Welcome to friends and fiction four New York Times bestselling authors endless stories novelists Mary K Andrews Kristen harmell Christy Woodson Harvey and Patty Callahan Henry are four longtime friends with more than 70 published books between them together they host friends and fiction with author interviews and fascinating Insider talk about
Publishing and writing to highlight and support independent bookstores they discuss the books they’ve written the books they’re reading now and the AR storytelling if you love books and you’re curious about the writing worlds you’re in the right Place hello everyone it’s that time it’s Wednesday night welcome to the friends and fiction show we are all so excited to be together with you live and we have got an incredible show in store for you so let’s get rolling I am Patty Callahan Henry I’m Christy Woodson Harvey I’m Christen
Hermel and I’m Mary K Andrews and this is friends and fiction four New York Times bestselling authors endless stories to support Indie bookstores authors Librarians and readers like you on this week’s live show we are thrill thrilled that word thrilled to welcome our third I was I was mixing up third
And thrilled thrilled to welcome our third you try that third 2024 featured author of the month Chris bajelan and he is here to discuss our friends and fiction pick of the month for March 2024 his highly anticipated novel the princess of Las Vegas but first just a quick reminder to
Check out all the fun stuff we’ve got going on in our friends and fiction community at friends and fiction there you will find our show schedule details on any upcoming in-person events plus links to our bookshop.org page to the friends and fiction official book club with Brenda and Lisa to our merch
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Of these things at the end of the show but we really want to make sure you know because we’ve been getting questions and emails and DMS it is ready it is time it is the 2024 friends and fiction subscription box with Oxford Exchange Meg will share the link to
Purchase in the comments but you get Mary Kay’s book signed first edition Christy Woodson Harvey’s book a happier life signed first edition and this darling pouch see it size it’s big you can fit like a whole paper back in there it’s 8 and 1 half by 11 think like a
Sheet of typing paper it’s big and it’s pretty and it’s nice you’re gonna oh I’m so excited so also mark your calendars for the next big epic friends and fiction live in-person event all of us will be there Meg Ron and some other surprises and all
Four of us on Sunday Cinco Deo May 5th in Neptune Beach Florida all to celebrate the launch of Mary Kay’s summers at the scent Saint again Meg will share the ticketing Link in the comments and be sure to stick around till the end of our show and we will
Give you even more details okay hey I if I order those big sombreros will you all wear them like the PJs we wore for the wear anything you want it’s your baby you’re in charge you know I love a costume we love a theme even if it has
Book really quickly that if you order the friends and fiction subscription box you can also add on Patty and Kristen’s new paperbags so that’s really important and a lot of you have reached out to me and said that you ordered all four which I feel like smartest choice that you
Could make for yourself oh that’s that’s so sweet thank you thanks to everyone who did that that’s awesome and Kristen I saw that you have a new cover for your paperback no um you you might have seen a might have been the British cover you saw could that have been it I don’t
Think I don’t think I do if I do that is new to okay the two women like with the split like almost yes that it’s it is it’s the British cover yep the British and Australian yep yep y but thank you all right okay we have quite a show in
Store so let’s say hello to our March featured author of the month Chris Balan is the number one New York Times bestselling author of 24 books these books have been translated into 35 language adapted as three movies and one Emmy nominated TV series christas books have been chosen as best books of the
Year by The Washington Post the St Louis Post Dispatch the Hartford current the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Publishers Weekly Library Journal kirkus book page and Salon his novel mwise was a number one number one New York Times bestseller and a selection for Oprah’s Book Club his 2018 novel the flight attendant debuted
As a New York Times USA Today Wall Street Journal Publishers Weekly and National indiebound bestseller and it is now you know if you haven’t heard about this I don’t know how you haven’t but it is now HBO Max TV series starring kayy quo incidentally um I had it had been on
My like longterm list to watch and I watched it all in just a couple of sittings like a week or so ago it amazing you have to watch it if you haven’t seen it I thought it was so good yes well I read the book on a plane oh that’s not
Smart no um I I I loved the book and it just took me a long time to get to the series it was fantastic that’s awesome great well Chris is also a playwright and a screenwriter he has a new play the club which arrived at the George Street
Playhouse in New Brunswick New Jersey in February 2024 Chris has also written for a wide variety of magazines and newspapers and was a weekly columnist in Vermont for the Burlington Free Press Chris is also kind of a smarty pain he graduated by Beta Kappa and sumam lad
From Amherst College he has been awarded honorary degrees as well from Amherst Champlain and Castleton University he lives in Vermont with his wife the photographer Victoria bler his new novel the princess of Las Vegas is set to be released next week and we are so excited
To talk with him about it live right now so Sean without further Ado bring Chris on so we can talk to him and not about him thank you for that lovely introduction oh my gosh way more information than anyone needs the most important thing people need to know is I
Am Jesse the rescue dogs dad that’s the most important thing off and anybody who follows you on Instagram gets loads of Jesse content that’s right I exploit her shamelessly she’s worth exploiting she’s adorable thank you all right welcome Chris as our pick of the month with hi
Patty hi everyone it’s a real honor to be with all of you on friends and fiction the four of you are amazing and I’m really really privileged to be with you thank you and we’re so glad you’re you’re starting off your whole big launch with us and we’ll talk about that
Later but we’re gonna Dive Right into this book because in this twisty attorney sometimes funny sometimes tragic novel a Princess Diana impersonated and her strange sister find themselves drawn into a dangerous game of money murder cryptocurrency and family secrets on the Las Vegas Strip as you wrote in
Your note inside my book welcome to the Buckingham Palace Casino may you steer clear of the mobs oligarchs and allpurpose casino crazies which we don’t do in the novel so Chris what else would you say about this book and of course our favorite what would you say it’s really
About you know a lot of people think a lady d in Las Vegas cocktail is utterly nonsensical but the only Princess Diana Museum in the United States is in Las Vegas so perhaps it was a natural um I wanted to explore two things in this book The Legacy of Princess Diana why is
She still in the Zeitgeist and Las Vegas that fantasmagorico that shoots across our night skies that fun house mirror for the dreamers and the damaged among us all now I I did briefly consider a Princess Diana historical fiction novel but it felt too soon and you know I love writing historical fiction five
Of my novels are historical fiction but the fact that Diana’s children ex-husband grandchildren and we think her daughter-in-law are still alive um led me to feel that it’s just just too soon so I I did dive into a exploration of why do we still rever this remarkable woman yeah yeah it’s
Awesome well Chris our POV goes back and forth between Chrissy and Betsy two sisters we see them slowly become entangled after a season apart they are so so different yet both carrying Secrets hidden desires and tragedy so I want you to introduce us to them both so
We’re going to play a little game not poker or roulette it’s the pretend we at a dinner party game and you must introduce the sisters to us before they show up so let’s start with Chrissy whose opening chapter starts with only one word luck and then the line aren’t
All narrators unreliable so tell us about Chrissy whose Ry witty voice takes us into Las Vegas no oh Chrissy Dowling was an actor in New York City until her agent realized that a she had an uncanny resemblance to Lady Dy and did one heck of an awesome Diana
Imitation and so they built what began as a party act into a tribute show enter the Buckingham Palace Casino and one of the most fun things I’ve ever done was to create a casino for a novel so the Buckingham Palace loves the idea of having in their showroom a Princess
Diana impersonator so she relocates there and brings with her all sorts of internal demons because she is deeply damaged but two shows a night five nights a week on this shabby Off the Strip Casino she brings Princess Diana back to life for an increasingly large group of devoted fans her sister Betsy
Is a social worker in Vermont but she decides to relocate to Las Vegas because her new boyfriend a former hedge fund manager is convinced that the future of Casino gaming in Vegas is cryptocurrency but what’s really clear to the reader before it is to Betsy is that her boyfriend is in with some
Seriously scary dudes not just the Vegas Mob but it seems Russian oligarchs and one of the things about this book that fascinated me I digress is I actually finished what I thought was the book in early 2022 wow but then but then Putin invaded Ukraine and all of the sudden a lot of
My Russian oligarch jokes felt really toned deaf secondly um as I was rewriting it the queen died and that was when I realized okay you cannot set this book in the amorphous present you need to pick a date and that is when the book is set because these days when you’re writing
Some kinds of Thrillers history moves faster Than Fiction yeah yeah now the one character I did not introduce you to Christie is Betsy’s New Daughter Betsy was a social worker in Vermont and she’s adopted a 13-year-old foster child named Marissa who might just be the smartest person in the room nice more
Than might be definitely is I love that now I feel like talking about these characters is a great segue into this question so you’ve written about a wide range of fascinating ideas from a safari to a very in trouble flight attendant to a Witch Hunt to a midwife and more and
These characters just jump off the page every one of these books you had movies and TV series and Stage Productions and each one has been born of a different curiosity or idea you’ve been on the friends and fiction stage before so you know that one of our favorite things to
Talk about is the origin of story so I’d love to ask you can you pinpoint the first moment you thought you might write about Princess Diana Las Vegas gambling and impersonator cryptocurrency sisters all of this how did this idea come together and what came first in this
Wild ride of a story yeah that’s a great question sometimes I can pinpoint precisely when a book began I know the flight attendant began in March of 2016 I just flown from Yovan Armenia to New York City and I’m having dinner with a friend of mine and three threads came together
Alchemically the miracle of Aviation the idea I had breakfast eight time zones from where I’m having dinner the fact I had flown on aeroflot Russia Espionage and third the beauty of booze in the bar in New York City where I was waiting for a friend of mine and so I had an idea
For a functional alcoholic who happens to be a flight attendant the princess of Las Vegas is different it’s possible the book began as far back as August of 1997 wow when Diana died in a cataclysmic car accident in a Paris tunnel my wife is a fine artist and she
Was doing the Washington Square art show and it was really clear that that weekend no one was going to talk about art the customers were not going to be focused on Art it was all going to be about this remarkably young woman who was tragically gone and it might have begun there who
Knows I know that I’ve been fascinated by the Royals ever since it might have began in the crown I think it was season 4 when you see the crown bring to life I think is the most astonishing thing Diana ever did aside from the good you aside from the humanitarian Diana let’s
Talk about the showwoman Diana because as Fergie Duchess of York Sarah not Fergie Black Eyed Peas said of her sister-in-law Diana she was the best publicist on the planet so it’s December 1985 Diana wants to give Charles a surprise birthday present and what does she do she says to her friend Wayne
Sleep a premier British ballet dancer Let’s Dance for Charles and at the Royal Opera House she surprised him by dancing with Wayne sleep a premier ballet dancer to Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl and it was fantastic the crowns Recreation of it is gorgeous so it might have been that
Moment in 2020 that it really clicked this woman is still in the Zeitgeist for a lot of reasons and this is one and there’s a remarkable novel in this Princess show person and when you think show person maybe you think Vegas maybe you think residency and I think that’s my where the
Cocktail might have begun you know the other thing I think it’s important to note is this my books have changed a lot in the last 10 or 12 years I fell in love with premium cable television and then streaming television The Sopranos The Wire madman Breaking Bad the Americans
Secession what all of these shows have in common is my literary Sweet Spot dread and so I began leaning more and more into dread in the last decade and I hope my books are no less literary but very often I am using dread as a way into character yeah we say
The Vegas the princess is fake the murders are real and and there is a body count there are corpses there’s a lot of bodies but all of you have gotten it to the real issue for me two sisters sibling rivalry two human beings and arguably a third this 13-year-old girl who are so
Fundamentally damaged as we all are when did you when were you able to say um dread is my thing like what can you find the moment where you realize that is what I want to lean into in my work or did you just start to see it rise
Up I’m just curious because that’s such a AA moment right yeah yeah um okay my mom died when I was a young man my father died more recently and when I was cleaning out his home under his bed I found a sweater box and in it were all
Of these short stories I’d written in the fourth and fifth grade oh my God and my mom had saved them and then my dad had saved them and one of them really fascinated me it is the oldest short story in existence I ever wrote and the last sentence of that
Story which I wrote when I was nine could have appeared in so many of my books including the Safari set novel the Lioness this is the last sentence the dripping stopped and the vultures had their meal oh my God even at 9 it was really clear you
Were leaning Dre was my thing dread is my jam now I saw an article in the Washington post about two months ago that I also found really interesting because it also gets at what I do anticipatory grief I think my books are also about that sometimes they shock me with a
Happy ending but when they do have a happy ending I’m surprised yeah interesting exact exact opposite of me exactly I was thinking that I was thinking that um gosh there’s so much stuff I would like to ask you about but I’m G to go ahead with this question because I know
For me I’m always playing with the theme of finding home in my own world yes and I feel a theme of Home and Family permeating the pages of the princess of Las Vegas now Chrissy has had to make a home of her Casino as meager as is and
You have the little foster child from Foster Care trying to find what home means um do you find this as a sub theme um if so was this purposely done or did it did it sort of naturally arise with Chrissy Betsy and Marissa okay um that question is so freaking
Smart it’s p and she gave it to me God bless you both I never but your delivery was so good was super smart yes yeah it was really scholarly really was exuding the I’m really deconstructing this work kind of moment it was brilliant but thank you Patty thank you Mary Kay
I I have never until this very moment thought of the role of home in my work but it is clearly and precisely there at one point in my life I went to five public schools in six years in three states oh wow home for me was always a very fluid
Concept I had wonderful parents of their magnificent older brother but um home for me I think is one of those demons that when I see my therapists tomorrow I’m going to say okay so I was yaking with friends in fiction last night and you know and Pat and Mary Kay
Brought up home and I I want to talk about this because I think you are on to something home or the search for home or the lack of home yeah does figure in my work I mean I can think of three books featuring homeless kids three close your
Eyes hold hands the Buffalo Soldier and the princess of Las Vegas all have homeless foster kids and I never made that connection until this very second welcome to the friends and fiction psychoanalytic we’re basically in PR and so we’re glad that you could join us right please make yourself comfortable
On the sofa over there the clock now could you tell us your latest dream oh there are plane crashes or planes that never get off the ground Bo I have plain crash dreams all the time it’s true driving off a bridge now my the my therapist says that plane
Crash streams aren’t really about a fear of flying they’re about a fear of being out of control oh shocking shocking always I my I have a continual dream my anxiety dream is either that I’m driving a car and I can’t reach the brake pedal yeah I’m speeding and my foot won’t reach the
Brake pedal or I’m free falling through clouds and there’s nothing there’s no no there’s no safety nut but that’s me let’s talk about Chris’s let’s talk about Chris’s psyche yeah exactly I no filter well that’s what makes you a great welcome yeah that’s why exactly and that’s why we asked you back Chris
Yeah exactly um are do you see any other themes I mean we’ve talked about the theme of home and we’ve talked about dread um anything else we need to go into tonight no I’m good I’m fine okay good he’s still absorbing his home all right am before we keep going I’m just
Here to remind all of you out there to put in your live questions because we’re about to flip it around and ask him some of your questions but Kristen go ahead so Chris I think it’s time we move on from the psychoanalysis portion of the evening must we to the murder part of
The evening come on that should be my thing murder and murder yeah exactly come on come on Kathy you’re you’re being you’re being a theme hug I’m just kidding all right so the murders Chris you do not take us in Easy the first murder happens in the opening Pages we
Are privileged from the get-go to know a little bit more than Chrissy knows so the web of this story is so intricate this kind of question about what we know what the characters know and what you as the author know lend themselves to this do you outline or do you set yourself up
And jump off a story cliff hoping that the net will appear unlike in Mary K’s dreams where the net doesn’t appear um so we I you know I’m not even gonna pretend Chris that I’m asking for a friend I am just purely asking for myself can you please tell me how to
Outline such an intricate book because I I know truly I’m fascinated by your process the the way this comes together on the page is extraordinary you know one of my favorite quotes is Diana I lead from the heart not the head and I love that quote because
I write from the heart not the head I have literally no idea where my books are going when I start I depend on my characters to take me by the hand and Lead Me Through the Dark of The Story So a book like the princess of Las
Vegas literally this was all I had to begin with imagine the TV series hack meets the TV series The Crown two sisters two sisters one who’s a princess Dian impersonator one who’s a social worker who relocates to Vegas with a really bad egg of a boyfriend but is when know I
Began when I began this book I had a very different set of criminals because they were all all all Russian oligarchs oh um and that you know certainly changed as I went through subsequent drafts um there is a body count yes but you know you the opening
Prologue wasn’t what I wrote first it it was I’m always fascinated by that yeah what I wrote first was Chrissy dowling’s voice a firsters actor talking about how um I live in Las Vegas a city that’s all about luck and sometimes what we think is terrible luck you miss your plane
Because your cab is stuck in traffic and the plane crashes it’s really good luck or what you think is really good luck turns out to be horrifically bad luck um and as I think Patty observed in her opening how I’m not going to tell you about my childhood because no one
Remembers their childhood no narrator is reliable yeah and of course as you get into the book you realize that Chrissy isn’t telling you about her childhood not because of some moral stance that she doesn’t believe narrators are reliable but because she is living in such spectacular denial wow I mean the
Reader knows so much more about Chrissy from her sister Betsy y than from chy because Chrissy spends so much of her life in a Valium adderal Haze dealing with her own eating disorder and um not admitting the truth of her past and how deeply and profoundly scarred she is do
Those pieces of it show up in your first draft or is that stuff that gets woven in as you’re doing draft after draft and deepening and enriching these characters you know the If I Didn’t Know Better I think the four of you were novelists oh wait you
Are you think we were asking for advice or something no no I mean question are so great and thank you for the thank you for being so gracious with your questions I love it um as a four of you know um some stuff gets added in with each draft and you
Kill some Darlings yeah some of for example Diana’s demons Diana wow there was a Freudian slip some of Chrissy Dow’s demons I dialed back ah and somebody made worse same with Betsy but but here is one hidden Easter egg why is Chrissy Dowling called Chrissy because my father always called
Me Chrissy no way oh wow that’s those Easter eggs about how much of me might be in Chrissy oh that’s awesome oh interesting okay so that’s actually a great segue into what I wanted to ask you next um we have a bunch of live questions coming in from
The audience but this one I was like oh I want to know this too so Nancy is wondering has the discovery of any of these old short stories sparked any ideas for new books yeah I want to know too what a great question will we ever have a novel about a disembodied hand
That emerges from a well maybe no I don’t think so and then there was the one all about sibling rivalry on the school safety patrol and who was going to be the sibling who got to wear the orange safety patrol um sash oh my God there’s a novel in that
Awesome oh wait and then there’s one short story I’m not making this up I’m not making this up this one was actually from seventh grade The Corned Beef who talked to God I love that so much I Chris I I would buy that I mean
Yeah who would would that has to be a short you have that’s awesome so when you look back on these things like I found a a a folder of my old short stories from college which honestly should have been better than they were frankly um it was like a little
Concerned at how horrible they were um but so like do you are you so young when you’re writing those stories that when you look back you aren’t even like you can’t even really judge them okay the early short stories what’s really impressive is this my penmanship was
Awesome no one did cursive better than me were you were you in Catholic schools I wasn’t I wasn’t but I’m just so old that they still taught cursing we Chris if it makes you feel better when I was a sophomore in college I wanted desperately to be in the novelist in
Residence creative writing seminar to determine who would be in it you would submit a short story before the December break she would read it over the holidays let you know January if you were in well in January I was summoned to her office and she said I have three
Words for you be a banker oh no oh wow get our faces a screenshot of that all of the blood just like ran out of our faces oh my gosh I mean and in all fairness be a banker wouldn’t have been terrible advice perhaps except for the fact the previous
I nearly failed economics 11 and the professor said to me after I fa after I failed the midterm why do you care about any of this I see your name in the student newspaper all the time when you get out of this joint you’re gonna be a writer
You’re not gonna be a banker wow wow you know Louisa May Alcott wrote for a newspaper and her editor said stick to your teaching Miss Alcott you’ll never be a writer so you know where would we be Mary K and has a similar story yeah yeah okay so um Claudia dorsa
Wants to know how much time in Las Vegas how much time did you spend in Las Vegas and I’m gonna add to that how much did you lose or did you um um I’ve been to Las Vegas maybe six or seven times in my life um probably three times in um
Once just before the pandemic twice since researching um I don’t lose money at casinos because I don’t gamble good point it’s hard to lose money if you don’t gamble so but I’m still fascinated by Vegas and I will tell you this I love tribute performers and the tribute
Shows and if you go to see one tribute Show in Las Vegas you must see Carpenters Legacy really I’m pretty sure it’s a Planet Hollywood and the two people who bring Karen and Richard Carpenter to life are fantastic they are unbelievable musicians and it is the most perfect and I compared what
They do on stage to the concert they’re recreating and it is so beautiful and so poignant and the thing it’s so great about it is um I’ve seen it twice thing so great about it is you’re surrounded by all these people who are going oh I
Had danced to that at my wedding or oh my God I had all the feels when my mother first played that song for me or oh my God I remember where I was when they sang that oh wow yeah we’ve only just begun was my high school graduation
Class song that’s how old I am oh I love Karen Carpenter I used to play that record over and over and over a talk about another person with another famous woman star with an eating disorder she had is in my next book I just thought of
That oh that’s funny oh all all comes together um Chris I would like to ask you one more Live question this is from Mindy erck um she says and we agree Chris is such a nice guy how does he come up with such Twisted characters and
That kind of goes to something I was wondering earlier like you your characters are all so different from each other but you get inside their heads so well can you talk to us a little bit about that first of all thank you I’m really honored that you think
I’m a nice person um I think I’m kind of a crank yeah um but I am very very um comfortable with the reality that all of us are flawed we all make unbelievable mistakes and yeah that’s what I try to channel in my books I do think it is much easier
For me to write about fundamentally good people who make bad choices than I am at writing about really evil people whenever I read my books and I’ve got evil characters I find myself doubting that they’re believable because I’m not good at really getting it you know really the worst human beings on
The planet um okay but I do love to write about PE good people making bad choices and it always cracks me up when people say oh I didn’t like that book because he or she made bad choices or um I don’t think anyone would make a choice that
Bad so I gave it you know one star um because oh my goodness gracious who Among Us makes only good choices not yeah I mean I’ve made speak made a few really good choices in my life you know the woman I fell in love with our decision to have our daughter our
Decision to rescue a dog and moving to Vermont every other choice I’ve made in my life is probably dubious Chris I think think that’s a little a little probably not very true but I yeah we we’ve all we’ve all can look back and if we try to make our characters so Rosy and
Shiny there’s nothing interesting about them because we know we all I agree we all have a shadow um I do have to say that Meg has decided that if she opens a sandwich shop it is going to be called corn beef talks to God perfect I love it you know and I got
Tell me when I was joining designing the Buckingham Palace Casino because it’s got of a British theme my fictional Casino I had so much fun creating things like um you know the the diner for kids is Williams milk Shakespeare so okay that didn’t get a laugh that just
Bombed didn’t I didn’t laughing uh oh I was take that joke on the road it was C okay we’ll try one more the burlesque show is the six sexy wives of Henry VIII that’s good that’s you go that’s a good one so you essentially you
Made your whole own casino this is not a real Casino in no no Las it is a fictional Casino called the Buckingham Palace and we even have Buckingham Palace Queen of Hearts princess of Las Vegas playing cards which leads us to spre I want to
See that the the cards the cards up yeah oh yes when I’m on book tour for the next 17 years of my life um four of you know that drill we will be giving away at all of the stops the official princess of Las Vegas playing
Cards as swag that is so fun I’d show up just for that yeah definitely all right Chris thank you so much for being with us on the prince fiction show and talking to us and and Diving deep into psycho an analysis but before we let you go tell
Our community where you’re going to be on the road and where your tour starts and what your tour looks like because we know everybody is going to be looking for you and those cards they all want those de playing cards okay um first of all I want to again thank the four of
You you are such amazingly gifted novelist writers and you are so gracious and you are four of the very best literary citizens on the planet what the four of you do to celebrate what words and reading and books can mean to the soul is epic and I thank you from the
Bottom of my heart okay the book tour let’s see if I can do this March 16th Berlin inton Vermont March 18th Coronado California and San Diego California Warwick’s bookstore um Tuesday Mar I won’t do this okay basically you can find all the events at chrisbo jan.com or the pengin
Random House site it is 24 events between Burlington San Diego Phoenix St Louis Philadelphia four events that’s incredible did you just say 24 24 oh and there’s there’s some really fun days for example on Friday March 20th I get up at 3 in the morning Wednesday because it’s my birthday oh it
Is your birthday yes wait what what day did I say March 20th March 20th is a Wednesday I know this happy Birthday Patty thank you so sorry it’s March 22 okay I get up at 3: in the morning I have events in two states and I’m on
Four airplanes oh we will pray for you no fine so basically from March 16th till April 24th I am in four time zones 24 cities and you can find them all at crispo jan.com or penguin random houses princess of Las Vegas page and I hope I see so many of
You you who are watching live and in person so I can thank you for joining me and give you some swag that’s awesome yeah and don’t forget Chris tell people where they can find you on social media because everybody loves catching up with Jesse and your bike rides thank you
Thank you you can find me on Facebook Instagram threads X still litzy good reads and very very badly Tick Tock and it’s always at chriso jallan okay awesome awesome all right now even if we are about to say goodbye to Chris do not go anywhere all of you out there we have
Loads to tell you about and possibly I’m not sure if we’re doing an after show possibly maybe an after show we’re gonna keep you filled with Dread yes yes we want this kind of sense of anticipatory happiness yeah anticipatory happiness what we’re aiming for here right and now that you’ve had the
Pleasure of hearing from Chris we encourage you to rush out and order your copies of the princess of Las Vegas the perfect place to order is on the friends and fiction shop on bookshop.org not only will you be getting the book at a discount but you’ll also be supporting
The show our beloved independent book sellers Nationwide and thanking Chris for coming on and talking to us tonight all right Chris we’ve absolutely loved having you good luck on the road and please stay well out there okay and um instead of seeing my therapist all
The time can I just see the four of you yes there you go we’ll go with you thanks oh you’re the best good night Chris you’re amazing you’re amazing all right as we say goodbye to one show I know that you want to know about the next show so we’ll be sh sure
To tune in next week as Christie and Mary Kay sit down with Pitzer Prize winner Anna quinland to discuss her new novel after Annie you can catch that interviewing airing in video format at 7 p.m. next Wednesday March 20th if I didn’t mention my birthday and the friends and fiction Facebook page and
YouTube channel it will then be posted to our podcast on Friday March 22nd when Chris will be on four planes and four time zones crazy that’s right okay everybody we have more to chat about first our newsletter this week we will have two that’s two issues our regular
Free issue went out today and it included book WS from each of us links to watch or listen to current shows and news about our merch subscription box and book club on Friday we’re going to send out an issue to our paid subscribers we have such great content
Planned for this issue including some bonus Green Room footage we film with Chris tonight before the show went live so visit our website for the link to sign up and Meg we’ll share the link in the comments and this is one way if you love our show you can help us keep doing
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In that group and the website of our amazing any bookstore friends at Oxford Exchange in Tampa Florida because as a reminder it’s the only place you can purchase the friends and fiction 2024 Book subscription box which includes the sign first edition of mka Summers of the
Saint my a happier life and an adorable one-of aind zipper pouch that says my weekend is booked with friends and fiction plus you have the option of adding the new 2024 trade paperback editions of Patty’s the secret book of Flor Lee and Kristen’s the Paris daughters don’t miss it you know I have
To say we’re doing a really bad job with the dread thing here like we’re just announcing delightful things I’m I’m not feeling this sense of dread that I think we’re supposed to have right now anticipatory happiness I’m telling you okay it’s like it’s like the inverse of
We’re do exactly that’s our our thing exactly all right and did someone mention inperson events live oh well excellent Mar quieter than she’s ever been in her life I did know I know you guys we have two two epic friends and fiction launch events on the docket for this summer
Already the four of us plus Ron Meg and Sean I’m so excited all be yeah Sean is coming they’ll all be in Neptune Beach Florida on Sunday May 5th for a 3 pm event to celebrate the launch of mka’s summers at the Saint Sean says in the comments not as
Excited as he is I don’t know about that so excited okay Indie bookstore The Bookmark is selling tickets now so get yours before they sell out and then on Friday June 28th we will all be together again in St Louis Missouri for the big huge big launch celebration for
Christie’s a happier life epic it’s epic epic I guess I was saying big too much so if you say big more than three times it turns into the word epic epic so a happier life stay tuned bye this time next week we will have a ticketing link
But for now save the dates May 5th and June 28th so you can meet up with all of us and not miss out on the fun absolutely we’ve got details on our website too about the friends and fiction official book club with Brenda and Lisa we hope you are following them
On their separate Facebook page and Instagram feed join them for their next inline online inline is skating online author discuss disc happening this coming Monday March 18th they’ll be live on their Facebook page at 700 p.m Eastern with author Tia whims to discuss a love song for Ricky wild I have a
Recurring dream that I am a book events and roller skates I’m sorry I just thought of it I had to share no you do not yes I do that’s Ador that’s such a chrisy adorable but I’m like freaking out a little bit because it’s like not super professional to be in roller
Skates at your book event anyway I we’re going to talk about dreams in the after show so to all of you our viewers and listeners thank you for tuning in if you love the friends and fiction show we hope you’ll leave a rating a review and remember to tell a friend if you
Subscribe to our YouTube channel you can catch all of our back episodes and never miss a thing when you subscribe to our podcast you can listen at home or on the go we hope you’ve had an incredible evening with our fantastic guest Chris balen stick around and we’ll see you in
A minute in the after show to analyze Christy’s [Laughter] dreams thank you for tuning in you can join us every week on Facebook or YouTube where our live show airs on Wednesday nights at 700 p.m. eastern time also subscribe to our podcast and follow us on Instagram we’re so glad you’re here
That was so fun yeah it really was such a great guest oh my gosh he just he does more than answer the question right he takes it he takes it to the next level he’s still backstage oh he should come on for our after show I know Sean Chris join us for
The after show because we’re gonna talk about dreams I don’t want to migr manage Kristen’s schedule but she’s in New York and she has a commitment in about five minutes y so if you disappear we will know why disappears it’s not because she dreams something bad yeah has to pop off well
We’re gonna brag about Kristen for a second so Chris Balian today Kristen was the MC keynote speaker and interview host for a humongous fundraiser in New York for the Susan Gan Foundation thank you thanks thanks it was um it was my absolute honor to do that it’s such an important an important
Cause and obviously a cause that’s near and dear to my heart and and Patty’s so it’s a a real honor well we’re very proud of you we wish we there I wish you were too Meg was there m Walker gets to come that was you know I was supposed to
I told you this but I was actually supposed to be in New York and then anyway so I basketball happened basketball happened all right Chris you’re you’re gonna have to take yourself off mute if you want to help answer so can you hear us Chris can you hear us
Chris you can hear us perect okay great great um so real quick we had a couple of other big events last week M um Mary Kay had the big sh Shamrock Shenanigans to raise money her daughter’s scholarship for their school and that was a huge success and lots of s and
Fiction people went and Megan and I were there yeah including and Meg and we had uh leprechauns and uh the karaoke Pope made an appearance he did incredible and and Lisa Harrison was there yeah Lisa Lisa brought a whole crew of her folks so
She’s the best it was a lot of and I mean it just sort of demonstrates again the the warmth and the power of this amazing community that has kind of encircled us with their love and Christ Kristen I know you feel that love too
Absolutely we all do y y we all do all right so I do have to talk about the dreams for a second so Chris tell us your craziest dream like most recurring dream um my most recurring dreams I don’t know if they’re crazy involve planes that can’t lift
Off oh I have that sometimes too or like they start to lift off and then they come down so it’s not like you’re C yes like it’s not a catastrophic event but it’s still scary while it’s like happening y so my plain dream is that we’re crashing and I’m the only one who
Notices oh oh that’s creepy we’re going down and I’m like does anybody notice this like we’re headed for the Earth like what is happening and everybody’s just like totally ignoring it yeah and none of us work for Boe no no and all of us have to get on planes yes you know what
Tomorrow this is I know right I know right how about youy what you Mary Kay what I you know I the the freef falling through the clouds dream and also the Dream from my childhood remember the playground ride it was like a merry ground thing but you were seated and you
Pumped the metal thing the metal thing and in my continuing dream I’m flung off into the air and I’m just saying Ing and um and actually I have to tell admit to you that my grand grandson Griffin was on one of those in the playground two
Doors down from our house when he was about six and he did go soaring off and he did break some body part yeah oh that’s terrible it’s I mean I I psychoanalyze myself it’s so much cheaper that’s right yes I don’t know if it’s it’s effective but it’s prob not
I think these are all anxiety dreams and it’s all about my complete lack of control I think that’s what all of these dreams are about airplane dreams not finding the break dreams how about you Kristen and then we’ll let you go to your night in New York my yes my night
In New York yeah I’m too tired to really participate in after today my night in New York is gonna involve a lot of sleep I think um I also have dreams of falling but I often jerk awake in the middle of those dreams so like I’m falling I’m
Falling and like suddenly I jerk awake and husband so um I think those are his least favorite dreams because he gets assaulted in the middle of the night for no reason sometimes I dream I’m falling and then I remember I know how to fly a that’s awesome that’s a good one that’s
Never happened I just fall like oh yeah I know how to fly that’s incred I know how to do that thing that’s a good one yeah well we will let everyone go Chris you are a delight thanks for sharing your dreams with us as of the four of
You thank you for all that you do really grateful thank you all right Christen congratulations on today and go celebrate and have a yeah and um make sure you remember that we know how to fly when you get on that plane tomorrow yes all right all right bye you guys night everybody
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