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Welcome to Friends and Fiction.  New York Times Bestselling novelists Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, and Patti Callahan Henry are four longtime friends with more than seventy published books to their credit.  With chats, author interviews and fascinating insider talk about publishing and writing, these friends discuss the books they’ve written, the books they’re reading now, and the art of storytelling.  With a mission to support independent bookstores, they are always seeking new and innovative ways to introduce dynamic voices and trends in publishing.  If you love books and you’re curious about the writing world, you’re in the right place.  Join Friends and Fiction every Wednesday night at 7 pm EST on Facebook or Parade magazine.

Join us every Wednesday at 7pm ET on Facebook + YouTube.

WINTER 2023 SEASON
Buy our guests’ books in our Shop on Bookshop.org!

January 4 — Mary Kubica
feat. Deborah Goodrich Royce on the After Show
January 11 — Sonali Dev
January 18 — Laura Zigman & Elle Cosimano
January 25 — Marie Benedict
feat. Eleanor Shearer on the After Show
February 1 — Pam Jenoff
February 8 — Elinor Lipman
feat. Nina de Gramont on the After Show
February 15 — JT Ellison
feat. Jill Santopolo on the After Show
February 22 — Sadeqa Johnson & Lynn Cullen
March 1 — Hank Phillippi Ryan
March 8 — Jennifer Rosner & Julia Kelly
March 15 — Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai & Sarah Penner
March 22 — Colleen Oakley & Julie Carrick Dalton
feat. Stephanie Marie Thornton on the After Show
March 29 — Lisa Scottoline & Robert Dugoni

Join our 2023 Reading Challenge! In 2023, the challenge will be run by The Friends & Fiction Official Book Club with Brenda & Lisa. Visit their Facebook Group page for all the details and great book suggestions!

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meet the authors

Mary Kay Andrews

Kristin Harmel

Kristy Woodson Harvey

Patti Callahan Henry

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The Latest Books from the Friends and Fiction Authors

All episodes air on our Facebook group page.
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All episodes also air on our YouTube channel.
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EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! The Fab Four of F EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! The Fab Four of F&F are in the news! First there was this lovely feature in @floridaweekly by our good pal Nancy Stetson. Then @shelf.awareness picked up the story too! We are so happy to see these feature stories about our beloved @rebeccabinkowski, owner of the Sanibel FL indie @macintoshbooks. Rebecca has opened up in a temporary location @macintoshbooksbelltower while Sanibel puts the pieces back together after the devastation of Hurricane Ian. We at F&F helped spread the word about how important shopping online with Macintosh, buying gift cards from them, and donating to their GoFundMe would be to their ultimate survival as a vital community cultural hub. To all who answered the call, THANK YOU! Let's keep up the great work so Macintosh can return to their island home...and maybe even keep this new satellite location going permanently too...!

At the 🔗in our bio…
✅Read the FL Weekly piece. ✅Read the Shelf Awareness coverage.
✅See all the ways to help Macintosh. 

@marykayandrews @kristinharmel @kristywharvey @pattichenry
NEW EPISODE!!! #thewidow is a taut political thril NEW EPISODE!!! #thewidow is a taut political thriller you don’t want to miss!! Listen in to meet @kairarouda who is so fascinating herself. What a great conversation- follow link in profile ✍️✍️
Week One! As authors, we are often asked, where do Week One! As authors, we are often asked, where do you get your ideas? And sometimes we can say, and sometimes we have to make it up! So our Patti @pattichenry thought for the next 14 weeks until The Secret Book of Flora Lea releases on May 2, she would talk about the seeds that grew into this novel. So join her every Friday and we’ll talk about the inspirations behind this new book. But in the end, who knows where ideas come from @atriabooks
Have you joined #friendsandfiction on @fable yet?! Have you joined #friendsandfiction on @fable yet?! Over on our exclusive book club on the Fable app, we’ve just switched books to #nowisnotthetimetopanic by @kevinwilsonauthor! If you haven’t joined us on Fable yet, this is a great time to join in. Each month, one of the four F&F founders (@marykayandrews, @kristinharmel, @kristywharvey, @pattichenry) hosts an interactive discussion about our chosen book, and this month, Patti will be on there, chatting with club members. And you can read along in your own time and join the discussion whenever you’re ready. It’s just $5 a month to join our premium club. Visit the Fable link in our bio to sign up for “Friends & Fiction Behind the Book” today! On the app, Fable is offering a 14-day #freetrial! So go check it out for a couple weeks at no charge.
Our guest this week @authormariebenedict gave us a Our guest this week @authormariebenedict gave us a great #bookrecommendation! When talking about a novel that made her learn something new, she brought up #TheMistsofAvalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, calling it groundbreaking for its time. She said it’s Arthurian legend told from the perspective of the women. “That’s the one that really started me on the path I'm on today. It opened up my eyes to the fact that there are so many women’s stories hidden in history that deserve to be unearthed.” Thanks for the #bookrec Marie!
Did you enjoy our episode with @authormariebenedic Did you enjoy our episode with @authormariebenedict and @eleanorbshearer last night? If you haven’t gotten Marie’s new book #themitfordaffair or Eleanor’s debut novel #riversingmehome, find them both at a discount in the F&F Shop on @bookshop_org! 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 $24 million for indie bookstores! Shop now at the link in our bio! #shopsmall #shoplocal
From our @kristinharmel: Hi from the chemo chair! From our @kristinharmel: Hi from the chemo chair!

In case you were curious... This is what I look like during my chemotherapy infusions.
 
Wondering what I'm wearing on my head? This is a DigniCap, a scalp-cooling system intended to reduce hair loss. The cooling cap goes on (after I've saturated my hair with water) thirty minutes before each chemotherapy infusion starts. It lowers the temperature of my scalp to THREE DEGREES—ice crystals form!--and it stays that way throughout the infusion, plus an additional two hours afterwards. The idea is that it both reduces blood flow to, and cellular activity in, the scalp area, meaning that hair follicles absorb fewer chemotherapy agents.
 
It's too early to say how I'll fare through the rest of treatment... but after the first half of chemo, I still have the majority of my hair. It's much thinner than it was when I began, though, which is a weird feeling. I began shedding around day 15, and by two days later, my hair was coming out in small handfuls--as in I'd run a hand through my hair and come out with 40-50 strands at a time. I knew to expect this, even with the Dignicap system, but it still felt more traumatic than I anticipated.
 
It's unsettling to go through physical changes that make you feel like you're not yourself--and I know many of you who have walked this road before me can identify with that. I don't think I'd realized before all of this how much of my sense of self is tied into what I see when I look in the mirror (I’m losing my lashes and brows now, too)--but maybe this is a good reminder to try to adjust some of that thinking.
 
Once again, I'm so fortunate that my cancer was caught early. It's stage 1; the tumor was small; my prognosis is excellent. So this is just your friendly reminder to stay up to date with your mammograms and other recommended screenings. My cancer was caught early ONLY because I went in for my standard annual mammogram. Those screenings are there to save our lives. 
 
Now go schedule that mammogram!
On tonight's episode of the #friendsandfiction Wed On tonight's episode of the #friendsandfiction Wednesday night web show, we are so excited to welcome back New York Times bestselling author @authormariebenedict! 

A former lawyer with more than ten years’ experience as a litigator at some of the country’s premier law firms and Fortune500 companies, Marie views herself as an archaeologist of sorts, telling the untold stories of women. Marie is the author of ten novels including The Other Einstein, Carnegie’s Maid, The Only Woman in the Room, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, and The Personal Librarian which she co-wrote with Victoria Christopher Murray. Marie joins us to discuss her latest work of historical fiction, the much buzzed-about THE MITFORD AFFAIR, which @sourcebooks just published this month to rave reviews.

On the After Show we will meet British mixed-race writer and granddaughter of Windrush generation immigrants, @eleanorbshearer,  who will join us to discuss her remarkable debut novel, RIVER SING ME HOME (out Jan 31st from @berkleypub). Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Goodreads, AARP, Boston.com, and BookRiot, this is a page-turning and redemptive story of a mother’s gripping journey across the Caribbean to find her stolen children in the aftermath of slavery. We can’t wait to talk to her all about it!

Join us tonight at 7pm ET on the F&F Facebook page and YouTube channel. Meanwhile, shop for Marie’s and Eleanor’s books — as well as those by all F&F hosts and guests — in the F&F Shop on @bookshop_org at the link in our bio. We can't wait to see you all there.
Tomorrow's edition of the #friendsandfiction newsl Tomorrow's edition of the #friendsandfiction newsletter features an exclusive Q&A with this week’s guest, @authormariebenedict. In addition to these shout-outs for @penguinbookshop and @carnegielibrary, Marie tells us about when she first knew she wanted to be a writer, the first piece of fiction she ever wrote, and her writing rituals. Not subscribed? Head over to the link in our bio to sign up and never miss another issue! And don't forget to tune in live tomorrow night at 7pm ET for our show with Marie Benedict and @eleanorbshearer on the After Show!
@kristywharvey’s Under the Southern Sky is out i @kristywharvey’s Under the Southern Sky is out in mass market paperback today! Have you read this instant NYT Bestseller yet?!
#Repost @kristywharvey with @use.repost
・・・
18-ish months ago I had the third best day of my life when Under the Southern Sky became an instant NYT Bestseller. We masked up, went on the road, @marykayandrews pushed me around in a @target cart, @gradysarah1 posted her beauty parlor reading for all the world to see, @graye_todd and @milliewarren’s post became one of my most popular ever, @rsblockmtm sent custom cookies from @bakesbyjill, indies near and far hosted live and virtual events, book influencers posted their hearts out, my @friendsandfiction authors and members cheerled, and readers just showed up in every way. And I have to say… this one has a big, huge special place in my heart. So I am SO excited it’s out in mass market today! You can grab it from your grocery store, book store, on your target run, drugstore, airport or anywhere you buy books in this new smaller size 😍😍😍

Thanks @libraryofdallas for the spotting in the wild! If you read it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I loved writing it!!!
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