December 22, 2021 | Issue #73
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Five Facts From Our Friend, María Amparo Escandón!
The one thing you’ve learned you can’t live without during the pandemic:
My husband and kids
Your perfect day:
Sunday brunch, nap, swim, nap again, happy hour, watch a TV series, go to bed early.
Your favorite independent bookstore:
The last book you raved about:
Your next book in ten words or less:
Three women who barely know one another from a support group go on a road trip.
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Bookstore of the Week
Bookshop.org
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! Proceeds from every sale made on Bookshop goes straight into the pockets of indie booksellers nationwide. Since its inception, Bookshop.org has raised more than $18 million for indie bookstores! Find recent books by tonight’s guest, María Amparo Escandón and by the Fab Four on our Friends & Fiction 2021 Guests list!
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Latest News From "The Fab Four"
KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY is REELING over the announcement that her Peachtree Bluff Series is being adapted for NBC! She is busy working with the writing team on the pilot and can’t wait to share more information about the show as it comes together. Thanks to all the Peachtree Bluff fans out there for helping to make this happen! If you missed Kristy on the F&F Book Club on Monday night, catch it here.
PATTI CALLAHAN is a little Christmas elf (well not so little) preparing for the family gathering. What are your holiday wishes? Patti sent out a PCH Newsletter this week about just that, along with her favorite last minute gifts! And another newspaper chose Once Upon a Wardrobe for their Christmas gift giving suggestions! Patti hopes everyone has a beautiful holiday week and that you are surrounded by those you love and those who love you.
MARY KAY ANDREWS enjoyed a fun-filled weekend in New York City–where she packed in a great dinner with F&F managing director Meg Walker and Ron Block, along with seeing a Broadway show and the re-make of West Side Story. She did some research for her next secret project too. Now she’s frantically trying to finish Christmas baking, shopping, wrapping and decorating. If you missed her on Emily Giffin's book club Monday night, catch it here.
KRISTIN HARMEL spent Sunday night at Disney’s Polynesian Resort with her family and was lucky enough to get two 80-degree days for poolside lounging, and a perfect fireworks view from the balcony. She bought Disney Vacation Club points two years ago and often uses those points on one-night stays since she lives just 25 minutes from Disney World—she hasn’t regretted it for a second. She is also THRILLED for Kristy’s PEACHTREE BLUFF news and can’t wait to see what happens as the project develops!
What Kristin is reading: Christmas books with Noah!
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An Original Essay by Patti Callahan Henry!
Each week, the Friends & Fiction authors will take turns writing an essay for Parade.com, the online home of Parade magazine. This week, Patti wrote a column about holiday traditions.
It was Christmas Eve, 1991, and 12-year old Kristin Harmel (now one of the authors of Friends & Fiction) sat in the back seat of a Toyota Previa minivan with her 9-year-old sister and 6-year old brother. They held hot chocolate and candy canes, and their mom drove them around St. Petersburg, Florida to see all of the area’s best Christmas lights. Jingle Bells and Frosty the Snowman played from a cassette tape, and the three siblings snuggled in the back seat with the joy of Christmas between them. They repeated this tradition every single year.
Now, 30 years later, Kristin is a mom and she does something similar, except now she rides with her husband and young son on the monorail around Disney’s Magic Kingdom with hot cocoa and gingerbread in hand and gazes with awe at the resort lights and decorations.
Just like Kristin, we know that traditions ground us and bring us closer to our loved ones. As we repeat rituals that are comforting and honoring, we are more present to each other and to the holiday we celebrate.
To continue reading Patti’s essay on Parade.com, click HERE.
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Listen to the F&F Podcast!
Coming soon! Out this Friday, December 24th—Rockin’ Around the Podcast Tree! Ron gathers with the Fab Four and F&F’s Managing Director Meg Walker to talk holiday faves, memories, and traditions.
Out Now! WB_S1E29—A special surprise bonus episode of the F&F podcast featuring Mary Kay Andrews reading her original 1997 Callahan Garrity short story Fatal Fruitcake, only available online as a digital e-book download. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S1E28—Tune in for the second installment in Ron’s interview with country music artists Kim Richey & Gretchen Peters about storytelling through songwriting. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S1E27—Ron talks to comedian and Real Housewives impersonator Amy Philllips and her co-author, celebrity chef Stuart O'Keeffe, about their parody cookbook Cook It, Spill It, Throw It. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S1E26—Patti & Ron interview ER doc turned novelist Kimmery Martin about medical fiction. 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 coming up through the early part of 2022 and be sure to save the dates! All events begin at 7pm Eastern unless otherwise noted.
Grab these books quickly and start reading now! We hope everyone is having a great holiday season so far!
If you missed our Dec 20th Christmas in Peachtree Bluff book club discussion with Kristy Woodson Harvey, catch it HERE.
If you missed our Dec 6th book club discussion with Mary Kay Andrews about The Santa Suit, catch it HERE!
If you missed our Happy Hour with Ron Block on Friday Dec 3rd, you can watch it HERE.
Not a member of the Friends & Fiction Book Club? Join us! We would love to have you!
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F&F is Now on LoCo+!
Come join Friends & Fiction on LoCo+, a brand-new streaming platform that launched just a few days ago. The platform specializes in locally produced content and will eventually include channels from all over the country, but this is your chance to get in on the ground floor with us; we're part of the platform's rollout, and we'd love for you to be there, too. Eventually, it will be a paid subscription (like Netflix or Hulu), but if you sign up now, you can get the first month free--and you can see past and current episodes of Friends & Fiction as well as lots of other great, independently produced content, including the "Good News Lady" show from our friend (and former F&F guest) Daryn Kagan. Sign up for your free trial here and check it out: https://golocoplus.com/.
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F&F is on YouTube!
Subscribe Today!
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Did you miss last week’s Christmas Spectacular episode with F&F’s 12 Authors of Christmas? You can watch the whole thing on our YouTube channel HERE. We air our show live 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 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 December 15th show HERE.
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Friends & Fiction Merchandise
SHOP THE F&F MERCH STORE!
NEW! 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 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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