June 22, 2022 | Issue #100 |
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Latest News From "The Fab Four"
Mary Kay Andrews is back home after a Father’s Day fishing trip to Appalachicola with husband Tom and son Andy. With Atlanta temps soaring into the high ‘90s, she’s writing about Christmas in Manhattan for her holiday book in 2023. Looking forward to next Monday, June 27 when she’ll be back in the Outer Banks, doing a joint event at Downtown Books, in Manteo, N.C. with Jamie Brenner, for her just-released novel, Gilt.
Kristin Harmel spent a lovely Father’s Day weekend with Jason and Noah at a Disney resort—and on Saturday, she celebrated the life of her old friend Al Martino, who passed away last month on his 79th birthday. He was the first editor to give her a writing assignment (at Tampa Bay AllSports Magazine)—back when she was 16!—and she’ll always remember his influence on her life and career.
Kristy Woodson Harvey is so excited that one of her favorite events of the year, Old Homes Tour with Beaufort Historic Site, is taking place this week. Margot Shaw, the editor of Flower Magazine, is coming to town on Wednesday to do two events with Kristy. She is also working away on edits for The Summer of Songbirds. Huge thanks to everyone who participated in the cover reveal. She can’t wait to share preorder links when they are available! And don’t forget, the 2023 Friends & Fiction Firsts Subscription Box is available for preorder now from Booktowne!
Patti Callahan Henry is enjoying a vacation with her husband and is thrilled to be out of touch and far away, but she is also so sad to miss this star-packed week’s show! She had such a grand time last week at the Surviving Savannah museum grand opening and she was so outrageously grateful that Friends and Fiction members flew in from far flung places like Texas and New Jersey! She felt like the luckiest girl in town. She JUST finished the copy edits for her May 9th novel THE SECRET BOOK OF FLORA LEA and early blurbs from your favorite authors are coming in. She can’t wait to share more!
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Get to Know Our Friend, Julie Clark!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
I’m already doing it, which is teaching elementary school! I love being both a bestselling author and a teacher. Working with kids every day keeps me grounded and out of my head. Kids take up every inch of space in your mind and they help you forget all the stress and angst that goes along with publishing a book.
What's the biggest misconception people have about you and your work?
That I will never write an unreliable female narrator. I love unreliable narrators! But what I won’t do is make her unreliable due to mental illness or substance abuse. If she’s going to be unreliable she will have very good reasons why she doesn’t want you to know the truth about something.
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
I wrote a story for my dad on his fortieth birthday (which my artist brother illustrated). It was the story of a very old man who visited the grave of his beloved wife and how sad he was to be alone in the world. I was going for deep emotion, angst, perhaps some tears. But I completely missed the mark and after my dad read it he laughed and laughed. It was my first completely unexpected review.
Do you have any writing rituals?
I write very early in the morning and I must have coffee. Even when I’m traveling to promote my book, I MUST HAVE COFFEE first thing. My brain won’t work if I have to wait even five minutes to get it. I’ve developed some good hacks for when I’m on the road. If I have a microwave in my hotel room, the night before I will buy two very large black coffees from whatever local coffee shop is nearby and then heat them up in the morning. If I don’t have a microwave, I have discovered these instant coffee pouches that Trader Joe’s sells (with cream and sugar!) and those dissolve nicely in a cup of hot water. I need three every morning though, so I travel with a lot of pouches.
Is there a particular independent bookstore or library you'd like to shout-out?
My two local independent bookstores – Diesel in Brentwood and {Pages} A Bookstore in Manhattan Beach. I could (and often do!) spend hours in each one.
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Get to Know Our Friend, Erica Ferencik!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
Nuts, probably!:) Seriously, though, I would probably, hopefully, be doing some sort of creative work. I was a fine artist, a painter until I was 27 when I had a strangely sudden loss of interest in paints and canvas, and turned to writing novels. In any case, if not writing, I picture myself perhaps teaching creative writing to teens, or working on a farm, being outside and with animals in some capacity.
What's the biggest misconception people have about you and your work?
That I go to these wild places — the Allagash Territory of Maine, Peruvian jungle, Arctic icescapes — and suddenly think up stories to set there. In reality, the story, the human story comes first, always. I spend four to six months outlining a book before I write a word of text; the outline for GIRL IN ICE was nearly a hundred pages long. I have no idea how to build a complex story without constructing this detailed scaffolding beforehand. That said, as extensive as the outline is, there is always some play in the story, and plenty of fun surprises when I finally sit down to write the book.
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
I was in middle school, and it was about dinosaurs in a museum coming alive!!! I was ahead of my time…😊
Do you have any writing rituals?
I have to spend a good part of my day dreading going into my studio.:) That is super important – this low-level anxiety that pushes me to actually sit down and face the fear that I won’t be able to produce what I need to produce every day. When I finally get in there, I make this massive pot of super strong tea, light a candle, sit for a few moments and breathe and try to shed “real life.” Then I start to edit what I’d written the previous day. This serves as a sort of jumping-off ramp to entering into the work of the day: creating a new chapter or scene.
The last book you raved about:
Tell us about your work-in-progress.
The next book is a thriller called The Intelligence, and all I can really tell you right now, is that it’s about nature turning on us.
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Spotlight on Karen Cleveland!
We are so pleased to welcome Karen Cleveland back to the show. Watch her first appearance on a Sunday Bonus Episode from September 26, 2021 HERE. Karen is a former CIA counterterrorism analyst and the New York Times bestselling author of three novels. She has master’s degrees from Trinity College Dublin and Harvard University and lives in North Carolina with her husband and three children. We’re eager to get a preview of her gripping new thriller THE NEW NEIGHBOR in which secrets, jealousy, and paranoia collide when a seemingly perfect new family moves into a neighborhood with ties to the CIA.
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Featured Bookseller
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 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 $21 million for indie bookstores! Find THE LIES I TELL by Julie Clark, GIRL IN ICE by Erica Ferencik, and THE NEW NEIGHBOR by Karen Cleveland—as well as recent books by all of our guests and hosts—on our Friends & Fiction Spring/Summer 2022 Guests list!
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Debut Spotlight
THE SHORE by Katie Runde
With raves from the New York Times Book Review (“never sentimental… absorbing, lucid and true”), Glamour (“an emotional family drama [that's] both devastating and a little bit hilarious”), and TODAY.com (”one of the best beach reads of all time”) Katie Runde’s debut novel THE SHORE is poised to be a breakout book of Summer 2022.
Set over the course of one summer in Seaside, NJ, this perfect beach read follows a mother and her two daughters as they grapple with heartbreak, young love, and the weight of family secrets. The Shore is a powerful, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting novel infused with humor about young women finding sisterhood, friendship, and love in a time of crisis. This big-hearted family saga examines the grit and hustle of running a small business in a tourist town, the ways we connect with strangers when our families can't give us everything we need, and the comfort to be found in embracing the pleasures of youth while coping with unimaginable loss.
Author Katie Runde grew up on the Jersey Shore, where her family ran various boardwalk businesses. She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College and lives in Iowa City with her husband and two daughters.
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Listen to the F&F Podcast!
Coming this Friday, June 24th—Ron interviews Kate White about her newest thriller, The Second Husband and about her years as editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine!
Out Now! WB_S3E8—Ron & Meg talk with Carter Bays about his debut novel, The Mutual Friend and jumping from co-creating the smash-hit TV sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” to writing novels. 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!
If you missed our wonderful book club chat with Mary Kay Andrews about her newest releaseThe Homewreckers on Monday, June 20th, 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 15th episode with Emily Giffin, Harlan Coben, and Kate Quinn? 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 15th 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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