October 13, 2021 | Issue #63 |
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Join Mary Kay, Patti, Kristy & Kristin This Fall!
Four In-person Events in Florida in October!
Here's your chance to meet Mary Kay, Patti, Kristy & Kristin together in-person! The four F&F co-founders & co-hosts have a string of four events together in Florida in late October. They are hitting the road to celebrate the launches of MKA's The Santa Suit (9/28), Patti's Once Upon a Wardrobe (10/19) and Kristy's Christmas in Peachtree Bluff—with Kristin joining as a moderator. Read about all four events in one spot HERE or click through below for more info on each event and to reserve your spot!
Mon 10/25, 11am—F. M. Don's with Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda. Get tickets!
Mon 10/25, 5pm—Sanibel Community House w/ Macintosh Books in Sanibel. Get tickets!
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Five Facts from Our Friends,
Tasha Alexander & Andrew Grant
The one thing you’ve learned you can’t live without during the pandemic:
TA: Sleep. I spent way too many nights in 2020 awake and worrying.
AG: Coffee. Oh, wait - I knew that already!
Your perfect day:
TA & AG: Hiking or cross country skiing in the mountains followed by champagne and a great meal. All with each other, of course!
Your favorite independent bookstore:
TA & AG: It is impossible to pick only one. From the beginning of our careers, The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Murder By the Book in Houston, Texas, have supported us, and we will forever be grateful to them. They’ve got some of the most amazing, engaged, smart booksellers on the planet—we couldn’t do without their reading recommendations.
The last book you raved about:
TA: Lauren Willig’s Band of Sisters. A phenomenal story, beautifully written.
Your next book in ten words or less:
TA: While traveling in Egypt, Emily channels Hercule Poirot…
AG: Reacher winds up in the morgue in a small Arizona town…
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Bookstore of the Week
Warwick's
We have partnered with Warwick's in beautiful La Jolla, CA as our featured independent bookseller through the end of October. Warwick's is the country's oldest continuously family-owned and operated bookstore, so we see them as an ideal partner for our mission! We are going to keep encouraging you to shop local and shop small by buying from Warwick's all month long. And we will be offering you special opportunities along the way. Browse their selection which includes the F&F hosts' books as well as the latest by tonight's guests, Tasha Alexander & Andrew Grant.
Remember you can also always find all the books by every F&F guest, past and present, in the F&F Bookshop.org Shop, with portions of all sales placed there helping to fund F&F and going straight into the pockets of indie booksellers nationwide. Since its inception, Bookshop.org has raised more than $16 million for indie bookstores!
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Latest News From "The Fab Five"
MARY KAY ANDREWS can’t wait to show off the cover of her summer 2022 novel The Homewreckers on tonight’s episode of Friends & Fiction. And she’s still doing the happy dance after last week’s news that The Santa Suit hit the New York Times bestseller list at #10! And also The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and the Southeastern Independent Bookseller’s Association bestseller lists. When she gets done celebrating she’ll start packing for her next run of events beginning with Mon 10/18 at FoxTale Book Shoppe with Patti!
PATTI CALLAHAN is celebrating two huge events -- the birth of her second grandchild and counting the days (SIX!) until the release of Once Upon a Wardrobe! As for BOOK TOUR -- We are only ONE day away from the first event -- are you meeting Patti anywhere along the way with so many of our F&F friends joining her? She is so thrilled that one of her first events is a fundraiser for the LIteracy Group in Highlands, NC. You can read all about it here. The DEEP SOUTH READING LIST and POP SUGAR reading lists are out -- and Patti loves seeing Once Upon a Wardrobe in there with so many of her friends. Both the Tuscaloosa News and the Atlanta Journal Constitution (Early Christmas with our very own MKA) have great reviews that bring us closer to pub day!
KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY is SO EXCITED that E! Chose Christmas in Peachtree Bluff as one of its 17 Books to Cozy Up With in October—and can’t believe her first tour event is on October 18. She’d love to see you on tour! Full tour dates here.
What Kristy is Reading: It’s a Wonderful Christmas by Julie Cantrell, Lynne Gentry, Allison Pittman, Kelli Stuart and Janyre Tromp
KRISTIN HARMEL is so happy to tell you all that her good friend Christina Sivrich, who played the role of Yona in our “The Forest of Vanishing Stars” musical, is now voicing the role of Pogo the sea monster on an adorable, brand new show, Jelly, Ben & Pogo, airing on PBS Kids! WATCH NOW! (Each episode is only 3 minutes long; see if you can recognize Christina’s voice!) Speaking of the musical, Kristin is also super excited that Stephen Kellogg, who played the role of Aleksander, will be coming to Orlando this weekend. He’s on tour with Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Kristin can’t wait to see the show. Is he coming to your town? Check out his tour schedule here.
What Kristin is reading: Bluebird by Sharon Cameron
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An Original Essay by Kristin Harmel
Each week, the Friends & Fiction authors take turns
writing an essay for Parade.com, the online home of Parade magazine.This week, Kristin Harmel talks about a
life-changing trip to Paris, and why taking the risks is
scary but so important in life.
One April day when I was in my early 20s, I got a call from my bureau chief at the magazine where I’d been working as a full-time freelance writer for more than a year. “You’ve maxed out your hours for the year,” he said. “They won’t reset until the end of August. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to find something else to do for the next few months.”
I hung up, completely terrified. It wasn’t that I was worried about money; I’d been meticulous about saving as much as I could, and I had a decent cushion, plus I had steady work freelancing for two other magazines on the side. No, what terrified me was stepping off the treadmill. I’d become so accustomed to always scrambling for the next assignment, working overtime, and trying desperately to break the next big story that I had neglected to notice I wasn’t particularly happy.
Later that day, still reeling and feeling like I needed to find something else meaningful, impactful, and important to fill in the next several months, I found myself on Mediabistro.com, a popular website for media professionals. I was there to look for temporary writing gigs, but instead, I found a posting from another writer in her early 20s, a young woman named Lauren (who later became an author, too!). Like me, she was in a bit of a bad spot; she had planned to spend the summer living and writing in Paris, but her intended roommate had backed out at the last minute. Now, she was just a few weeks away from heading off to France, and she was worried about how she’d sublet her second bedroom and pay the rent. She was hoping that, by chance, there might be another writer perusing Mediabistro’s site who had the last-minute flexibility to move to Paris through the end of August.
I stared at the listing, which seemed like it had been custom-written for me.
To continue reading Kristin's column
on Parade.com, click HERE.
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Listen to the F&F Podcast!
Coming soon! Out this Friday, October 15th!—For his Library Rockstars series, Ron interviews Sari Feldman, retired executive director of Cuyahoga County Public Library and a past president of the American Library Association.
Out Now! WB_S1E18—Ron & Patti sit down with award-winning, New York Times bestselling poet, short story writer, and novelist Ron Rash. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S1E17—Ron Block sits down with our own Mary Kay Andrews to talk all about her brand new book just out this week The Santa Suit! LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S1E16—Ron Block sits down with USA Today bestselling thriller writer Hank Phillippi Ryan to discuss her new book Her Perfect Life. 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 through the end of the year and be sure to save the dates! All events begin at 7pm Eastern unless otherwise noted (newly added events are marked with an asterisk*).
OCT 17—1pm ET Pre-Pub Day Virtual Brunch with Patti Callahan Henry celebrating Once Upon a Wardrobe
OCT 24—4:30pm ET Kristy Woodson Harvey Live from The Oxford Exchange in Tampa for a Pre-Pub Day celebration of Christmas in Peachtree Bluff
OCT 25—The Orphan Witch book club discussion with Paige Crutcher
NOV 15—Once Upon a Wardrobe book club discussion with Patti Callahan Henry
*NOV 18*—Friendsgiving! Our annual virtual zoom sharing our favorite recipes, family traditions and cookbooks returns. Save the date!
DEC 3—Happy Hour with Ron Block -Get your TBR lists ready! We will have book recommendations galore and we will announce our book club picks for January-March 2022. You don't want to miss it!
DEC 6—The Santa Suit book club discussion with Mary Kay Andrews
DEC 20—Christmas in Peachtree Bluff book club discussion with Kristy Woodson Harvey
We had a blast at our Pre-Pub day celebration of The Santa Suit with Mary Kay Andrews. We played games and shared cookie recipes with MKA. Click HERE to see the replay.
Need more books added to your growing TBR list? We've got you covered! Check out our latest Happy Hour with Ron Block HERE.
Not a member of the Friends & Fiction Book Club? Click here to join us. We would love to have you!
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Friends & Fiction Merchandise
THE F&F MERCH STORE IS HERE!
Our merch is 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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