Weekly News from Friends & Fiction
JANUARY 10, 2024
MEET GRADY HENDRIX
Tune in TONIGHT to watch this week’s episode!
Join us Wednesday, January 10th at 7pm Eastern on the F&F Facebook page and YouTube channel to meet this week’s guest, Grady Hendrix!
Grady is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter living in New York City. He is the author of Horrorstör, My Best Friend’s Exorcism (which is being adapted into a feature film by Amazon Studios), We Sold Our Souls, and the New York Times bestseller The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires (currently being adapted into a TV series). Grady also authored the Bram Stoker Award–winning nonfiction book Paperbacks from Hell, a history of the horror paperback boom of the seventies and eighties, and his latest non-fiction book is These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World.
Grady joins hosts Mary Kay Andrews and Ron Block to discuss his latest instant New York Times bestselling darkly comic horror novel, How to Sell a Haunted House, which was just released in paperback this week. We can’t wait to hear all about the book called “wildly entertaining” by The New York Times and “ingenious” by The Washington Post, and which bestselling thriller author Riley Sager said “zigzags from hilarious to horrifying to heartbreaking and back again in the blink of an eye.”
Watch the video of this interview Wed 1/10 at 7pm ET on the F&F Facebook & YouTube channel. Catch the audio version on our podcast this Fri 1/12.
Buy Grady’s book on Bookshop.org!
Shop all of our guests’ & hosts’ books in our F&F Shop on Bookshop.org!
Upgrade to our PAID Subscription for personal insights from Grady not discussed on the show, including a writing tip, book recommendation, favorite indie bookstores, his first work of fiction, and info about his work-in-progress!
Latest News from the Fab Four!
MARY KAY ANDREWS started the New Year at Ebbtide, her family’s beach house on Tybee Island. Once her houseguests (and Mr. MKA and the three dogs) headed home, she had an amazingly productive few days thinking about what writing projects are on the horizon. She managed to get in a beach walk before heading home to tackle pre-publication chores for the May 7 publication of SUMMERS AT THE SAINT. And yes, an office clean-out is on the horizon.
What MKA is reading and why she’s loving it: Bookworm, by Robin Yeatmans, which was recommended by the booksellers at BookLove in Senoia, Georgia. Billed as the kind of book you’d get if Patricia Highsmith wrote the Secret Life of Walter Mitty, this debut novel by an English author is already revealing its wickedly funny, subversive secrets.
KRISTIN HARMEL closed her son Noah’s winter break out with a bang this weekend with a Disney stay (at Coronado Springs) and two trips to Universal Studios as well as an Orlando Magic game. (Also, she was thrilled to curl up with a bowl of popcorn and watch the Golden Globes on Sunday!) Noah went back to school yesterday, and Kristin is busy playing catch-up this week as she dives back in on her 2025 book (due in just a few weeks!). She’s also scheduled for a few follow-up oncologist appointments this month and reminds you to schedule your mammogram if you’re overdue!
What Kristin is reading and why she’s loving it: Where You End by Abbott Kahler. This fiction debut by Kahler (who writes narrative nonfiction under the name Karen Abbott) comes highly recommended by Patti, so I was excited even before I began reading–and it’s truly gripping. I’m thrilled that we’re having her on Friends & Fiction later this month; she’ll be our guest on the Wednesday show on Jan. 24, and the episode will air two days later as an audio podcast. Patti and I can’t wait to ask her a million things about this propulsive thriller!
KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY had the best time in Florida with her family the past few days and is looking forward to coming home and getting back in the swing of writing again. She is also really looking forward to Little Will‘s basketball season!
What Kristy is reading and why she’s loving it: A Novel Summer by Jamie Brenner, coming in July. “I absolutely could not put this one down! Fast-paced and feel-good, it’s going to be one of the must-read books of summer!”
PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY spent the week settling back in at home and working on her 2025 novel in earnest! She’s had a great time catching up with friends after a busy holiday and preparing the schedule for April paperback book tour! She’s been going through all your lovely Best of 2023 lists and thrilled to see Flora Lea on so many of them!
What Patti is reading and why she’s loving it: The Women by Kristin Hannah. She read it a few months ago but is re-reading it for our Friends and Fiction LIVE interview with Kristin in two weeks! Patti loves everything about this novel—from the main character being a nurse, to the immersive and heart-thumping setting, to the resolution, and finally to the beauty of Kristin’s writing.
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Upcoming Events
MON JAN 15, 5:30 pm ET/2:30pm PT — Catch Kristin Harmel in a virtual event with Santa Ana (California) and Town & Country Committees to benefit the Philharmonic Society’s Youth Music Education Programs. Info & tickets HERE.
In Case You Missed It
Last week on F&F we had a good old fashioned “Just Us” episode where the Fab Four gathered together without an author guest. They explained the show’s new format for 2024 and premiered the full guest line-up for our Winter season, then they had a chat about what F&F has meant to them over these past nearly four years, shared writing tips, and discussed the vulnerability they face as writers. 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: 2024 Sneak Preview with the Fab Four
WATCH now! | LISTEN now!
Grady Hendrix, How to Sell a Haunted House
Watch: Jan 10 | Listen: Jan 12
F&F January Pick of the Month: Kristin Hannah, The Women
Watch LIVE: Jan 17 | Listen: Jan 19
Abbott Kahler, Where You End
Watch: Jan 24 | Listen: Jan 26
Jennifer Moorman, The Magic All Around
Watch: Jan 31 | Listen: Feb 2
Amy Jo Burns, Mercury
Watch: Feb 7 | Listen: Feb 9
Kate Quinn & Janie Chang, The Phoenix Crown
Watch: Feb 14 | Listen: Feb 16
F&F February Pick of the Month: Tia Williams, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde
Watch LIVE: Feb 21 | Listen: Feb 23
Tommy Orange, Wandering Stars
Watch: Feb 28 | Listen: Mar 1
Rebecca Serle, Expiration Dates
Watch: Mar 6 | Listen: Mar 8
F&F March Pick of the Month: Chris Bohjalian, The Princess of Las Vegas
Watch LIVE: Mar 13 | Listen: Mar 15
Anna Quindlen, After Annie
Watch: Mar 20 | Listen: Mar 22
Allison Pataki, Finding Margaret Fuller
Watch: Mar 27 | Listen: Mar 29
F&F Merch Store & 2024 Subscription Box
We have a Friends & Fiction merch store with t-shirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs and a book bag on Bonfire. We also have other items like wine tumblers, reading journals, and our original white v-neck logo tees available through Oxford Exchange. You can also order the F&F 2024 SUBSCRIPTION BOX through our friends at Oxford Exchange. All details HERE!
F&F Official Book Club & 2024 Reading Challenge
Join Brenda Gardner & Lisa Harrison on Monday, January 22nd at 7pm ET on the Facebook page for the F&F Official Book Club with Brenda & Lisa as they welcome writing duo Christine Platt & Catherine Wiggington Greene to discuss their January pick, Rebecca, Not Becky. You can also follow the Book Club on Instagram and subscribe to their YouTube channel where you can catch past discussions. With the help of Annissa Armstrong, the Book Club is also hosting the 2024 F&F Reading Challenge. Join them for a different category prompt each month to read outside your comfort zone. The January challenge is to read a book published in your birth year, and February is to read a debut novel by an author of color.
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