookstores in America. Libraries, wherever they are, are miracles.
The last book you raved about:
Tell us about your work-in-progress.
Work-in-progress should be kept a secret!
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Listen to the F&F Podcast!
Coming this Friday, October 14th—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.
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!
Out Now! WB_S4E9—Ron & Kristin talk with bestselling novelist Ruth Ware about her latest book IT GIRL. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S4E8—Ron & Kristy talk to Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Andrew Sean Greer about his novel LESS IS LOST. 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
We are excited to announce that 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.
Oct 13: Happy Hour with Ron Block
Grab these books and start reading now!
If you missed our fabulous book club discussion about The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare with Kimberly Brock on Monday September 19th, please view it on our YouTube channel HERE.
The Friends & Fiction Official Book Club is now 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 5th “Just Us” episode with the Fab Four? 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 5th 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!
But that’s not all! We also have F&F 20oz travel tumblers for on-the-go coffee or drinks!
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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