Right after New Year's Day, I am leaving my hometown of historic, Jefferson, Texas with The Pulpwood Queen Posse'! Yes, four of my Pulpwood Queen Book Club members and I are hitting the road, in hopefully, an S.U.V. to travel ten states visiting book stores and my hometown Eureka Public Library. I am calling this the "Beauty and the Book or BUST, BIG, BLONDE, and BEAUTIFUL BOOK TOUR"!
The Beauty and the Book or BUST comes from when I was a kid, I had a college dormitory that was right across the street. That dorm was filled from boys from back east and from around the world who came to Eureka, Kansas to attend Babson's Midwest Institute, a two year business college. Those boys all drove these amazing foreign sports cars, mostly red, and I remember that on one of them in white shoe polish it was written on the back convertible window, "BOSTON OR BUST"! That always fascinated me that you could travel so far in a really cool car. I dreamed of doing that some day. TA DA! I'm doing it!
The BIG, BLONDE, and BEAUTIFUL part comes from my favorite movie this year, HAIRSPRAY! Queen Latifah, who I adore, sings this song "BIG, BLONDE, and BEAUTIFUL" with such attitude and panache that I am adopting her spirit this book tour. BIG because we are big on reading, BLONDE, because we can and do so at my hair salon/bookstore, Beauty and the Book, and BEAUTIFUL because we are on a mission to promote literacy, one book, one person, one author, one bookstore, one library at a time!
Now I would like to introduce my Pulpwood Queen Posse':
First up is Elizabeth Stokes, Liz is a charter member of my book club, (one of first of six members of the Pulpwood Queens that began it's auspicious beginning March 2000). I barely knew Liz when she came to my book club meeting but she's a friend for life now! Liz and her husband have traveled the world as her husband Ronnie worked after a major stint in the Air Force on the peace making team for the United Nations. I have been blessed by her friendship and her gourmet cooking skills. She is as big on presents as me and we take great delight in finding for each other the perfect gifts. I don't know a hand painted leopard and jungle printed chair, Belgium Chocolates, leopard painted pottery serving dishes, fantabulous scarves, purses, she has my tastes down pat! I hope she can say the same about me!
Next is Pulpwood Queen Kay Brookshire, her and her husband Timber Guy Larry are retired General Motors Plant Managers, world travelers and my husband and I love them so much we took the with us to New York when I was to speak at Book Expo and sign advance galleys. The perfect travel companions and as Kay hails from New Orleans, man can she cook and also a master seamstress. She not only keeps me looking good but helps design my daughter's prom dresses! This is one girlfriend I could not do without!
Then we have Pulpwood Queen Jean Wright who her and her husband are retired Air Force, her husband was a pilot and now the Economic Tourism Director for Linden, Texas. They have a ranch outside of Linden that would make J.R. Ewing blush with envy! Jean never misses a book club meeting and showed up at my shop this week with all whole book tour planned out with AAA, trip tracker, maps, books, and even showed me flawed addresses and where we will have to detour due to road construction. Miss organizational skills deluxe and can she cook! Girlfriends, she gave me that recipe that Elvis would have loved in my book as it's like, take a Reece's peanut butter cup and make it into a cake! Leopardlicious!
Last is one of my newest Pulpwood Queens, Joyce Smith, who lives right across the road from me and the mother of one of my dear friends, Bill Smith of the Bull Durham Playhouse. Joyce has this joy for life that is absolutely the most contagious thing I have ever seen. Hails from Louisiana and can she cook! Her peach cobbler at the Playhouse is to die for! She's also in my Sunday School Class which her son, Bill teaches!
We all range in age from forties to sixties but the thing I love the best! As you can see we all love books, love to cook, eat, travel, and yet in other so many ways we are each so different. We probably would have never met or been as good of friends if it had not been for books! Books take you wonderful places but they also connect people you might never have met. I cannot imagine my life without these women. They are my "peeps" or Pulpwood Queens EVER EXCELLENT promoting (the best of the) South!
So as we road trip through the mid-south and south, we are are representing the membership of the Pulpwood Queens! We are hoping to grow as we travel, won't you join our book loving party. Our motto is "where tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the RULE!" Our sole mission is to promote literacy, get everybody reading, help undiscovered authors get discovered in a BIG WAY, and have some BIG TIME FUN while we are at it!
If you scroll down you will be able to view my entire book tour or you can go to my publisher's website, www.hachettebookgroupusa.com to view my book tour, reading group guide, What to Eat at a Book Club meeting, and MORE!
I also will be posting news stories and features on my book tour as they come in and our up and coming Girlfriend Weekend, our annual convention of Pulpwood Queens where we invite everyone to join our book loving party with near to 50 authors, speakers, musicians and celebrities right here in historic Jefferson, Texas, January 17 - 19, 2008!
For more information, email me at kathy@beautyandthebook.com
So now it's time to finish packing that tiara and get reading to hit the road for our "Beauty and the Book or BUST, BIG, BLONDE, and BEAUTIFUL BOOK TOUR!
See you there and don't forget your tiaras, they are mandatory!
Tiara wearing and Book sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
"Hairdresser to the Authors"
Founder of the Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs
Beauty and the Book
608 North Polk Street
Jefferson, Texas 75657
www.beautyandthebook.com
www.pulpwoodqueen.com
www.southernauthors.blogspot.com
www.hachettebookgroupusa.com
P.S. I also will be doing a raffle drawing for a BIG HAIR MAKEOVER at each bookstore stop on the tour. You must be present to WIN and you must have hair! This venture is sponsored by Raquel Welch's HairUWear Put on Hair Pieces that we made famous when we kicked off Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson's READ THIS Book Club on Good Morning America! It's like we always say, "The higher the hair, the closer to God!" Hope you WIN so be there!
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