August 17, 2022 | Issue #106 |
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Latest News From "The Fab Four"
Patti Callahan Henry is back home and so excited to share not only her trip with you by social media but also TONIGHT she will share the cover of her newest novel (set where she has been traveling in England) The Secret Book of Flora Lea. Don’t miss it! She has so much to tell you and show you! And what a season we have ahead of us!
Kristy Woodson Harvey is SO EXCITED that THE WEDDING VEIL is Chico’s Fall Reading Pick. Hooray! Click HERE to read along with Chico’s this fall. (And if you’ve already read, all the better.) And be on the lookout for information about Kristy’s upcoming fashion show and book event with Chico’s in Asheville this September!
Kristin Harmel is excited about Patti’s cover reveal this week! Meanwhile, Kristin’s son, Noah, went back to school last Wednesday, so her family is just getting readjusted to a school day schedule as she ponders the question, “How can the summer be over by mid-August when it’s still eleven billion degrees out?” No answers are forthcoming.
Mary Kay Andrews in between binge-watching Karin Slaughter’s Pieces of Her on Netflix, is savoring the bounty of fresh-picked veggies from Mr. MKA’s garden, (those heirloom tomatoes are chef’s kiss) and racing toward a September deadline for her 2023 Christmas book, riding a six-weeks-long streak of unbroken writing days.
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Get to Know Our Friend, Karin Slaughter!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
I would love to be a watchmaker because it seems solitary and really focused on putting together tiny puzzles, which is totally my jam.
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve always felt that you don’t choose to be a writer. Writing chooses you. I started creating stories around the age of 6. Most of my books were about my two older sisters being mutilated, murdered, or just disappearing, always with the happy ending of me being an only child. My dad would give me a quarter for every book I wrote so I was incentivized early on to write for an audience. Weirdly, my sisters were not fans, but I will admit that the illustrations were not kind.
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
The first story I ever wrote was “The Boom Diddy Kitty” about a cat who helps a kid who is not very popular—it was a huge bestseller in that my dad bought all of the copies.
Do you have any writing rituals?
My routine is that I get up in the morning and start writing and I write until I can’t stop, then I go to sleep or watch mindless television and then I wake up and write again. I do most of my writing up at my cabin in the mountains, which is great because it’s very isolated. I like to cocoon myself in. I spend a few weeks at a time writing, then I take long breaks, then start again.
The last book you raved about:
One of my favorite authors of all times is Mo Hayder, whom we unfortunately lost recently. The last book she wrote, THE BOOK OF SAND (under the pseudonym Theo Clare) was meant to be a trilogy, which is so heartbreaking because it’s just a fucking fantastic read.
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Get to Know Our Friend, Chris Swann!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
A high school English teacher. 😊
What's the biggest misconception people have about you and your work?
I published my first novel in August, 2017, and my publisher sent me on tour, so I had to miss pre-planning at the school where I have taught for years. When I got back to school, some of my fellow teachers asked me, “What are you doing here? Are you still teaching? Didn’t you write a book?” I told them they had a highly romanticized view of publishing in the 21st century.
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
I was 13, and my social studies teacher was frog-marching my class through a unit on the Revolutionary War. She passed out a sheet containing options for the project at the end of the unit, and one of them was to write a fictional diary or journal from the point of view of a fictitious character who witnesses or participates in an actual event from the Revolutionary War. I chose that one. And once I wrote that fictional journal, I was hooked.
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
It was a fictional journal from the point of view of a Tennessee mountaineer in the 1770s who didn’t like this taxation without representation, so he picked up his musket and joined the Revolutionary War. He fought at the Battle of Kings Mountain, and he was the one who shot the British commander, of course.
Do you have any writing rituals?
I try not to suck. Other than that, I have to be sitting comfortably or even lying on the couch with my laptop. I always type—my handwriting is atrocious.
Is there a particular independent bookstore or library you'd like to shout-out?
FoxTale Book Shoppe in Woodstock, GA and A Cappella Books in Decatur, GA are both awesome.
The last book you raved about:
FIVE DECEMBERS by James Kestrel. Fantastic noirish murder mystery set in Honolulu and the Pacific just before and during WWII.
Tell us about your work-in-progress.
I just turned in a draft of my fifth book, the third installment of the Faulkner Family Thriller series, which includes NEVER TURN BACK and NEVER GO HOME. The working title is NEVER LEAVE YOU. It’s another Suzie Faulkner thriller and picks up a year after NEVER GO HOME. The next book I’m working on will be a stand-alone that explores how the extreme divisions in our country lead to cycles of violence, and how we can possibly walk away from the edge of the precipice we are standing on.
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Featured Bookseller
Find all the books by every F&F guest, past and present, in the F&F Bookshop.org Shop! Portions of all sales placed in our shop help fund F&F and support our guests! Proceeds from every sale made anywhere across Bookshop go straight into the pockets of indie booksellers nationwide. Since its inception, Bookshop.org has raised nearly $22 million for indie bookstores! Find GIRL, FORGOTTEN by Karin Slaughter and NEVER GO HOME by Chris Swann—as well as recent books by all of our guests and hosts—on our Friends & Fiction Fall 2022 Guests list!
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Listen to the F&F Podcast!
Coming this Friday, August 19th—Ron & MKA will talk with Clare Pooley about her delightful new novel, Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting.
Out Now! WB_S4E2—Ron and MKA are joined by Ellen Meister, author of the darkly comic new book, Take My Husband, to talk all about the art of writing with humor. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S4E1—Ron is joined by special guest co-host Nancy Johnson, author of The Kindest Lie, to speak with Dolen Perkins-Valdez about her powerful, poignant and timely newest work, Take My Hand. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S3E16—Ron is joined by MKA in conversation with NYT bestselling author Therese Anne Fowler to discuss It All Comes Down To This, her latest novel. LISTEN NOW!
Listen, download, subscribe, rate, review & share wherever you get your podcasts!
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News from the F&F Official Book Club
We have a lot of fun 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.
Aug 18th: Two-Year Book Club Anniversary Celebration—a live happy hour with the Fab Four!
Grab these books and start reading now!
If you missed our fabulous Book Club discussion on Monday Aug 15th with Sally Hepworth in talks of her newest release The Younger Wife please click HERE.
If you missed our book club discussion with Emily Henry about Book Lovers on Monday, July 18th, catch it on YouTube HERE.
Did you hear? The Friends & Fiction Official Book Club is now on YouTube! You can view previous book club discussions and happy hours at your leisure. Check it out 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 July 27th episode with Jamie Ford & Jason Mott? 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 July 27th 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 of 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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