July 13, 2022 | Issue #103 |
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Latest News From "The Fab Four"
Mary Kay Andrews returned to the scene of the crime–Tybee Island, Ga. (the setting for The Homewreckers) for a book signing at Seaside Sisters last Friday. She left plenty of signed copies of all her books at the shop. This week she’s died and gone to antique blue and white heaven helping her friend Beth at a big antique show at the Atlanta Merchandise Mart.
Kristin Harmel had a blast with her friend Amber at the New Kids on the Block (featuring En Vogue, Salt-N-Pepa, and Rick Astley) show in Orlando on Sunday night; her voice is still hoarse from singing. This week, she’s excited to see her dear writer friends Wendy Toliver, Linda Gerber and Allison Van Diepen at a short writing retreat, where she’ll work on first pass pages for The Paris Daughter (June 2023) and will begin sketching out ideas for her next book!
What Kristin is Reading: The New Neighbor by Kristin’s sister, Karen Cleveland – out July 26!
Kristy Woodson Harvey is so excited because not only is it her birthday week (woo hoo!) but it’s also the Kids’ Big Rock Tournament this week, which is a huge fishing tournament in NC that her son basically lives for. In between obsessively checking the Big Rock app to see what her boys have caught and blowing out candles, she’ll be working on edits for THE SUMMER OF SONGBIRDS, coming in April. She can’t wait to share it with you! Also, did you see The Duchess of Cornwall reading Under the Southern Sky in British Vogue? Talk about a birthday gift!
Patti Callahan Henry enjoyed spending the fourth of July week with her family and grandbabies and is ready to head to Rehoboth with her Friends and Fiction family for two LIVE events! One of the best things that happened over the holiday week is that Patti has seen her new cover for The Secret Book of Flora Lea (coming May 2, 2023!) and she is swooning and promises to share it soon! Meanwhile, Patti’s chat with Zibby Owens is out now!
What Patti is Reading: The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner (our guest next week!)
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Get to Know Our Friend, Katherine Center!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
So many things! I might own a quilt store. Or a crafting center. Or rehab old houses. Or be a painter. Or a book artist. Or an English teacher. Or a librarian. Or have a podcast. I could go on all day. I wasn’t always sure that writing was going to work out, in fact, so I tried many things. As long as it didn’t involve math, it was a possibility! One of the great things about writing novels is that I get to do a version of having those jobs. I’ve written about a firefighter, a summer-camp owner, a photographer, an antique-store owner, a first grade teacher, and a librarian. And now . . . a bodyguard.
What's the biggest misconception people have about you and your work?
There’s a great quote from John Irving that goes, “It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.” Except I’ve been misquoting him for years as saying, “It’s hard work to make it look easy.” But I think about that a lot. The books I write feel very conversational—but it’s all carefully crafted that way. To feel breezy and easy—like it all just tumbled out. When in fact I’ve been editing and polishing and counting syllables through draft after draft. Though "hard work" might be a bit strong—because the work also feels a lot like play. I don’t think I’d work nearly so hard if it weren’t so fun.
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
Sixth grade is when I knew for sure—when I wrote my first novel (fan fiction about Duran Duran! See below). I knew I wanted to be a writer. But I had no idea how hard it would be or how long it would take to get there. I decided I wanted to be a writer at 12, and I didn’t actually publish my first novel until I was 32—this despite majoring in English at Vassar, winning the Vassar College Fiction Prize, winning a fellowship to the 2nd-ranked creative writing program in the nation and earning a Master’s in fiction. It was much harder than I expected it to be—and I was also much more of a chicken—but in the end, it was good for me. It forced me to figure out what I love in stories, and why I write at all. And of course, our struggles lead us to our strengths.
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
My best friends and I wrote fan fiction about Duran Duran in sixth grade—writing little stories in our spiral notebooks about the band members all falling in love with us. We’d write all week and then get together on the weekends, have sleepovers, and read our novels to each other in installments—and it was pure bliss. It was my first taste of the magic of fiction. Of how it can enchant you, and encourage you, and make real life better, somehow. I’ve been hooked ever since.
Is there a particular independent bookstore or library you'd like to shout-out?
I’m madly in love with Blue Willow Bookshop in my hometown of Houston. A perfect spot for bookish bliss!!
The last book you raved about:
I just listened to the audio of David Sedaris’s newest, Happy-Go-Lucky. I’ve been a fan of his since his very first book, decades ago. I saw him read in the ‘90s—in a bookstore!! He’s like nobody else out there, and settling into his wry storytelling, and his unabashed honesty, and his bittersweet comedy—it’s always like hanging out with an old friend.
Tell us about your work-in-progress.
It’s a story about a portrait artist who has a non-convulsive seizure on the day she gets the biggest break in her career—and winds up with a condition called face-blindness. As she tries to cope with her new situation and not give up the only thing she’s ever wanted to do, she must define who she is as an artist and learn to trust the people around her. And when she finds herself in a very unexpected love triangle, she has to decide what matters and come up with another way of seeing the world.
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Get to Know Our Friend, Linda Holmes!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
I think I would probably still be a lawyer. I didn't hate doing that; I just wanted to be a writer a lot more.
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
Always! I only learned around the time my first book came out that everybody didn't want to write books as a kid, because I honestly assumed everybody did.
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
The first one I remember was about an imaginary place called Tittletown (I have no idea where that came from), and the only thing I remember about the story is that the town had a water wheel (which is probably an image I got from watching Little House on the Prairie) but you could ride on it? And it would dunk you in the water? It was a very strange idea; I was very small.
Is there a particular independent bookstore or library you'd like to shout-out?
The most important library in my life as a kid was the school library. Our school librarian, Mrs. Kaufman, gave me Rebecca to read when I was in middle school (maybe sixth grade? seventh?) and it was a really important example of an adult helping me find adult fiction that I wouldn't completely understand but that would put me on a path to reading books.
The last book you raved about:
Ed Yong's book AN IMMENSE WORLD is nonfiction, but absolutely life-changing for me in terms of how I understand the world. A lot of his writing is about science (including COVID), but he has this remarkable book about animals and how they use their senses that is, for me, a really good book about understanding that your way of seeing things is only one way—literally.
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Spotlight on Leslie Hooton!
The author of three novels, Leslie Hooton is many things: a fabulous friend, a powerful speaker, a flower enthusiast, a lover of language, a seeker of color in a black-and-white world, and a keen observer of human behavior. Entering the world with a stroke at birth, Leslie has a unique perspective on health and wellness, the value of trust, the power of love, and what it takes to overcome adversity. She uses dictation for each of her novels and often jokes “I haven’t typed a single word.” She brings this unique perspective to her writing with humor and heart. Her debut novel, Before Anyone Else, garnered a Zibby nomination. Leslie’s second novel, The Secret of Rainy Days, was a book club favorite. Her third novel, After Everyone Else, the sequel to Before Everyone Else, was just published on June 28th and we are excited to talk to her about it tonight.
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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 more than $21 million for indie bookstores! Find THE BODYGUARD by Katherine Center, FLYING SOLO by Linda Holmes, and AFTER EVERYONE ELSE by Leslie Hooton—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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Listen to the F&F Podcast!
Coming this Friday, July 15th—Ron Block talks with Christina Geist about her newest book in her Growing with Buddy series, Buddy's New Buddy, and shares how she created the characters and the importance of picture books in literary growth!
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 recently 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.
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!
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Did you miss the July 6th episode with Alka Joshi, Martha Hall Kelly, & Nita Prose? 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 6th 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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