Newsletter

November 3, 2021 | Issue #66

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Upcoming Episodes November 3—Zibby Owens November 10—Armando Lucas Correa November 17—Vivian Howard November 24—Elin Hilderbrand and the 100th Episode Extravaganza! December 1—Chris Swann & John Hart December 8—Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney December 15—The F&F Christmas Special with Special Guest Stars! December 22—María Amparo Escandón December 29—Sarah MacLean January 5—Sally Hepworth & Kelly Rimmer Events with the Fab Five! THURS NOV 4, 4pm—Kristy will be in person at Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities in Southern Pines, NC with The Country Bookshop. Tickets available here. FRI NOV 5, 3pm—Patti at the Pat Conroy Literary Festival in Beaufort, South Carolina talking about Reunion Beach and the collection dedicated to Dorothea Benton Frank. Both in person and live streamed.  SAT NOV 6, 10am—Kristin in person in Corona, CA for the Friends of the Corona Public Library Historical Fiction Brunch, with Martha Hall Kelly, Susan Meissner, and Alka Joshi. Sold out! SAT NOV 6, 12-4pm—MKA at Seaside Sisters on Tybee Island, GA for a Holiday Open House book signing and shopping event with sales, raffles and refreshments. SAT NOV 6, 1pm—Patti in person in at the Barnes and Noble in Mt. Pleasant, SC.  SUN NOV 7, 2pm—Kristy at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC for a signing. Tickets available here. SUN NOV 7, 3pm—Kristin in person in San Diego, CA for an Adventures by the Book dinner event with Martha Hall Kelly and Alka Joshi at Cafe Coyote in Old Town San Diego. Buy tickets HERE. SUN NOV 7, 4pm—Patti in Bluffton, SC with the Pat Conroy Literary Festival talking about Once Upon a Wardrobe with Margaret Evans of Lowcountry Weekly. In-person and live streamed.  MON NOV 8, 11am—MKA, Patti & Kristy together in-person in Bluffton, SC for a private members-only Christmas Cookie and Book Signing Event at Montage Palmetto Bluff. Meet Zibby Owens! TONIGHT!  On next week’s episode, we are pleased to welcome Zibby Owens, host of the award-winning podcast Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books and the author/editor of the anthology Moms Don't Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology. Named "NYC's Top Book-fluencer" by Vulture and on Oprah's list of top literary podcasts two years in a row, Zibby is a frequent contributor to such media outlets as Good Morning America and The Washington Post and just launched her own publishing house, Zibby Books. She joins us to talk about her new book Moms Don't Have Time to Have Kids, out Nov 2nd from Skyhorse. Join us TONIGHT at 7pm ET LIVE on the F&F Facebook Group page, on the PARADE Magazine page, and on our YouTube Channel. Remember to drop your questions in the comments on the F&F Facebook Group page during the live show! We may feature yours on the air! Five Facts from Our Friends, Zibby Owens The one thing you’ve learned you can’t live without during the pandemic: Fabric softener. Your perfect day: No kid tantrums. Sleeping late. Time with my husband. Time with girlfriends. Reading, reading, reading. And fantastic food. Oh, and the SUN. Your favorite independent bookstore:  BookHampton in East Hampton, NY. The last book you raved about: What is a Dog by Chloe Shaw Your next book in ten words or less: A personal essay anthology by 49 amazing authors about life.

Bookstore of the Week Bookshop.org You can always 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! A bit of every sale made on Bookshop goes straight into the pockets of indie booksellers nationwide. Since its inception, Bookshop.org has raised nearly $17 million for indie bookstores! Find recent books by tonight’s guest Zibby Owens in our Friends & Fiction 2021 Guests list!

Latest News From "The Fab Five" KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY is still having the BEST time on her Christmas in Peachtree Bluff tour--and hopes to see you in Southern Pines or Raleigh, NC this week! She is beyond thrilled that Brit & Co. included Christmas in Peachtree Bluff as one of its “Must-Read Books to Cozy Up with This Fall” and had the best time recording with one of her favorite podcast hosts, Cindy Burnett from Thoughts from a Page. What Kristy is Reading: An advance copy of On Gin Lane by Brooke Lea Foster. PATTI CALLAHAN is thrilled with the review of Once Upon a Wardrobe in the Washington Post!! And John Scalzi asked Patti “What was the Big Idea” for Once upon a Wardrobe and she answered. Her discussion with Thought from a Page is here now! Mary Robinette Kowel asked Patti “What was your favorite bit?" for her blog. She talked to Fox 24 in Charleston and the Undistracted podcast. It’s been a true flurry and she is so grateful to be home and also so grateful for the last two weeks on the road! You all showed up for her and made every stop feel like an F&F party. And the best part? Being together with the Fab Four and Meg! What Patti is Reading: The London House by Katherine Reay who will stop by the show on November 10th. MARY KAY ANDREWS is busy hiding candy wrappers from all the leftover Halloween treats she's consumed this week, and observing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) by trying to finish her summer 2022 novel, The Homewreckers.  What Mary Kay is reading: The Secret Snow by Viola Shipman KRISTIN HARMEL is excited to be heading out to California this weekend for the first time in nearly two years. She’ll be speaking at a historical fiction brunch in Corona, California (about an hour outside Los Angeles) on Saturday and then driving down to San Diego for a dinner event the next day. It’ll be a whirlwind of meetings, events and travel, but she’s looking forward to getting back out to the west coast. What Kristin is reading: An advance copy of A Girl During the War by Anita Abriel (coming March 8, 2022), and listening to In Search of Emma by our Nov. 10th guest, Armando Lucas Correa.

Listen to the F&F Podcast! Coming soon! Out this Friday, November 5th—Ron Block interviews James Ponti & Sarah Mlynowski about writing middle grade fiction.   Out Now! WB_S1E21—Ron Block talks with Jenna Blum about her memoir, Woodrow on the Bench about the life lessons her aging dog taught her. LISTEN NOW!   Out Now! WB_S1E20—It’s “Once Upon Peachtree Bluff” as Ron welcomes Patti & Kristy to celebrate the release of Patti’s Once Upon A Wardrobe & Kristy’s Christmas in Peachtree Bluff! LISTEN NOW!   Out Now! WB_S1E19—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. LISTEN NOW!    Listen, download, subscribe, rate, review & share wherever you get your podcasts!

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 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 *November 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   If you missed our Sunday Pre-Pub Brunch with Patti Callahan Henry be sure to check out the recording here.   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!    The FRIENDS & FICTION Official Book Club | Facebook

F&F is Now on LoCo+! Sign up for a free trial! 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 Now on YouTube! Subscribe Today! Did you know you can catch every episode of F&F on our YouTube channel? We air our show live there 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. We also have book trailers and highlight clips on our channel too! Here’s a clip from the Oct. 20th episode with Alice Hoffman talking about Practical Magic and The Book of Magic.

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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 pride! ORDER T-SHIRTS HERE.    Friends & Fiction wine sippies are available and shipping now from Oxford Exchange! ORDER WINE TUMBLERS HERE. But that’s not all! We also have F&F 20oz travel tumblers for on-the-go coffee of drinks! ORDER TRAVEL TUMBLERS HERE.   We can’t wait to see you model your merch!

CONNECT WITH THE FRIENDS & FICTION HOST AUTHORS!

MARY KAY ANDREWS

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KRISTIN HARMEL

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KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY

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PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY

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