Get to Know Our Friend, Laura Dave!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
I'd be wanting to be a writer!
What's the biggest misconception people have about you and your work?
I tend to do a lot of research - talking with lawyers, psychologists, moving to different locales. When I've been fortunate enough to chat with book clubs, they usually seem surprised about how much research I tend to do.
What is one book your readers might be surprised to find on your bookshelf?
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
I have always wanted to be a writer. Truly.
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
I wrote a story about a girl with magical braces. I was nine years old.
Do you have any writing rituals?
Is there a particular independent bookstore or library you'd like to shout-out?
Too many to count! My local bookstore is Diesel on the westside of Los Angeles. I'm there pretty much every weekend. It's my happy place. And I need to shout-out the Scarsdale Public Library in Westchester, New York. I have many fond memories of that library from my childhood.
The last book you raved about:
It's not the last book, though I highly recommend Defending Jacob by William Landay
Tell us about your work-in-progress.
It's a domestic suspense mystery, which takes place in coastal California.
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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 $20 million for indie bookstores! Find THE GOOD LEFT UNDONE by Adriana Trigiani—as well as recent books by our hosts and guests—on our Friends & Fiction Spring/Summer 2022 Guests list!
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Latest News From "The Fab Four"
Mary Kay Andrews is still feeling grateful for hitting #5 on the New York Times bestseller list for The Homewreckers (it hit the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly lists, too!), and for all the readers and booksellers she met these past two weeks on book tour. She was pumped, too, to see the book included in CNN’s list of “The Most Anticipated New Books to Read this May.” She’s looking forward to meeting up with the F&F faithful this weekend in New Jersey, and to catching up with her family—and her laundry.
What MKA is Reading: Gilt by Jamie Brenner.
Kristin Harmel is dropping by New York this week (en route to Friends & Fiction Live in New Jersey!) and is looking forward to seeing the billboard for The Forest of Vanishing Stars in Times Square(!!). She’s also excited to see her Friends & Fiction family in New Jersey on Friday, as well as some members of her Gallery Books family (and a few old friends) in New York on Thursday. She’s rooting hard for the New York Rangers in the NHL playoffs (her husband’s cousin plays for the Rangers), and she can’t believe her son, Noah, graduates from kindergarten this week.
Kristy Woodson Harvey is still on the go and in New York this week visiting with her publishing team. She is so excited to be spending time with those who help make her books come to life behind the scenes–and some fun friends too! She is still wrapping up THE WEDDING VEIL tour with some remaining events, and will be with the Friends and Fiction crew and Ron Block and Meg on the Jersey shore at Booktowne this week! She’s looking very forward to the start of summer.
What Kristy is Reading: Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
Patti Callahan Henry has been wanting to say this for so long (two and a half years to be exact) and here it is: THE GRAND OPENING for the EXHIBIT for the treasure and artifacts of the S. S. Pulaski (the shipwreck in Surviving Savannah) will open on Friday, June 17th. Patti and the man who found the ship (Micah Eldred) will speak at the grand opening party; there will be cocktails and food and artifacts that have been on the bottom of the ocean for two hundred years. You’ll receive a ticket with a passenger’s name as you walk through the exhibit to find out your fate! Otherwise, Patti is packing for New Jersey and can’t wait to be with her F&F crew, along with Ron and Meg on the Jersey shore at Booktowne.
What Patti is Reading: Euphoria by Lily King
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Listen to the F&F Podcast!
Coming this Friday, May 20th—Ron and Kristin speak with prolific writers Jane Porter and Megan Crane about their amazing careers, their friendship, and the importance of community.
Out Now! WB_S3E5—In the 50th(!!) episode of our podcast, Ron & Patti talk with Aimie Runyan and Kelli Stuart about taking little known stories from history and crafting powerful works of historical fiction surrounding them. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S3E4—Ron Block and Patti Callahan explore mythology in fiction with Jennifer Saint and in non-fiction with Natalie Haynes. LISTEN NOW!
Out Now! WB_S3E3—Ron chats with Mary Kay Andrews all about her new book THE HOMEWRECKERS and looks back on her 30 years as a published author as she celebrates a major career milestone. 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 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 May 11th episode with Adriana Trigiani? 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 May 11th show HERE.
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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/.
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Sponsor Spotlight
Charleston Coffee Roasters
Do you need a great hostess, graduation, or teacher gift? We think the F&F Book & Coffee Bundles available through our friends at Charleston Coffee Roasters make the perfect gift for the book and coffee lovers in your life! You choose a book by one of the Fab Four, then select the coffee roast and grind of your choice. Pay one price for the bundle and receive your autographed book & coffee pairing in the mail! Check them out HERE. Remember to enter our ongoing coffee-of-the-month giveaway. We’ve got ONE more 3-month subscription (a $90 value) up for grabs with a final winner to be announced in May. ENTER NOW! And don’t forget that everyone in the F&F community gets 20% off all bagged coffees on the Charleston Coffee Roasters website with code coffeewithfriends. SHOP NOW! While you’re on their website, please sign up for their email newsletter, and be sure to follow CCR on Facebook & Instagram.
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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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