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!
The Pulpwood Queen Blog
"where tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the RULE!
Monday, December 31, 2007
The Pulpwood Queen introducing the Beauty and the Book or BUST, BIG, BLONDE, and BEAUTIFUL BOOK TOUR!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
The Pulpwood Queen reviewed on READER VIEWS!
The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life
Grand Central Publishing (2008)
ISBN 9780446695428
Reviewed by for Reader Views (12/07)
If somebody were to ask me to classify Kathy L. Patrick’s “The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life,” I would be at a loss. Is it a book about books? Is it about book clubs? Is it a memoir? A cookbook? A self-help one? Well, it is all of that and much, much more.
“The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life” is first and foremost a great book and a life-size one. It encompasses all the really important things in life: life, love, friends, good food, big hair, lots of books, snazzy clothes, glitter and glimmering eyes and sparkling outfits and flashy tiaras. It talks about the life-changing events and people that forever alter our lives with seemingly minor acts. It provides a recipe for a killer Margarita (actually, a Marla-rita!) and teaches you how to found and run a book club. It stresses the importance of having girlfriends and how a great hair stylist should act. It makes you laugh out loud and if you are from the South like me, sob when re-living the hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. It teaches you how to listen and how to take care of yourself. It gives you the permission to be the best you can be and wear a tiara whenever you please. It shows that reinventing yourself is not only possible, but can also be immensely rewarding and fun. Most importantly of all, it feels like a great, big hug from your best friend.
If all of the wonderful insights, stories and advice from Kathy L. Patrick would not be enough, there are also lists and more lists of one of my favorite things in life: books! There are books for every taste and most every age. Ms. Patrick listed a few books that I’ve read, actually a few that are old, cherished friends; but also very many that I’ve never even heard about. And reading about all the fun the Pulpwood Queens have at their meetings, I am severely tempted to start a chapter myself. With an amazing Queen like Ms. Patrick, life can only get better and more fun. And while I am not sure about wearing my hair big, I can definitely envision myself in animal prints and a sparkling tiara. “The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life” is definitely on my next year’s list of books to give to my friends and I bet your friends would love it too.
The Pulpwood Queen featured on SIBA website!
Here's the article I sent off to SIBA for their newsletter. Let me know if you have trouble opening it. Feel free to post it on your own blog site. I'll post it to mine.
Read the blog at heromama.org
Flannery O'Connor
If Truvvy Jones of Steel Magnolias had hooked up with boxing promoter Don King their love child would likely have been Kathy Patrick. For the past eight years, this darling of Jefferson, Texas has channeled her passion for good books and great hair into the nation’s only book and beauty salon.
That store – Beauty and the Book (beautyandthebook.com) – is home base for the Pulpwood Queens, billed as the largest “meeting and discussing” book club in the world. Their mission is to promote literacy and to look good doing it. Before embarking on tour to promote The Pulpwood Queen’s Tiara Wearing Book Sharing Guide to Life, debut author Kathy Patrick visited with Karen Spears Zacharias.
Q: At long last your very own book -- The Pulpwood Queen's Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life -- is on the shelves of stores all across America. As you embark on your first book tour as a certified author, how are you feeling about all this? Have you come down with a bad case of the nerves yet?
A: All I can say is it is about time. I worked six years on this book project and I am not
nervous a bit. I am just so happy that we finally are going to be able to get the word out
about how my book club, The Pulpwood Queens, are on a mission to promote literacy and have some big time fun while we are at it!
Q: You are beloved among authors nationwide for the work you have done in promoting their work. How difficult has it been to transition from being the promoter to being the author?
A: That has been the hardest thing for me personally but I may not show it. I am first a
reader and love to promote other's authors works. I have written my whole life for myself but that is very different that entering into the realms of published author. I feel like the hat does not quite fit yet.
I have put authors up on pedestals for so long. The only way I can describe my strange dilemma is when I was a kid I loved Greek mythology. I kind of see myself as this mere mortal trying to enter into the land of the gods, as unattainable. But I have found so far that my author friends are not only lifting me up, they are truly supporting my literacy venture of writing my book in a big way.
I have to also say that this book would never have been written without the support of The Pulpwood Queens and all my author friends. To have all of those as my "peeps" is helping me tremendously putting on the good front that I am a confident writer. Seriously, I am proud of my book but know that I am a work in progress and I do believe that I can do even better as a writer next time.
The important thing to note is that this book was written to get the word out in a big way that reading is fun. I may have been raised a small town Kansas girl and told a simple story of my life in books and how they saved me, but I think you'll understand the passion I have for books when you read it. It's told as if I was talking just to you, my voice for better or worse, with all my colorful and sometimes made up language, but my voice.
My book may not be a modern literary classic but some of my authors’ books listed in the many book lists given in my book could fall into that category. My book is a springboard to get everybody reading. I encourage everybody to dive right in (that's my former life
talking as I was a high school and college lifeguard, ha ha!) I was saved by books and I am not kidding here. Consider books a lifesaver and I am tossing that life line to you!
Q: What was it like to hold that book in your hand for the very first time? Who's the first person you shared it with?
A: It was a little bit anti-climatic. I had received a bound manuscript first. Then, I received the bound galley that was something. The day I received my first copy of my book I read it again and I cried. You see my baby was born that day and what joy! WHAT JOY! But as the cases arrived this week and I put them on the shelf, I looked at what I perceived as six years work of my life, blood, sweat, and many tears, many tears.
All of that in those little books. I then think of who all might pick up my book and want to buy it and read it and I get excited all over again. I am sure every author feels the same as I do but for me this was my life story, too. (At least the highlights as it would take tome after tome to chronicle all I have done in my life.) Fifty-one years of making some really huge mistakes. Only now I call them discoveries because doesn't that sound way better? All I ask is everybody treat my baby with care and pay it forward.
Q: Which author first seduced your as an itty-bitty girl and set your heart aflame for a lifetime of stolen moments, reading?
A: The first book to turn me on to reading was Honestly, Katie John by Mary
Calhoun. I was just like the Katie John character in that book and the minute I read it, I knew I was not alone. Before I had felt like I never fit in, I was different than everybody else. In some ways, I still feel that way but in a good way, unlike when I was a child.
I was extremely shy and turned very inward. Through books I have found myself, gained confidence to know that we all are searching for, the answers. Reading books helping me answer all the questions that burned silently in my mind. I owe everything to authors and books.
Q: I live in rural farming community that has ten beauty salons and not one single bookstore. How ever did you come up with the idea to combine a beauty salon/bookstore? You'd gotten out of the business of being a book rep because of cutbacks. Weren't you worried about going belly-up?
A: I can assure you this was not a brilliant business plan. Opening my Hair Salon/Book
Store was a pure survival tactic. I lost my beloved job as a book rep. My sister suggested I go back to doing hair and opening back up my hair salon. When I told her I would be bored silly after doing hair all these years, she suggested I do the book thing too. So I did!
And yes, I was worried about going belly up but I have found that if you work hard enough at something you love, God does provide. He did for me with much prayer and faith. I am getting ready to celebrate my 7th anniversary of Beauty and the Book! I do believe we are going to make it!
Q: So many of our beloved Independent bookstores have suffered fatal hemorrhages as reading consumption declines and Wall Street bullies build blockbuster bookstores. Any sage advice for the corner bookstore owner trying to keep the front doors open?
A: My first advice, is keep it small. I started out thinking I could carry every
book that I loved. Big mistake! What I found out through the years is that I do sell local and regional favorites, my Pulpwood Queen Book Club Selections and a few gift books now and then. I may not carry very many titles but those that sell well, I carry deep and, of course, my shelves are packed right now with this little hot pink and leopard
number that practically jumps off the shelves into my clients hands. My book is selling like hotcatkes!
Q: Which literary character do you most identify with and why?
A: Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, or Bird from Before Women Had Wings or
Siddalee Walker from Little Altars Everywhere. In fact, if it was an early Oprah Book Club Selection, I could relate to any of those characters.
Q: You've hosted over 100 authors – some very big celebrities, too – at your Pulpwood Girlfriend Weekend held every January in East Texas. Who were the first authors you roped into coming to town and what bait did you use to persuade them to come?
A: Every author that graces my doors is a surprise. Let's face it, Jefferson, Texas is a
tad off the beaten path, but guess what? There are readers behind the "pine curtain", in reference to reading here in the piney woods. Adamant readers who love a good story flock every month to my book store/hair salon from all over the Ark. La.Tex.
All of the authors who have come have been incredible. But the ones that everybody went completely ga-ga for were Linda Bloodworth-Thomason of Designing Women fame, Kinky Friedman who just happened at the time to be running for Governor, Rue McClanahan, star of stage, film, and television, and Jeannette Walls of The Glass Castle.
Personal favorites were the wonderful genius, Doug Marlette, Cassandra King, Michael Morris, oh I could go on and on and on. Everybody is pretty much gone berserk to
know we have supermodel Paulina Porizkova and Adrienne Barbeau coming to our Girlfriend Weekend, January 17 - 29, 2008! Oh and if the Honeymoon with my Brother author, Franz Wisner and his brother Kurt ever come back they will be mobbed, ha ha!
Q: Literacy has long been your mission. If you could put together a magician's box for every parent, every teacher and every librarian across this nation to ensure that future generations love reading, what would that box hold?
A: That box would hold the key to unlock a child's heart to the love of reading. Each
child is different, unique, and their box would hold that one book that would turn them on to reading. While my book was Honestly, Katie John, their book might be Hatchet by Gary Paulsen or as in my daughter’s cases, Ludwig Bemelmen's Madeline books.
What that box would hold for parents, teachers, and librarians is a key to read aloud to children. We need to incorporate story-time back into a daily schedule for all schools. All my school teachers read to us students for a half-an-hour after lunch. We cried when Laura Ingalls Wilder’s dog Jack died, laughed at the antics of Mr. Popper's Penguins. We were scared and fascinated about being stranded on a desert island like in Island of the Blue Dolphins. Because of their stern but kind discipline, and love of reading, we knew how to behave in school. Punishment was loss of story-time and no one wanted that ever to happen.
My childhood librarian encouraged reading at the local Eureka Carnegie Library back in Kansas. They are our true heroes and often spend more time with our children in a day than we do. Parents need to know that if you want your children to succeed in school and life, read. Reading aloud is the magic – a good story is a good story.
Q: I'm sure there have been dozens of such moments, but could you share with us one moment when you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are doing exactly the very thing that you were born to do?
A: When author/poet, Ron Rash was reading to my book club, I knew I was hearing something so pure and beautiful I never wanted that reading of One Foot in Eden to stop -- neither did my book club. When Pulitzer prize-winning political cartoonist, Doug Marlette told my book club that he was raised by a band of roving debutantes and wolves, as everyone howled in laughter, I knew that I was changing the way people thought about reading. There are so many times tears have filled my eyes with such joy from hearing author's words that I knew that my calling was to promote literacy. I do believe that with my whole heart.
Then finally when I attended a beauty pageant for my daughter’s best friend, I understood that I had a big responsibility on my shoulders for promoting reading. As Kaitlyn walked the runway the announcer read off her little bio:
"Kaitlyn's favorite movie is "Josie and the Pussycats".
Kaitlyn's favorite food is macaroni and cheese.
And the woman Kaitlyn most admires is Kathy Patrick.
My eyes instantly filled with tears as I looked over at her mother, one of my best friends.
Mary whispered, “It’s true Kathy. Kaitlyn really looks us to you and she is top reader in her class because of you.”
All I have got to say is it’s time to get really busy and continue my mission of
promoting literacy.
The Pulpwood Queen featured in January TEXAS MONTHLY!
Mike Shea on the month’s new releases
Robert Leleux
St. Martin’s
(Read an excerpt)
Buy this at BookPeople.com
We’ll take Robert Leleux at his word when he declares in The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy that, growing up in tiny Petunia, he didn’t know he was gay until he was seventeen and unexpectedly googly-eyed over his dance instructor at a community theater. Literary license or not, the pronouncement sets up Leleux’s more memorable anecdotes (grandmother JoAnn’s reaction to his coming out: “Oh darling . . . I thought everybody was already sort of working on that assumption”) and epitomizes his declared intention to not let truth interfere with a good story. In this case, most of the good stories belong to his flamboyant mother—“the Great & Indomitable Jessica Wilson”—whose Neiman’s shopping sprees and shelves of wigs cannot change the reality that she and her family live on an East Texas farm with her redneck-riche in-laws. In a riches-to-rags twist, Daddy abandons Mother and Robert, leaving them in a state of sitcom poverty: driving the Jag to Houston to sell Ferragamo pumps and return outfits to Saks for lunches in its cafe. Now that Leleux, a 27-year-old creative writing teacher in New York, has gotten his coming-of-age story out of the way, he needs to summon up a literary perspective beyond that of professional mama’s boy. Sexual orientation may be an identity, but it should not be confused with a career. St. Martin’s, $23.95
Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay
Arcade
Buy this at BookPeople.com
Austinite Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay became a poster boy for the learning potential of autistic children with his first book, The Mind Tree, a collection of stories and poems he wrote between the ages of eight and eleven. In How Can I Talk If My Lips Don’t Move: inside My Autistic Mind, the now-eighteen-year-old tries mightily to explain how the entirety of his world—perception, reaction, logic, emotion—diverges from the average person’s. Sounds might be understood as colors; inanimate objects might take on human qualities (“I knew that the mirror heard everything because only when I stood in front of it could I hear the walls and floor talk”). But though Mukhopadhyay and his autistic brethren are wired differently than the rest of us, he clearly conveys how they have more in common with neurotypical individuals than appearances would suggest. There’s an inspirational story at the core of How Can I Talk about Tito’s mother, Soma, who tirelessly taught him to write so he could communicate, but it’s impossible to overlook the naked heartbreak of one seemingly tossed-off line: “I am not worried about hell because I have experienced it here on earth.” That is a rare insight that no ordinary tongue can tell. Arcade, $25
Kathy L. Patrick
This boisterous bookseller runs a Jefferson hair salon/bookstore, Beauty and the Book, that is a bastion of independent literary thinking—and egalitarian fun. She shares her Texas joie de vivre in The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life.
What exactly is a Pulpwood Queen?
The Pulpwood Queens are the largest “meeting and discussing” book club in the world. Our motto is “Where tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the rule!”
Where does one buy a tiara in the year of our Lord 2007?
Everywhere from a bridal shop to Wal-Mart. I purchased my first tiara from a wholesale costume supplier in Houston, but I’ve been upgrading ever since. Tiaras leave scars on the head, but people treat you better, so my advice is, wear them out often.
What is the essence of the Pulpwood Queens’ secrets for happiness and success?
When my agent suggested my book be a guide to life, I spit my coffee across the room. She told me, “Exactly, Kathy. Who better than somebody who has lived through all your mistakes?” True happiness comes from hard work and struggle. One thing I’ve learned is, if you want to find purpose in life, read.
Grand Central, $13.99 (Read the full interview.)
The Pulpwood Queens’ Guide To Life: Kathy L. Patrick, published by Grand Central.
The Pulpwood Queen featured on www.livingreadgirl.blogspot.com
I've been singing the praises of The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing,Book Sharing Guide to Life lately and another nifty incentive to get you to buy this wonderful book is to point out that it is in paperback,therefore very affordable.
Come on,folks-let's put the Pulpwood Queens on a few bestseller lists! It certainly would be the perfect payback for all of those great books that they've helped to highlight over the years. Build up some good karma for 2008 by spreading the good word here.
And even more!!!!!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
On The Shelf with Kathy L. Patrick
Kathy L. Patrick is not your average bookseller,or your average anything for that matter. She's not only the owner of one of the most unique business ventures in the world,Beauty and the Book,a beauty parlor/book shop,she is the proud founder of the Pulpwood Queens,one of the biggest book clubs around.
The Pulpwood Queens' fame has lead them to being featured on Good Morning America,as the first book club to set off their Read This! campaign,and on Oprah,along with a number of major newspapers and magazines the world over. How the Queens got their start in Jefferson,Texas,is one of dozens of tales told in the upcoming Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing,Book Sharing Guide to Life written by the Head Queen herself,Kathy. I was most fortunate to get an audience with Her Majesty and ask her a few of my queries:
1) If you were forced to only have one business-beauty parlor or bookstore-which one would it be?
You would have to pin me down and make me scream "Uncle!", but hands down, it would be bookstore. Books saved me and I am on a mission to promote literacy so bookstore would be my choice. But the reader must also know that I would probably not be able to be in business long as the beauty shop is what supports my bookselling efforts. There is more money in hair than there is in books. A woman can check out a book from the library but she can't just check out a good haircut and color. That's why both make such a nice balance, actually marriage. This is a marriage for life because one cannot succeed without the other. There is beauty in books and books in beauty. You can quote me on that.
2) How can a person find out if they're good Pulpwood Queen or Timber Guy material?
My answer is can that person read? Then they are an excellent candidate. It's just that simple, all I ask is that you read each month's book club selection. It's mandatory, oh, and wear a tiara!
3)What are some of your favorite reading selections from the Pulpwood Queens' Book Club?
All of them and that is why I insisted all Pulpwood Queen Book Club Selections be listed in my book from inception up to my book's debut. I also have to say that I read a lot more than just the books I hand select for my book club. I am a very eclectic reader and some of the books are on obscure subjects, literary, or are, some would put it, strange. I read to live and live to read. I love all of my books that I select or I would not have very carefully and thoughtfully chosen them.
4)What advice would you give to someone looking for a way to liven up their usual book club meetings?
Serve liquor, ha ha ha! I am joking with you here but not really. I have found that a little wine makes people more comfortable on speaking up and out about their beliefs and feelings on a book. One of the biggest book events I ever did was for a man that wrote a very unusual book on the timeline of wine. We had a wine tasting and I finally got out the water hose to chase everybody out of my shop. Nobody wanted to go home and it was a school night. What was I thinking! So helpful reminder, keep it simple with a glass of wine or two. Don't bring out the keg!
5)There's been alot of concern lately about the shrinking amount of book coverage/reviews in newspapers across the country. How serious a probelm do you think this is and what can be done about it?
My feeling on this is that newspapers are in trouble, not just the book review page. More and more people are going online to read the news and more and more people are going online to read about books. To me as long as we have a place, whether newspaper or laptop or otherwise to read about books, people will want go to that source. But I will speak out and tell you that I signed the petition to bring back the book page and editor to The Atlanta Journal Constitution, it was the one place I went to to read about books.
6)How do you go about choosing a book that is just right for a Pulpwood Queens' monthly selection?
I have set up criteria for my book clubs selections:
1) They must be well written
2) They must give a new voice to literature that has not been heard from before.
3) I prefer to select books that are by yet undiscovered authors. The Pulpwood Queens know that in reading an author's book, that alone will help them get the numbers boost on book sales. I also like to select authors that may have been known in other professions too. I have found that authors are sometimes dismissed as authors if they are famous for something else. When I asked Paulina Porizkova, author of "A Model Summer" if she was going on book tour and she told me she was not.
Because she is famous as a supermodel, it was felt that would sell her books alone. I disagree, I think you have to work even harder to publicize someone who has climbed out of the proverbial box. I thoroughly enjoy and take great satisfaction in knowing we are helping Paulina Porizkova, the author. "Don't Judge a Book By It's Cover" is a chapter in my book and Paulina Porizkova could be the spokesmodel for that chapter. She not only has written a great book, I do believe that if every woman and their daughter read this book, we could change the face of fashion today. I always say, "Don't judge a book by it's cover,unless it really is a book then read it first!
I can only select twelve books a year and though hard, the ones that I select I believe are the ones that could be the next "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." And why wouldn't I believe that? Look at the success of some of past Pulpwood Queen Book Club Selection Authors:
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Cane River by Lalita Tademy
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Eat, Pray, Love by Elisabeth Gilbert
7) What are some of your favorite books of all time?
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is my lodestar. Favorite book and favorite film, both are perfection for me and I read the book once or twice a year and watch the film too. As far as favorite books today, I look to authors bodies of work, Pat Conroy, Tennessee Williams, Cassandra King,Doug Marlette, Mark Childress, Ellen Gilchrist, Christopher Cook, oh I could go on and on and on... I also love to read any biography or autobiography of practically anybody.
In my youth I loved the Tarzan books. They were my absolute favorites and have read them all. You should see my Tarzan collection of books,comic books, posters, and dolls! They are all housed in my own personal jungle of an office along with my Elvis memorabilia and leopard print collection. When I say I live in a house of books, I'm not kidding,floor to ceiling, everywhere, and I have more in my house than at my shop, Beauty and the Book.
I have told my two teenage girls, now 17 and 13, "After I am gone, if you want to know who your mother really was as a person, read my library". These are the books that are a reflection of my life at 7,10, 14, 20, 30, 40 and now 51. My library is a mirror of what I found important in my life. I have built a house of books and now I am on a mission to get everybody reading, one book, one author, one person, and one book club at a time.
Thank you Kathy,for giving me some of your valuable time during this busy holiday season and I hope that the reign of the Pulpwood Queens is long and prosperous,with plenty of good times and good reading.
The Pulpwood Queen featured is featured on SIBA WEBSITE!
Here's the article I sent off to SIBA for their newsletter. Let me know if you have trouble opening it. Feel free to post it on your own blog site. I'll post it to mine.
Read the blog at heromama.org
Flannery O'Connor
If Truvvy Jones of Steel Magnolias had hooked up with boxing promoter Don King their love child would likely have been Kathy Patrick. For the past eight years, this darling of Jefferson, Texas has channeled her passion for good books and great hair into the nation’s only book and beauty salon.
That store – Beauty and the Book (beautyandthebook.com) – is home base for the Pulpwood Queens, billed as the largest “meeting and discussing” book club in the world. Their mission is to promote literacy and to look good doing it. Before embarking on tour to promote The Pulpwood Queen’s Tiara Wearing Book Sharing Guide to Life, debut author Kathy Patrick visited with Karen Spears Zacharias.
Q: At long last your very own book -- The Pulpwood Queen's Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life -- is on the shelves of stores all across America. As you embark on your first book tour as a certified author, how are you feeling about all this? Have you come down with a bad case of the nerves yet?
A: All I can say is it is about time. I worked six years on this book project and I am not
nervous a bit. I am just so happy that we finally are going to be able to get the word out
about how my book club, The Pulpwood Queens, are on a mission to promote literacy and have some big time fun while we are at it!
Q: You are beloved among authors nationwide for the work you have done in promoting their work. How difficult has it been to transition from being the promoter to being the author?
A: That has been the hardest thing for me personally but I may not show it. I am first a
reader and love to promote other's authors works. I have written my whole life for myself but that is very different that entering into the realms of published author. I feel like the hat does not quite fit yet.
I have put authors up on pedestals for so long. The only way I can describe my strange dilemma is when I was a kid I loved Greek mythology. I kind of see myself as this mere mortal trying to enter into the land of the gods, as unattainable. But I have found so far that my author friends are not only lifting me up, they are truly supporting my literacy venture of writing my book in a big way.
I have to also say that this book would never have been written without the support of The Pulpwood Queens and all my author friends. To have all of those as my "peeps" is helping me tremendously putting on the good front that I am a confident writer. Seriously, I am proud of my book but know that I am a work in progress and I do believe that I can do even better as a writer next time.
The important thing to note is that this book was written to get the word out in a big way that reading is fun. I may have been raised a small town Kansas girl and told a simple story of my life in books and how they saved me, but I think you'll understand the passion I have for books when you read it. It's told as if I was talking just to you, my voice for better or worse, with all my colorful and sometimes made up language, but my voice.
My book may not be a modern literary classic but some of my authors’ books listed in the many book lists given in my book could fall into that category. My book is a springboard to get everybody reading. I encourage everybody to dive right in (that's my former life
talking as I was a high school and college lifeguard, ha ha!) I was saved by books and I am not kidding here. Consider books a lifesaver and I am tossing that life line to you!
Q: What was it like to hold that book in your hand for the very first time? Who's the first person you shared it with?
A: It was a little bit anti-climatic. I had received a bound manuscript first. Then, I received the bound galley that was something. The day I received my first copy of my book I read it again and I cried. You see my baby was born that day and what joy! WHAT JOY! But as the cases arrived this week and I put them on the shelf, I looked at what I perceived as six years work of my life, blood, sweat, and many tears, many tears.
All of that in those little books. I then think of who all might pick up my book and want to buy it and read it and I get excited all over again. I am sure every author feels the same as I do but for me this was my life story, too. (At least the highlights as it would take tome after tome to chronicle all I have done in my life.) Fifty-one years of making some really huge mistakes. Only now I call them discoveries because doesn't that sound way better? All I ask is everybody treat my baby with care and pay it forward.
Q: Which author first seduced your as an itty-bitty girl and set your heart aflame for a lifetime of stolen moments, reading?
A: The first book to turn me on to reading was Honestly, Katie John by Mary
Calhoun. I was just like the Katie John character in that book and the minute I read it, I knew I was not alone. Before I had felt like I never fit in, I was different than everybody else. In some ways, I still feel that way but in a good way, unlike when I was a child.
I was extremely shy and turned very inward. Through books I have found myself, gained confidence to know that we all are searching for, the answers. Reading books helping me answer all the questions that burned silently in my mind. I owe everything to authors and books.
Q: I live in rural farming community that has ten beauty salons and not one single bookstore. How ever did you come up with the idea to combine a beauty salon/bookstore? You'd gotten out of the business of being a book rep because of cutbacks. Weren't you worried about going belly-up?
A: I can assure you this was not a brilliant business plan. Opening my Hair Salon/Book
Store was a pure survival tactic. I lost my beloved job as a book rep. My sister suggested I go back to doing hair and opening back up my hair salon. When I told her I would be bored silly after doing hair all these years, she suggested I do the book thing too. So I did!
And yes, I was worried about going belly up but I have found that if you work hard enough at something you love, God does provide. He did for me with much prayer and faith. I am getting ready to celebrate my 7th anniversary of Beauty and the Book! I do believe we are going to make it!
Q: So many of our beloved Independent bookstores have suffered fatal hemorrhages as reading consumption declines and Wall Street bullies build blockbuster bookstores. Any sage advice for the corner bookstore owner trying to keep the front doors open?
A: My first advice, is keep it small. I started out thinking I could carry every
book that I loved. Big mistake! What I found out through the years is that I do sell local and regional favorites, my Pulpwood Queen Book Club Selections and a few gift books now and then. I may not carry very many titles but those that sell well, I carry deep and, of course, my shelves are packed right now with this little hot pink and leopard
number that practically jumps off the shelves into my clients hands. My book is selling like hotcatkes!
Q: Which literary character do you most identify with and why?
A: Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, or Bird from Before Women Had Wings or
Siddalee Walker from Little Altars Everywhere. In fact, if it was an early Oprah Book Club Selection, I could relate to any of those characters.
Q: You've hosted over 100 authors – some very big celebrities, too – at your Pulpwood Girlfriend Weekend held every January in East Texas. Who were the first authors you roped into coming to town and what bait did you use to persuade them to come?
A: Every author that graces my doors is a surprise. Let's face it, Jefferson, Texas is a
tad off the beaten path, but guess what? There are readers behind the "pine curtain", in reference to reading here in the piney woods. Adamant readers who love a good story flock every month to my book store/hair salon from all over the Ark. La.Tex.
All of the authors who have come have been incredible. But the ones that everybody went completely ga-ga for were Linda Bloodworth-Thomason of Designing Women fame, Kinky Friedman who just happened at the time to be running for Governor, Rue McClanahan, star of stage, film, and television, and Jeannette Walls of The Glass Castle.
Personal favorites were the wonderful genius, Doug Marlette, Cassandra King, Michael Morris, oh I could go on and on and on. Everybody is pretty much gone berserk to
know we have supermodel Paulina Porizkova and Adrienne Barbeau coming to our Girlfriend Weekend, January 17 - 29, 2008! Oh and if the Honeymoon with my Brother author, Franz Wisner and his brother Kurt ever come back they will be mobbed, ha ha!
Q: Literacy has long been your mission. If you could put together a magician's box for every parent, every teacher and every librarian across this nation to ensure that future generations love reading, what would that box hold?
A: That box would hold the key to unlock a child's heart to the love of reading. Each
child is different, unique, and their box would hold that one book that would turn them on to reading. While my book was Honestly, Katie John, their book might be Hatchet by Gary Paulsen or as in my daughter’s cases, Ludwig Bemelmen's Madeline books.
What that box would hold for parents, teachers, and librarians is a key to read aloud to children. We need to incorporate story-time back into a daily schedule for all schools. All my school teachers read to us students for a half-an-hour after lunch. We cried when Laura Ingalls Wilder’s dog Jack died, laughed at the antics of Mr. Popper's Penguins. We were scared and fascinated about being stranded on a desert island like in Island of the Blue Dolphins. Because of their stern but kind discipline, and love of reading, we knew how to behave in school. Punishment was loss of story-time and no one wanted that ever to happen.
My childhood librarian encouraged reading at the local Eureka Carnegie Library back in Kansas. They are our true heroes and often spend more time with our children in a day than we do. Parents need to know that if you want your children to succeed in school and life, read. Reading aloud is the magic – a good story is a good story.
Q: I'm sure there have been dozens of such moments, but could you share with us one moment when you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are doing exactly the very thing that you were born to do?
A: When author/poet, Ron Rash was reading to my book club, I knew I was hearing something so pure and beautiful I never wanted that reading of One Foot in Eden to stop -- neither did my book club. When Pulitzer prize-winning political cartoonist, Doug Marlette told my book club that he was raised by a band of roving debutantes and wolves, as everyone howled in laughter, I knew that I was changing the way people thought about reading. There are so many times tears have filled my eyes with such joy from hearing author's words that I knew that my calling was to promote literacy. I do believe that with my whole heart.
Then finally when I attended a beauty pageant for my daughter’s best friend, I understood that I had a big responsibility on my shoulders for promoting reading. As Kaitlyn walked the runway the announcer read off her little bio:
"Kaitlyn's favorite movie is "Josie and the Pussycats".
Kaitlyn's favorite food is macaroni and cheese.
And the woman Kaitlyn most admires is Kathy Patrick.
My eyes instantly filled with tears as I looked over at her mother, one of my best friends.
Mary whispered, “It’s true Kathy. Kaitlyn really looks us to you and she is top reader in her class because of you.”
All I have got to say is it’s time to get really busy and continue my mission of
promoting literacy.
The Pulpwood Queen featured in TULSA WORLD!
 |
| |
| |
By JUDY RANDLE World Scene Writer
12/30/2007
When licensed cosmetologist turned-publisher’s rep Kathy Patrick lost her job to industry cutbacks, she wasn’t deterred. One year later in Jefferson, Texas, she opened Beauty and the Book, which is probably the world’s only combination beauty salon and bookstore.
Soon after, she founded the Pulpwood Queens of East Texas — a reading group that dared to ask the question, “Does a book club have to be snobby to be serious?” The idea spread, and there are about 70 chapters nationwide.
The overriding rule — aside from wearing the club’s official tiara, hot pink colors and leopard print outfits — is that the groups must have fun.
From 1-3 p.m. Saturday, Patrick will be in Tulsa to sign copies of her book, “The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara- Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life” (Grand Central Publishing, $13.99) at Steve’s Sundry, Books and Magazines, 2612 S. Harvard Ave.
Her book celebrates female friendship, sisterhood and the transformative power of reading. It includes life principles and motivational anecdotes, hilarious and heart-warming stories of friendships among the Queens, and stories from Patrick about the books that have inspired her throughout her life, complete with personalized
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Updated Pulpwood Queen Girlfriend Weekend Information!
Attention All Pulpwood Queens and Booklovers:
Here is the updated version of itinerary for our Pulpwood Queen "GIRLFRIEND WEEKEND"!
Big Hair, Big Appetite for Literature
When Kathy Patrick (center) hits the road next week to promote her memoirish self-help book, The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life, she'll be raffling off a "big hair makeover" at each stop on her 25-city tour. One attendee at each reading will, after signing a photo waiver, have a style session with Patrick—who runs her book club out of her combination hair salon/bookstore in East Texas—with "Put on Pieces" from Hair U Wear collection.
I imagine the photos will be turning up on her website around the time Patrick makes her way back to Jefferson, Texas, for her annual "Girlfriend Weekend" book festival—at which, I would be remiss if I failed to point out, I'm scheduled to conduct a workshop on blogging for aspiring (and accomplished) writers. It should be a fun weekend: Featured guests include Adrienne Barbeau, N.M. Kelby, Will Clarke, and Mary Kay Andrews, and something like two dozen other writers.
(I took the picture above at last year's festival, where Patrick was flanked by two members of her Grand Central publishing team, editor Natalie Kaire and publicist Elly Weisenberg.)
Pulpwood Queen Book Club Celebrates it's Girlfriend Weekend, January 17- 19, 2008
I opened the first Hair Salon/Book Store in the country January 18,
2000. Shortly after opening I started, The Pulpwood Queens of East
Texas Book Club. After having an author in every month, I decided as
part of our first birthday party celebration we would invite in all the
authors of the year. We called that event our "Author Extravaganza" and
almost had more authors than attendees. The next year we doubled our
attendance and invited in more new authors and the next year. I
recognized that mostly women came to this annual gathering of Pulpwood
Queens and book clubs so I renamed the event the Pulpwood Queen
"Girlfriend Weekend" and our event exploded. We have been featured in
every newspaper and regional magazine in this area, all the local
television news show affiliates. Then the Oprah people called. They
wanted to feature us on a special "Dallas Style" show on her OXYGEN
NETWORK. Over 250 people crammed into my shop and home.
Then one fateful evening producers of Good Morning America called. They
wanted to feature us on the show with Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson.
That went over so well they invited us back to kick off their READ THIS
book club. My phone began to ring off the hook! "How can I be a
Pulpwood Queen!"
Flash forward to today, the 7th anniversary of that humble beginning.
We have now moved my shop and headquarters TWICE, each time to bigger
and more historic locations. Our Pulpwood Queen Book Club has now grown
to be the largest "meeting and discussing" book club in the world! Last
year our Girlfriend Weekend brought in nearly 1,000 attendees to grace
our doors and meet the authors we showcased as PERFECT book club reads!
We have created a program that's only daunting task is finding the
corporate support to take it to the next level, THE BIGGEST AND BEST
BOOKLOVER'S AND BOOK CLUB CONVENTION IN THE SOUTH!
And if that is not enough to drive home our sole mission "to promote
literacy and help undiscovered authors get discovered in a big way, I,
Kathy L. Patrick have written a book all about it in my memoir, "The
Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life" that will be
launched as part of her book tour at the event! My wish is that my
story will take the Pulpwood Queen Program even further on first a
national level but I am not stopping there. We now have members in
eight foreign countries so we are truly an international book club.
Won't you join us on this literary crusade of showcasing some of the
best authors in the counties for book clubs and readers! Book clubs
drive big book sales especially for first time and undiscovered
authors. The following is the basic itinerary and list of author
attending this year:
Thursday, January 17th: Late afternoon press conference to be held
at The House of Seasons Tour Home and Bed & Breakfast in
Jefferson, Texas (great turn out last year by the media and Gary Ford of
Southern Living Magazine was one of the media that attended. We
are being featured in the January 2008 Southern Living Magazine! Take a look as the photos are amazing! If you were here last year,
you may be in one of the photos. We are also featured on the book
page of Texas Monthly magazine with the full interview up on their website,
www.texasmonthly.com. Then again a nice feature in January issue of BookPage magazine that is available at most bookstores across the country.
This event is for authors, media, and Head Queens and Kings of
Pulpwood Queens chapters ONLY! So if you want to come to this press conference you must
be invited as an author, person of the media or be a Head Queen. Better yet, crown
yourself Queen and start a chapter of The Pulpwood Queens, the
largest "meeting and discussing" book club in the cosmos!
Thursday evening: Dinner at Kathy L. Patrick's for all the
authors, Head Queens and Kings, and media (last year The Dallas Morning
News attended and we got over 30 front page feature coverage of the
weekend), Kat and Queens will be joined this year for a first by
celebrity author chefs Lyn LeJeune of New Orleans and Nicole Mary
Kelby of Florida to create a southern masterpiece fit for
Queens and Kings. We are also serving up The Hamburger's Store famous
homemade pies! Also ditto on the above criteria for entry to this event.
You must be a Head King or Queen, author, musicial artist, or a
member of the media! This is the perk for running a chapter of The
Pulpwood
Queens, you get to hob knob with the literary stars!
Friday morning- Registration and ticket sales! (see ticket prices below)
All day Author Writing Workshops and Author
Panels to be held at The First United Methodist Church
Fellowship Hall in Jefferson, Texas.
Friday evening - Bull Durham Playhouse in Jefferson, Texas will be
putting on a theater presentation followed by entertainment, special
musical artist guests, some of whom are also authors who are also singers,
songwriters. The Pulpwood Queens love those who think and do
outside the box!
Saturday morning - Registration and ticket sales!
All day author panels and event to be held
at Jefferson High School Commons Area on Bulldog Drive in Jefferson, Texas.
Exclusive vendor booths handpicked by the Pulpwood Queen herself including Barron's, an independent bookstore of Longview, Texas will provide author's books for sale for event for
invited authors books present during the event.
Saturday night Grand Finale - our infamous HAIRBALL with theme
HAIRSPRAY featuring Richard Bowden and his band, The Moon & the
Starz the house band of the not for profit, Music City Texas
to be held at Bull Durham Playhouse in Jefferson. Richard
Bowden is the President of Music City Texas, the home of the state
sanctioned Texas Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Bowden of the comedy team
Pickard and Bowden, and was former lead guitarist for Linda
Ronstadt. He also just happens to run a chapter of the Pulpwood
Queens with his wife, former S.A.G.board member, Karen Bowden.
Authors, I am featuring by invitation only to attend, are as
follows:
*PAULINA PORIZKOVA of "A Model Summer", Hyperion Publishing
*HEATHER HORNBACK BLAND of "God Said Yes", Berkeley
* ADRIENNE BARIBEAU of "There are Worse Things I Could Do",
Carroll & Graf Publishing
*STEPHANIE BOND of "Body Movers"
*JANIS OWENS of "The Schooling of Claybird Catts", HarperCollins
Publishing
**LAURA MORIARTY of "The Rest of Her Life", Hyperion Publishing
**MICHAEL MORRIS, of "Live Like You Were Dying", Thomas Nelson Publishing
**DENISE HIDRETH of "The Will of Wisteria", Thomas Nelson Publishing
**RIVER JORDAN of "The Messenger of Magnolia Street", Harper One
*TIM RAGLIN of "The Curse of Catunkhamun, TR Books
*JIMMIE RUTH EVANS of "Bring Your Own Poison" Berkley
**PAMELA DUNCAN of "The Big Beautiful", Dial Press Trade Paperback
** LYNN YORK of "The Sweet Life", Plume Publishing
**VIRGINIA BOYD of "One Fell Swoop", Thomas Nelson
**DARNELL ARNOULT of "Sufficient Grace: A Novel", Free Press
**WILL CLARKE of "The Worthy: A Ghost's Story", Simon & Schuster
Publishing
**CAI EMMONS of "The Stylist: A Novel", Harper Perrenial
**LYN LEJEUNE of "The Beatiudes: Book I", iUniverse.com (Providing own
books)
**JUDY LARSEN of "All the Numbers: A Novel", Ballentine
**CASSANDRA KING of "Queen of Broken Hearts", Hyperion Publishing
**ELLEN BAKER of "Keeping the House: A Novel", Random House Publishing
**ROSEMARY POOLE-CARTER of "Women of Magdalene", Kunati, Inc.
*WAVA EVERTON - Musical artist
**CAROLYN HAINES of "Ham Bones (A Southern Belle Mystery)", Kensington
Publishing
**ANDREA PORTES of "Hick", UnBridled Books
**LOUISE SHAFFER of "Family Acts: A Novel", Ballentine
ROBERT DALBY of "Kissing Babies at the Piggly Wiggly", Putnam Adult
*GEOFFREY M. GLUCKMAN of "Deady Exchange: A Novel", iUniverse.com
(Providing own books)
**MICHAEL LEE WEST of "Mermaids in the Basement", Harper
DEBBIE RODRIGUEZ of "Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes
Behind the Veil", Random House Trade Paperbacks
**MARGARET CEZAIR- THOMPSON of "The Pirate's Daughter", UnBridled Books
*LEONARTO DEVINO A.K.A. CHUCK GRAY of "The Da Vino Code:
Revelations of Leonarto Da Vino", Brown Books (Providing own books)
**KIM SUNEE of "Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for
Home", Grand Central Publishing
*REGINA LOUISE of "Somebody's Someone: A Memoir", Grand Central Publishing
**N.M.KELBY of "Whale Season: A Novel", Three Rivers Press
*RICKEY PITTMAN of "Black Orphan in the Confederate White House",
Pelican Publishing House (Providing own books)
*LYNETTE ROHRER SHIRK of "Wild Women Throw a Party:110 Original
Recipes and Amazing Menus for Birthday Bashes, Power Showers, Poker
Soirees, and Celebrations Galore", Conari Press
*LISA WINGATE of "Talk of the Town", Bethany House
**MELANIE WELLS of "My Sould to Keep (Dylan Foster Series #3),
Multnomah Fiction
**TRISH MURPHY -TEXAS musical artist
**MARSHA MOYER of "Heartbreak Hotel: A Novel", Three Rivers Press
And yes, there may be more!
* means confirmed
** means participating in writer's workshops on Friday
THE PULPWOOD QUEEN V.I.P. PACKAGE includes: V.I.P. wristband (that
automatically shown gets you painlessly without wait into all the
events), a signed copy of my first book ever "The Pulpwood Queens'
Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life', an official Pulpwood
Queen "Girlfriend Weekend" 2008 T-shirt and more fun and exciting
presents!
PULPWOOD QUEEN PACKAGES AS OF DECEMBER 1,, 2007 ARE:
Pulpwood Queen members $350 for entire Pulpwood Queen Packages which includes tickets to all events!
$175 per day or the break down is $125 for day time events, $50 for night time events.
Non- Members $400 for entire Pulpwood Queen Packages which include tickets to all events!
$200 per day or the bread down is $150 for day time events, $50 for night time events.
PULPWOOD QUEEN MEMBERSHIP FOR LIFE IS $25.00 AND
INCLUDES OFFICIAL T-SHIRT, CERTIFICATE, AND MEMBERSHIP CARD.
INDIVIDUAL TICKETS FOR EVENTS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR AS LONG AS TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE TO FILL CAPACITY OF VENUES.
All events may be subject to change due to circumstances out of our control. Please email kathy@beautyandthebook.com or go to www.pulpwoodqueen.com for updates each day. Daily blogs are being posted their on book tour and event through mid-February.
Friday, December 28, 2007
The Pulpwood Queens BOOK IN SHOP!
Yes, that's me with Diane Sawyer in New York City! The Pulpwood Queen, while in New York to attend Book Expo this past June, was invited to come backstage with my good friends, Kay and Larry Brookshire and my husband Jay to attend the concert in the park with Doughtry on Good Morning America. We were then given V.I.P. bracelets and escorted backstage to meet Diane SawyerI was just as excited about meeting Diane in person (The Pulpwood Queens kicked off Good Morning America's READ THIS book club with Diane and Charlie Gibson) as having my book FINALLY get published. She is the real thing America! Absolutely the most gracious, beautiful (inside and out) person of celebrity that I have ever met.
Now I posted this photo on my blog site for all my "peeps" as we want the world to know about the Pulpwood Queens and our mission to promote literacy. I can think of no better way than be invited back on Good Morning America to show the world that reading is important!
My book is out! Diane Sawyer and Good Morning America are featured in my book! I FINALLY have copies in my shop so get your copy today, you might be in there TOO! So let's email Good Morning America that we would love to be featured again!
In the meantime, I'm in the shop ready to autograph those books for late gift giving and heading out soon for book tour! What a world! What a world! And cannot hardly wait until 2008 to hit the road with the Pulpwood Queens to meet all of you on book tour!
Tiara wearing and Book sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
Founder of the Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs
Beauty and the Book
608 North Polk Street
Jefferson, Texas 75657
903-665-7520
kathy@beautyandthebook.com
www.beautyandthebook.com
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
The Pulpwood Queens Book is OUT!
ALL ABOUT BOOKS...
Dear Pulpwood Queens and Beauty and the Booklovers!
Happy Holidays and to a fantabulous 2008!
Great news, my very first book, The Pulpwood Queen's Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life is now on sale!
So, as you cashing in your gift certificates at your favorite independent book store or browsing a book store while exchanging Christmas presents, I hope you will grab a copy of The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life. Now please read the book as I am dying to know what you think of my life story in books!
Read an excerpt at my www.hachettebookgroupusa.com or check out the many great reviews that I will be posting here on my Pulpwood Queen Blog site! Also on my publisher's website, www.hachettebookgroupusa.com you will find features like "What to Eat at Book Club Meeting', an interview of author, Christopher Cook with me called Author! Author!, a Reading Group Discussion Guide and even an excerpt from my book!. I will also be posting all the above on this site and on our official Pulpwood Queen website, www.beautyandthebook.com!
Now is the time to join the fastest growing book club in the cosmos, The Pulpwood Queens that really is the largest "meeting and discussing" book club in the world. Our motto is "where tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the RULE!" Our sole mission is to promote literacy, get everybody reading, and help undiscovered authors get discovered in a big way. For more information go to my website, www.beautyandthebook.com and click on Pulpwood Queens! Everything you would ever need to know is found on our website and now let's make our New Year's resolution that we are going to crown ourselves QUEENS and get reading!
If you're in a book club and you select my book for a book club selection, I will be more than happy to call your book club! I will also send you signed book plates for all your book club members! Contact me personally at kathy@beautyandthebook.com.
Tiara Wearing and Book Sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
Founder of the Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs
P.S. Here is the schedule for my book tour below, I sure hope you can make it and we can meet in person. Bring your tiara, as they are mandatory!
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home | About Us | Contact Us / FAQ | Site Map Copyright 2007 by Hachette Book Group USA © and ™ Info | Privacy Policy/Your Privacy Rights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TRAVEL DAY
Wednesday, January 2
Transportation:
Car Rental:
NOTE: Pulpwood Queens Kay Brookshire and Elizabeth Stokes are traveling with Kathy.
_____________________________________________________________________
OKLAHOMA CITY
Thursday, January 3
| 6:15 PM arrival 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM | FULL CIRCLE Reading/Signing 50 Penn Place Oklahoma City, OK 73118 Contact: Morgan Spring 405.842.1840 customerservice@fullcirclebooks.com
|
_______________________________________________________________________
EDMOND, OK
Friday, January 4
| 5:15 PM arrival 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM | BEST OF BOOKS Reading/Signing 1313 NE Danforth Edmond, OK 73034 Contact: Julie Hovis 405-340-9202 juliehovis@hotmail.com |
_______________________________________________________________________
TULSA
Saturday, January 5
| 12:45 PM arrival 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM | STEVE'S BOOKS AND MAGAZINES Reading/Signing 2612 South Harvard Tulsa, OK 74114 Contact: Joanie Stephenson 918-743-7020 |
_______________________________________________________________________
WICHITA, KS
Sunday, January 6
| 1:45 PM arrival 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM | WATERMARK BOOKS Reading/Signing 4701 East Douglas Wichita, KS 67218 Contact: Beth Golay 316-682-1181 beth.golay@watermarkbooks.com |
_______________________________________________________________________
EUREKA, KS
Monday, January 7