January 12, 2021 | Issue #76
|
|
Five Facts From Our Friend, Jeffery Deaver!
The one thing you’ve learned you can’t live without during the pandemic:
Zoom.
Your perfect day:
Waking at six, writing, walking the dogs, writing, having lunch, writing, watching Curb Your Enthusiasm rerun during dinner, writing. Then writing and more writing. Oh, and writing.
Your favorite independent bookstore:
Sorry… I can’t single one out. It’s like asking who is your favorite child, and the answer is: All of them!
The last book you raved about:
Your next book in ten words or less:
Colter Shaw has to stop sociopathic ex-husband. Or not.
|
|
Bookseller 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 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 $18 million for indie bookstores! Find recent books by tonight’s guest Jeffery Deaver and by the Fab Four on our Friends & Fiction 2022 Guests list!
|
|
Announcing the Wanda Jewell Scholarship!
F&F Sponsors Scholarship in name
of former SIBA Head
Supporting independent booksellers has been part of the F&F mission from the start. We are so proud and honored to sponsor the inaugural Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Wanda Jewell Scholarship Fund for Bookseller Professional Development in honor of SIBA’s much-beloved former Executive Director who retired in 2020. The scholarship, funded by authors, provides financial support for booksellers through education and networking at in-person SIBA-sponsored events. Initial funding for the scholarship comes from the four hosts and founders of Friends & Fiction: Mary Kay Andrews, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Kristin Harmel and Patti Callahan Henry. “I’m so humbled by this scholarship in my name," said Jewell when she was told, "it truly means the world to me. And to have many of my favorite writers stepping forward to fund this is simply the best gift. So much gratitude to SIBA and writers and booksellers I cannot express.” Scholarship applications will open February 1, 2022. Read more about the scholarship announcement HERE. Anyone wishing to make a donation in honor of Wanda Jewell may do so HERE.
|
|
Latest News From "The Fab Four"
KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY is so, so happy to be back at her desk, working away on her 2023 novel, and, in the meantime, has lots of fun news to share: Slightly South of Simple, the first book in her Peachtree Bluff Series, is $1.99 on ebook platforms, you can win Under the Southern Sky on BookSweeps, and Kristina McMorris called The Wedding Veil (March 29) “as elegant and charming as the elusive Vanderbilt veil itself.” She can’t wait to share this book with you!
PATTI CALLAHAN is back at her desk and at the keyboard! What she’ll do there remains to be seen. She loved talking to Harbor Light Magazine in Michigan about Once Upon a Wardrobe. Meanwhile, slowly but surely, the boxes of Christmas are headed to the attic. She’s also moping a bit as her youngest son just graduated college and moved to Washington, D. C. Where did the time go?
MARY KAY ANDREWS turned in the copy edits for The Homewreckers and has now turned her attention to all the pre-publication details involved in planning a book tour, starting May 3rd.
KRISTIN HARMEL was so touched by this wonderful feature in the Naples Daily News, in advance of her literary luncheon with the Friends of the Library of Collier County (Florida) last week. This week, though she’s sad that the Wild Dunes event had to be canceled and that she’ll miss seeing those of you who planned to come, she’d looking forward to a bit of extra time to work on the first draft of her next novel, which is due in just a few weeks.
|
|
The F&F 2022 Reading Challenge
Join the Fun in Our 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.
|
|
Listen to the F&F Podcast!
Coming soon! Out this Friday, January 14th—Ron & Kristin interview two historical fiction authors, Genevieve Graham & Julia Kelly, about breathing life into history.
Out Now! WB_S2E1—Ron interviews Indian-American journalist, critic and novelist Thrity Umrigar about her latest novel, The Secrets Between Us, recently released in paperback. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S1E31—The Beaufort Special! Ron Block interviews F&F Managing Director Meg Walker all about F&F, the founders, her role, and what the future holds and follows it with an interview with attendees live from the June 2021 F&F event in Beaufort, NC. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S1E30—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. LISTEN NOW!
Listen, download, subscribe, rate, review & share wherever you get your podcasts!
|
|
News from the F&F Official Book Club
Happy New Year! 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 and start reading now!
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!
|
|
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/.
|
|
F&F is on YouTube!
Subscribe Today!
|
Did you miss last week’s episode with Sally Hepworth & Kelly Rimmer? 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 January 5th show HERE.
|
|
|
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!
|
|
CONNECT WITH THE FRIENDS & FICTION HOST AUTHORS!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|