July 6, 2022 | Issue #102
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Latest News From "The Fab Four"
Mary Kay Andrews loved discussing THE HOMEWRECKERS with Rosanna Scotto on Good Day New York last week. You can see the clip here. She was thrilled to be quoted in this story last week about beach reads in The Wall Street Journal. After celebrating a fun Fourth of July at home, she’ll return to her beloved Tybee Island, the setting for The Homewreckers, for a book signing and party this Friday, July 9, 11-2pm at Seaside Sisters.
Kristin Harmel finally arrived home safely from her friend’s wedding in Rhode Island after a flight cancellation and had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend with her husband, Jason, and son, Noah. On July 3, they kept up their longstanding family tradition of seeing the Magic Kingdom fireworks (Disney World runs their Independence Day fireworks on both July 3 and 4), and Jason grilled burgers and corn outside Disney’s Contemporary Resort (which is also where Kristin and Jason stayed when they got married in 2014!). Kristin is working on copyedits for The Paris Daughter (coming June 2023!) and is excited to see a final cover soon; she can’t wait to share it with all of you!
What Kristin is Reading: Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, coming in March 2023
Kristy Woodson Harvey is so excited to be taking the week off to soak up the sun with her family and friends. And she loves July so much because, not only is 4th of July her second favorite holiday after Christmas, but her birthday is also July 16. Hooray! She had the best time with Jamie Brenner in Beaufort last week and can’t wait to see her F&F sisters in just a couple weeks on the Delaware Shore!
What Kristy is Reading: Bookends by Zibby Owens
Patti Callahan Henry is so thrilled to be able to spend the week in the NC mountains with her whole family. Loads of chaos and loads of fun. If you want to see the two cutest toddlers of all time – check out her instagram. (Okay, so she’s biased, we know). She was also thrilled to see Savannah Magazine publish this beautiful article about Patti’s novel Surviving Savannah and the museum exhibit.
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Get to Know Our Friend, Alka Joshi!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
I would be a graphic artist and a cartoonist on the side, trying to always get my cartoons in the New Yorker!
What's the biggest misconception people have about you and your work?
It’s the same misconception readers have about most authors: that we decide to sit down and write and then it’s off to the printers and then in the bookstores, lickety-split. It takes years of practice and mistakes to get to the point where the writing becomes effortless (and even then, it’s not).
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
I never “wanted” to be writer. I loved reading and idolized writers, including my husband. How did they invent characters that felt so real? My husband is the one who thought I could also write, but it took me 16 years before I took his advice and entered an MFA program in Creative Writing. I loved it!
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
I remember in 7th grade English class, we had to write a short story. I not only wrote it, but illustrated it (I always was an artist). It was some maudlin tale about a boy who was being bullied in school and sad. That’s all I remember because the picture I drew was of a boy crying!
Do you have any writing rituals?
I write in bed, in my pajamas. That’s it. I write at any time of the day and on my computer. Prior to that, I compose the scenes in my head as I exercise. When they feel complete, I write them down.
Tell us about your work-in-progress.
Getting ready to talk to booksellers about book #3 of the Jaipur Trilogy: THE PERFUMIST OF PARIS. I had so much fun researching the perfume industry, which I knew nothing about, but which I knew Radha did. So I had to travel, of course, to Paris, Lisbon, Grasse, and New York. Hard times :-) I’m also getting started on book #4. Not part of the Trilogy but one of the characters from the Trilogy is wanting to insert himself in the story! It’s about a hospital nurse in Shimla in 1941 who is taking care of a famous female painter (based on a real life Hungarian/Indian painter). The painter dies, leaving a lot of unanswered questions, which the nurse is going to travel to Budapest and Paris and Florence to unearth.
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Get to Know Our Friend, Martha Hall Kelly!
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
When my mother sent me to summer writing camp when I was in fifth grade. In previous summers I had gone to sleep away camp in tents and this literary camp was at a junior college and we slept in dorm rooms, and wrote all day. I liked it so much better than camp in the woods.
Do you have any writing rituals?
I live in a very quiet part of rural Connecticut. I get up early, make green tea and head for my office. It overlooks a lovely, sweeping hay field, so I always take in what’s happening down below before I set to work. Chances are there’s some sort of wonderful nature drama unfolding out there. Then I write until three o’clock or so. Always with a fresh white legal pad.
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
I could only take out five books at a time from our middle school library, so I started writing my own stories. My first piece must have been one of those. I made them embarrassingly racy and kept them in the pencil drawer of my desk in my bedroom so I’m sure my mother must have read them. Maybe that’s why she sent me to writing camp.
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
Probably a house flipper. I love houses of any kind, the decorating and making a house livable and wonderful. HGTV is my drug of choice.
Is there a particular independent bookstore or library you'd like to shout-out?
The Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington, CT is my go-to since it’s in the next town. It’s such a charming spot and they always have fabulous recommendations.
The last book you raved about:
I love Courtney Maum’s writing, and I’m almost done with her novel I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You. Her voice is so fresh and funny. Her non-fiction book about the writing world is wonderful too. Before and After the Book Deal. I think she was so brave to write it--all the real stuff about book publishing no one ever talks about. So helpful for authors.
Tell us about your work-in-progress.
I have finished one and started the next. My fourth novel due out this spring is The Golden Doves, about two bad-ass women, former spies in the French resistance, who survive a concentration camp and reunite years later to track down someone from the camp who stole something precious from them. Thelma and Louise meets The DaVinci Code. What I’m working on now is a novel set on Martha’s Vineyard during WWII. My family came to the Vineyard in 1891 and I’ve always wanted to set a novel there. People don’t realize the island played a dangerous and important role in the war.
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Spotlight on Nita Prose!
We are so excited to meet—and introduce you all to—debut novelist Nita Prose! Nita works in the publishing industry where she has worked her way up from intern who photocopied edited manuscripts and secretly snooped the fascinating margin conversations between editors and writers. Now she is VP & Editorial Director at Simon & Schuster in Toronto, Canada, where she has the privilege of working with an incredible array of authors and publishing colleagues whom she credits with teaching her, manuscript by manuscript, book by book, the wondrous craft of writing. Nita loves books the way Lennie in Of Mice and Men loved his pet mouse. For this reason, she advises that you never lend her your prized first folio edition of Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories & Tragedies as she may return it dog-eared and enhanced with a shabby chic patina of Scotch tape. Nita’s debut novel THE MAID, took the world by storm, becoming a # 1 New York Times bestseller, a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, and a bestseller in Canada, the UK, Australia, Germany, Finland, and Croatia.
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Featured Bookseller
Bookshop.org
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Listen to the F&F Podcast!
Out Now! WB_S3E11—Ron interviews Kate White about her newest thriller, The Second Husband and about her years as editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine! 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.
August 19: Happy Hour with Ron Block
Grab these books and start reading now!
The Official F&F Book Club was lucky to host the premiere cover reveal on Saturday for The Woman With The Cure by Lynn Cullen click HERE to see the cover!!
If you missed our book club discussion with Mary Kay Andrews about The Homewreckers on Monday, June 20th, catch it HERE.
If you missed the May 16th book club meeting with Wiley Cash where we discussed his book When Ghosts Come Home, catch it HERE.
If you missed our May 6th Happy Hour with Ron Block and Patti Callahan Henry, catch it 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 June 29th episode with Elin Hilderbrand, Jamie Brenner & Robyn Carr? 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 June 29th 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! 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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