River’s Edge at the Arlington was a lovely space for my first book event of 2024 which featured historical fiction authors, Kate Quinn and Janie Chang and was moderated by author, Brit Turnbull.

I recently finished reading and highly recommend reading The Rose Code (based on the history of code breaking at Bletchley Park during WW2) and I loved The Alice Network (a brave female spy) and love that Kate Quinn’s books provide strong, female characters and a jumping off point to learn more about history.

It was interesting to hear that Quinn had wanted to write a book about the fires in San Francisco but identified it would need a Chinatown setting and strong, Chinese heroine. she reached out to her friend and fellow author, Janie Chang who laughed and said that it took her only 4 minutes to agree!

They shared that somehow “truth is stranger than fiction” and talked about their research trip, “finding nuggets that sparked,” including Alice Greenwood (“an absolute bad ass” who was a real person). The collaboration was aided by plotting out the story of each chapter, writing their own characters with their individual voices and their shared respect for each other.

Both author’s acknowledged that they are not morning people, both type A workaholics and share the believe that anything can be solved with the right spreadsheet… a strong match!!

The event incorporated high tea and the energy was palpable with the buzz in the room!! I am looking forward to their new books: The Briar Club (Quinn) and The Fourth Princess (Chang) which will be released in July 2024 and summer of 2025 as well as reading their books which have been languishing on my shelves for far too long!