February 8, 2023 | Issue #129 |
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Latest News From "The Fab Four"
Patti Callahan Henry has had a great time making her Friday “Where do stories come from?” Videos! It’s been a miserable week of weather and a beautiful week of creating and art from her own messy writing to seeing the musical, Dreamgirls at her local theater and attending a fundraiser for her local cancer center where artists painted in real time. Patti is so grateful for all the love for her PRE-ORDER package for The Secret Book of Flora Lea.
What Patti is reading: The Dig by Anne Burt
Kristy Woodson Harvey spent time touring the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences this week and learned so much about the North Carolina coast! In short, book ideas were had! She had a great weekend celebrating her husband’s birthday. He isn’t birthday-obsessed like she is, but it was still fun. And there was Caroline’s Caramel Cake, so you know that was great. She turned in the first draft of her 2024 novel—hooray! Fireworks and champagne!—and is reading The Summer of Songbirds for the very last time. While she goes, she’ll be annotating in Goodreads, so make sure you’re following her over there and have marked The Summer of Songbirds as “To Read” so you can see all her notes about favorite passages, inspiration, and more!
Kristin Harmel is thrilled to announce an incredible event that Adventures by the Book is hosting in her honor to help raise money for breast cancer research and mammograms for the uninsured, and to remind all of you to get your mammograms! On Tuesday, March 7, join Kristin, Kristy, Patti, Mary Kay and more than fifty other bestselling authors for a star-studded, one-night only virtual extravaganza in celebration of finding the strength within us all. Adventures by the Book will donate 20 percent of all books sold through the event to the Susan G. Komen foundation, and for each book sold (up to 250), Kristin will donate a book to a cancer center. The only cost of admission: committing to scheduling your mammogram (or other recommended screening) or encouraging a loved one to do so! RSVP here to save your spot. Now go schedule that mammogram!
Mary Kay Andrews is working on a new book for summer 2024, with new characters waking her up most mornings demanding to tell their stories. Meanwhile, The Homewreckers is up for Best New Local Book and I’m up for Best Local Author in Connect Savannah’s 2023 Best of Savannah Reader’s Poll. You can vote HERE. She and her family will mark the one-year anniversary this week of her daughter Katie’s death from Covid-related illness by attending a Mass in Katie’s honor and planning ways to honor Katie’s memory with acts of kindness.
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The Secret Book of Flora Lea Pre-Order Package
CLAIM YOUR FREE GIFTS!
Have you pre-ordered THE SECRET BOOK OF FLORA LEA yet?! Anyone who orders Patti’s new book before its May 2, 2023 publication date is eligible for an exclusive PRE-ORDER PACKAGE courtesy of Patti and her team at Atria. You can order the book from any retailer—including via the F&F 2023 Subscription Box from Booktowne—in any format, and you’ll be eligible to claim your free gifts. The first exclusive gift in this package is an original short story that Patti wrote after she met a ninety-two-year-old woman outside London who was an Operation Pied Piper child evacuee in 1939—just like the sisters, Hazel and Flora Lea, in Patti’s novel. The second gift is a travel journal of Patti’s weeks-long research trip in England where some of the most amazing and synchronistic things happened. The scenes from the novel will burst to life once you see Patti’s photos of the mystical and very real landscape where the book is set. To claim your gifts, FILL OUT THIS FORM.
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Get to Know Our Friend, Elinor Lipman!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
I’d hope to get into law school, and from there be a prosecutor on the side of right!
What is the biggest misconception people have about you and your work?
It isn’t fashionable to quote Woody Allen, but he once said, “Comedy writers sit at the children’s table.” Some readers think that funny equals slight and that happy endings are too easy or maybe too girly. But less and less of that.
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
I remember, as a very little girl, maybe 7 or 8, I wrote a poem about the Merrimack River that made my mother laugh. I said, “You won’t laugh when I’m grown up and a famous poem.” (Yes, poem with an m…)
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
I was in 8th grade, Mrs. Sweeney’s English class. The assignment was to use different verb tenses. Mine was about guppies (swim, swam, swum) which sounds overly cute, but I was going for laughs. The teacher read it aloud, and the class laughed. Most gratifying!
Do you have any writing rituals?
Almost always in the morning, and aim for 500 words per day. If any particular 500 words come easily, I try for 750 or 1000, but 500 is usually the daily output.
Is there a particular independent bookstore you’d like to shout out?
Last book I raved about:
Tell us about your work-in-progress.
I’m only a few chapters in, but my narrator conducts estate sales. I crowd-sourced the name of her company on Facebook and chose "Finders, Keepers” from dozens of suggestions.
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Spotlight on Nina de Gramont
Nina de Gramont (also known as Marina Gessner) lives in coastal North Carolina with her husband, the writer David Gessner. She teaches at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and is almost always in the company of her two dogs, Missy and Isabelle. She’s the author of the acclaimed young adult novels, Meet Me at the River, Every Little Thing in the World, and The Distance from Me to You, which has recently been optioned for a movie, as well as the adult novels Gossip of the Starlings and The Last September and the story collection Of Cats and Men. Her latest novel, The Christie Affair, which was just released in paperback, was a New York Times and international bestseller in hardcover and was the Reese’s Book Club pick for February 2022.
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Subscribe to the Friends & Fiction 2023 First Edition Subscription Box!
Purchase of this special 2023 Friends & Fiction First Edition Subscription Box includes each 2023 NEW & SIGNED hardcover release from ALL FOUR of the Friends & Fiction host authors plus a fun, small gift included with the first shipment—a kitchen towel that reads, “Dinner can wait. It’s time for Friends & Fiction!”
Subscribers will receive four shipments around each book release:
May 2023—Patti Callahan Henry's The Secret Book of Flora Lea
June 2023—Kristin Harmel's The Paris Daughter
July 2023—Kristy Woodson Harvey's The Summer of Songbirds
Sept 2023—Mary Kay Andrews's Bright Lights, Big Christmas
Subscription price of $125 includes tax and all shipping charges. Sign up now at Booktowne.com!
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Friends & Fiction Merchandise
SHOP THE F&F MERCH STORE!
BOGO T-SHIRTS IN THE F&F MERCH STORE!
Our figure-flattering, cozy cotton v-neck T-shirts with our signature Friends & Fiction logo are now on sale Buy One Get One FREE! ORDER T-SHIRTS HERE. Use Code FFBOGO at check-out to claim your FREE T-shirt when you purchase one!
Also available:
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Listen to the F&F Podcast!
Coming this Friday, February 10th—Ron & Meg talk to Chinese-American debut novelist Lauren Kung Jessen about her brand-new rom-com LUNAR LOVE, an enemies-to-lovers tale set around an LA-based Chinese zodiac matchmaking business.
Out Now! WB_S5E4—Ron and Patti welcome thriller writer, Kaira Rouda about her newest page-turner, The Widow. This taut and twisty book sheds light on the inner workings of life in the U.S. Congress, while examining families, ambition, and the lengths some will go to to achieve and keep power and wealth. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S5E3—Ron & Meg talk to Susan Stokes-Chapman about her atmospheric debut novel, Pandora, a lush reimagination of the mythological Pandora. LISTEN NOW!
Listen, download, subscribe, rate, review & share wherever you get your podcasts!
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News from the Zibby Award-Winning Friends &Fiction Official Book Club with Brenda & Lisa
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.
Coming up:
Tune in on the Friends and Fiction Official Book Club page here this Thursday, February 9th at 7:30pm ET for the quarterly Happy Hour with Ron Block. There'll be a surprise guest, book banter, book recommendations, and more!
Grab these books and start reading now!
If you missed it:
Follow us!
We are on YouTube! View previous book club discussions and happy hours at your leisure. Subscribe to our channel HERE!
Not a member of the Friends & Fiction Book Club? Join us on Facebook. We would love to have you!
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The F&F 2023 Reading Challenge!
We have announced the 2023 F&F Reading Challenge! This year the challenge is being run by the F&F Official Book Club with Brenda & Lisa. Join in on all the fun on their Facebook group page. Each month there is a different category prompt designed to get all of us reading outside of our comfort zone. Let’s have fun together all year long reading books from lots of different genres. On the book club’s Facebook page, there will be ideas shared for each category and the chance to talk with fellow members about your reading selections. The timeless F&F Reading Journal makes the perfect companion piece to this or any reading 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 February 1st episode with Pam Jenoff? 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 February 1st 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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CONNECT WITH THE FRIENDS & FICTION HOST AUTHORS! |
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