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Frannie James

@fjamesseattle

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Author of The Sylvan Hotel, A Seattle Story

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Today, let's get to know Author Frannie James!
Here are 5 fast facts:

· I’ve worked in the marketing world for a while now, but finally got around to being an author! The Sylvan Hotel, A Seattle Story is my debut novel.

· My mother was a major influence in putting me on this path. She read to me and my siblings regularly and would haul us kids -- and boxes of books -- in and out of the public library, at least every other week. Eventually, that same library gave me my first job.

· I love my hometown -- and can appreciate progress -- but I'm also sad that so much of old Seattle has disappeared.

· There’s a weird, never-ending umbrella debate in Seattle. Many argue that you’re not really a Seattleite if you use one. But I’ll happily carry a “bumbershoot” from time to time—and I was born/raised here, same as my father. And his people moved here from Minnesota waaaaaaay back in the 1920s. So …

· I’m obsessed with fireflies even though I didn’t grow up with them. ☺️

Frannie's debut release, published by a Seattle indie press, The Sylvan Hotel is available at your favorite bookstore!

https://www.elliottbaybook.com/item/Pj45Rc-0JmMlDsJFSVa9qA

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-sylvan-hotel-frannie-james/1147438363?ean=9781609441654

Support our authors and give @fjamesseattle a follow!

#FastFacts #gettoknowtheauthor #bookstagramfeatures #FrannieJames #butfirstletsread

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After all your suggestions and recommendations, we knew we had to do a round two! 🌲📚💚

Here are more books to explore the PNW through their pages — from Seattle to the Oregon Coast and everywhere in between!

What other PNW books do you love!? 👀

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HELLO AUTUMN 🍂 INDIE BOOK RECS

As Autumn approaches…. It’s the perfect time to get your cozy, fall TBR in order.

Here are cozy, fall books you won’t want to miss! And don’t worry… we will be sharing books on the spookier side come October.

If you have a cozy, fall book you’d like me to feature - fill out the form linked in my bio!

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What makes The Sylvan Hotel so irresistible isn’t just the setting, but the people.

A group of teammates, all the same age, all standing at that fragile in-between moment of life… each trying to become someone else, somewhere else.

And inside the hotel?

A room service attendant who knows everything, the gossip, the games, the music.
A pastry chef who spends his nights in leather at the bars… and his days crafting perfect, delicate desserts with almost sacred precision.

Everyone has a double life. Everyone is becoming.

The Sylvan Hotel is about those collisions, of identity, ambition, and the messy, magnetic people we become along the way. But don’t take my word for it, hear it from Frannie James herself in this clip from her conversation with Patricia Murphy.

And if you haven’t stepped inside yet… the doors are open. Grab your copy (print or audio) at the link in bio.

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📚📖 INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT 📖📚

I am so excited to be spotlighting indie authors and today we have the pleasure of meeting and learning a little more about @fjamesseattle !

Make sure to take a moment to read the slides and head on over to their page to say hello! And if interested - check out their book, The Sylvan Hotel, A Seattle Story!!!

Thank you Frannie for taking the time to answer my questions!!

#indieauthorspotlight #indieauthor #authorspotlight #supportindieauthors

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Frannie James joins Seattle media personality Patricia Murphy to lovingly disrupt your nostalgic, flannel-filtered memory of Seattle.

In her debut novel, The Sylvan Hotel, she drags the so-called “grunge era” out of the white-boy-with-a-guitar scrapbook and reframes it through the lives of working-class kids and young people of color, the ones who were there, building scenes, surviving rent hikes, chasing art, and trying to become themselves before the world told them who to be.

This is about that razor-thin, electric stretch of early adulthood, when your dreams are still reckless, your politics are still forming, and you haven’t yet calcified into whatever LinkedIn version of yourself capitalism prefers.

And she asks the real question: what did we lose when we let the mythology harden? What can we still salvage from a time that believed art mattered, community mattered, and selling out was actually considered… embarrassing?

Snag The Sylvan Hotel in audio or print (yes, you deserve both) at the link in bio.

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Book lovers! If you enjoyed any of these reads then you’ll love The Sylvan Hotel by Frannie James. Join us while we take you through exactly why each of these books will make you want to crack open the first page of The Sylvan Hotel!

#books #indiepublishing #bookrec #bookstagram #publishing

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Come celebrate the grand opening of the greater Seattle area’s newest mobile bookstore! ✨🥂

Now that the chaos of the holidays are over, we are so excited to celebrate the launch of our truck and a fun and exciting year ahead!

Join us at @oldstovegardens in Ballard on Saturday, January 24 between 2-8pm for an afternoon of books, good vibes, fun activities, and so much more!

In addition to our mobile bookstore, we’re bringing together an amazing collection of local vendors, including:

🖌️ Flash tattoos by @princejohnnystudio (artists to come)
🎨 Illustrations by @by.siece
📚 Bookish merch by @shoppalmcreative
🖼️ Paint & sip by @innersparklearts
🧁 Cupcakes by @baby__cakes__bakery
🍸 2 Signature drinks by @oldstovegardens

Plus, we’ll have a rotation of local authors doing signings & meet & greets for their books! Make sure you arrive or stick around for your favorites or, even better, to see them all!

Authors include:

⏰ 2:00-3:00
@robinjeffreyauthor
@authorzoeshae
@anniecarlwrites

⏰ 3:30-4:30
@caseylblair
@danaevyn
@bookish_by_default

⏰5:00-6:00
@author_eaharper
@amydresslerwrites
@fjamesseattle

⏰ 6:30-7:30
@emwilsonauthor
@baley.noal
@chelseyanntompkins

Limited (free) tickets are available! RSVP in the place where you tap the thing today, and we’re so excited to party with you!!

#losttheplotbooks #seattlebookstore #bookevents #seattleevents

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The only thing better than reading The Sylvan Hotel is listening to it.

The audiobook is officially out: read by an actual human voice, breathing life into a 1990s Seattle that smells like rain, flannel, and low-grade existential dread (the good kind).

Some stories want to be read. Others want to be heard, on rainy walks, late-night drives, and in those quiet moments when you’re remembering who you were, and who you’re still becoming.

Plug in. Press play. And check into The Sylvan Hotel!

(Link to audiobook in bio)

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Check out this excellent Sylvan Hotel virtual book talk where media icon Patricia Murphy chats with Frannie James about The Sylvan Hotel: a full-on love letter to 1990s Seattle that smells like rain, flannel, and just enough existential dread to build character.

They dig into Joann, a grunge-era coming-of-age heroine trying to figure out who she is inside the beautifully chaotic ecosystem of the Sylvan Hotel: identity, ambition, bad decisions, great music, all of it. Expect sharp takes, real laughs, and some top-tier cultural archaeology that asks: Who were we then, and why are we still emotionally unpacking it now?

Come for the nostalgia. Stay for the insight. Leave feeling weirdly seen and suddenly convinced the world needs your long-lost mixtapes back in rotation.

(Youtube link in bio!)

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❤️Book Mania Monday❤️

Time for one of my favorite posts of the week!

Fast and Fastidious by RM Caldwell Releasing April A young woman gets more than she bargains for when she is caught by her neighbor at the carriage races.
Not Exactly Mr Darcy by @carolynmillerauthor A Jane Austen enthusiast goes abroad and gets a second chance at love.
The Girl Out of Time by @kateserzenta while abroad the Titanic in 1912 a passenger ends up in Regency England.
Daughter of Shiloh by @terrij.haynes a young woman seeking higher education finds herself searching for answers about a sudden stampede.
Echoes of A Silent Song by @authoramandawen a choir director and high school student find themselves in a forbidden love while trying to unlock the past secrets of a 1970's student.
The Sylvan Hotel by @fjamesseattle a 90's contemporary story about the coming and goings at a hotel.
Eliza and the Duke by @harperstgeorge An American Heiress will do just about anything to avoid a loveless marriage.
Miss Morton and the Missing Heir by Catherine Lloyd A youbg woman will go to great lenghs to uncover the answers of her past.
The Mysteries of Hawthorn Hall by @authormindyburbidgestrunk A young woman learns that great fortune comes with great responsibility.
The Last Vampire by @rominagarber A young woman gets more than she bargained for when she awakes a vampire.

#bookmaniamonday #readingrecommendations #books #historicalfiction

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Thank you so much to everyone who joined us last night at the Burien Library for our event with Frannie James! It was a fun conversation about Seattle history and the craft of writing. We have signed copies of “The Sylvan Hotel” available in the shop!

We have more fun events coming up in 2026, so sign up for our newsletter at the link in our bio to be the first to hear about them! Frannie James in conversation with Maggie Block in front of an audience. Copies of The Sylvan Hotel are visible in the foreground.

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