Meet Annie Hartnett TONIGHT
Weekly News from Friends & Fiction—October 7, 2026
Tune in at 7pm ET tonight for this week’s episode!
Join us on Wednesday, October 7th at 7pm Eastern on the F&F Facebook page and YouTube channel as Mary Kay Andrews & Kristin Harmel welcome bestselling, award-winning author Annie Hartnett to discuss her darkly comic and warm-hearted national bestseller, The Road to Tender Hearts, about an old man on a cross-country mission to reunite with his high school crush—bringing together his adult daughter, two orphaned kids, and a cat who can predict death.
Annie is the award-winning author of two previous novels Rabbit Cake and Unlikely Animals. Released in its trade paperback edition in April, The Road to Tender Hearts, won the 2025 New England Book Award for fiction, was longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, was named a best book of 2025 from NPR, LitHub, and Southern Living, and has been translated into nineteen languages. We are so excited to have Annie join us from her home in Massachusetts to talk about this word-of-mouth sensation that is beloved by book clubs and which John Irving calls, “a miraculous novel—an actual and spiritual road trip you won’t forget.”
Watch the video broadcast of this interview as it airs on Wed 10/7 at 7pm ET on the F&F Facebook group page & YouTube channel. Catch the audio version on our podcast Fri 10/9.
Meanwhile, order Annie’s book — along with all our guests’ and hosts’ books — at a discount in our F&F Shop on Bookshop.org where your purchases support our show and indie bookstores nationwide!
Upgrade to our PAID Subscription for bonus Q&A’s with our guest authors which include a writing tip, book recommendation, and information about their works-in-progress, plus other great material not covered on the show!
Latest News from the Fab Four!
KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY had a great weekend home celebrating her son’s fifteenth! Today, she’s in LA and so excited for her event at Zibby’s Books at 6 pm tonight in Santa Monica. Come say hi if you’re in the area! And don’t forget: there are many more dates in the Falling for Peachtree Bluff tour if you haven’t made it to one yet!
PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY had a great week at home catching up with friends and family (and writing or attempting to write). Sunday night she attended a concert with an up and coming singer named Lamont Landers and was blown away. Keep your ears open for this guy. She had a quick catch up with Mary Kay at the Antiques in the Gardens in Birmingham and a couple thrift shops (what else of course?). This week, Patti will be traveling from Denver to Minneapolis for Indie Bookstore Trade shows for Heart of the Wild and is so excited about FINALLY being able to really talk about it to booksellers.
MARY KAY ANDREWS loved chatting with Annie Hartnett about The Road to Tender Hearts, and now she’s on a Road Trip er, Sea Cruise, of her own. Look for pix of MKA in Italy and Croatia on her social media. In the meantime, arrividerci baby!
KRISTIN HARMEL attended a celebration of life for her cousin, Courtney, in New York on Sunday and loved hearing all of her friends’ stories about Courtney living it up in Key West and Greenwich Village in the early 1980s! She was a videographer who documented the ‘70s and ‘80s in downtown Manhattan, capturing everyone from Keith Haring to Madonna on film… she led an extraordinary life, and Kristin loved her very much. The quick trip to New York for the gathering brought a wonderful surprise: lunch with author pal Adriana Trigiani, who lives just a few blocks from where the celebration took place. The next day, Kristin headed off to take part in an earlier.org fundraiser for breast cancer research in North Carolina. Now, she’s back home for a whirlwind remainder of the week, writing and taking meetings. She’s looking forward to catching her breath over the long weekend.
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Upcoming Events
See Kristy’s remaining tour stops for Falling for Peachtree Bluff HERE.
See Patti’s upcoming events HERE.
See MKA’s upcoming events HERE.
See Kristin’s upcoming events HERE.
Want to know what our F&F Live events are all about? Watch this video compilation!
In Case You Missed It
On our most recent episode of The Friends & Fiction Show, Mary Kay Andrews & Ron Block welcomed #1 bestselling author Lucy Foley to discuss her brand-new novel, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel, the first fully authorized Miss Marple mystery in fifty years featuring Agatha Christie’s iconic detective.
You can WATCH that episode on Facebook or YouTube, or LISTEN to it on our podcast.
Coming Up on The Friends & Fiction Show
All shows can be watched on Facebook & YouTube each Wednesday evening at 7pm ET, and listened to on our podcast each Friday, all year long.
Already aired: Karin Slaughter, The Secrets We Hide
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Kristy Woodson Harvey, Falling for Peachtree Bluff
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Chloe Benjamin, Under Story
WATCH | LISTEN
Already aired: Ariel Lawhon, The Pirate Queen
WATCH | LISTEN
The Fall 2026 Season of The Friends & Fiction Show
Already aired: Lucy Foley, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel
WATCH | LISTEN
Annie Hartnett, The Road to Tender Hearts
Watch: 10/7 | Listen: 10/9
Bonnie Garmus, Peck & Peck
Watch: 10/14 | Listen: 10/16
Audrey Niffenegger, Life Out of Order
Watch LIVE: 10/21 | Listen: 10/23
May Cobb, All the Little Secrets
Watch LIVE: 11/4 | Listen: 11/6
Mary Beth Keane, Whale Harbor
Watch: 11/11 | Listen: 11/13
Nina de Gramont, Peregrine Hill
Watch: 11/18 | Listen: 11/20
Lucy Tan, Tiger’s Mouth
Watch: 12/2 | Listen: 12/4
Nancy Thayer, Nantucket Christmas Stroll
Watch LIVE: 12/9 | Listen: 12/11
Jennifer E. Smith, Rabbit Rabbit
Watch: 12/16 | Listen: 12/18
The NEW F&F 2026-27 Subscription Box with Oxford Exchange
Have you heard about the NEW 2026-27 F&F Subscription Box? It features Kristy’s Falling For Peachtree Bluff, out 9/15, and Patti’s Heart of the Wild, out in April 2027. You’ll also receive an adorable Friends & Fiction keychain and Friends & Fiction bookplates, so all the books you lend out are sure to make their way back to you! Those goodies are available ONLY in this subscription box. So, visit Oxford Exchange to get yours while supplies last!
F&F Merch Store
We have a Friends & Fiction merch store with t-shirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs and a book bag on Bonfire. We recently added a couple new colors for our fan favorite name list tee-shirts—a heathery hunter green and a kelly green—both of which match perfectly with the three new Fab Four books that were just released in May, June & July of this year! Get yours now!
F&F Official Book Club & 2026 Reading Challenge
Join Brenda Gardner & Lisa Harrison for monthly book club picks and live online author chats on the Facebook page for the F&F Official Book Club with Brenda & Lisa, where they’ve amassed nearly 40,000 of their own members. You can also follow the Book Club on Instagram and subscribe to their YouTube channel where you can catch past discussions, including their most recent chat with Mayra Cuevas & Marie Marquardt about their new novel, How to Fake a Southern Gentleman. Mark your calendars for October 26th for their next author guest, Kristy WoodsonHarvey, when they’ll discuss her new novel, Falling for Peachtree Bluff. The Book Club is also hosting the 2026 F&F Reading Challenge. Join them for a different category prompt each month to read outside your comfort zone. The October prompt is to read a southern gothic novel and for November it’s to read a work of foodie fiction.
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