The Pulpwood Queens Ten Charmed Life Experiences!

Dear Readers,

Author, Victoria Moran of Oprah Winfrey fame, sent out My Top Ten Charmed Life Experiences on her blog site and then she challenged us all to do just that. I pondered this a minute then began to write. My whole life summed up in Ten Charmed Life Experiences but boy, were they some doozies! Here are mine and now it's your turn to send me yours too. As this request came through Victoria's website, http://www.victoriamoran.com/, you might post your response there too. So here I go!

MY TOP TEN CHARMED LIFE EXPERIENCES

1) In the fifth grade, I was asked by my teacher to play the lead in the school play, "Jack the Giant Killer". This was amazing because I was the shyest person in the class. My teachers always saw something in me that I didn't. I portrayed a teacher and got to wear earrings and my hair in a bun! All that applause, it was the biggest night of my life! Stagestruck ever since.

2) Having Heidi Surber walk to school with me on my first day of 9th grade. We had moved away to the other side of town when I was in the 3rd grade and when we moved back, all my friends had moved on I guess. I was no longer a part of that old neighborhood gang. So in the 9th grade, I had done a complete makeover, with plucked eyebrows, makeup, panty hose, hot rollers in my hair, I was channeling the girls from the Brady Bunch. It's all in my book, "The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life", biggest day in my life that day. I'll never forget it!

3)Flying to Hawaii when I was 19 with my hairdressing girlfriends as had never flown nor seen the ocean. I got caught in the tide on the north shore of Oahu and did twenty five backward summersaults then the ocean just spit me back out. I stood up and a half of ton of sand was in my one piece black bathing suit with one strap holding up by a thread. All the elastic shot in the legs it looked like I was wearing culottes. This surfers were howling with laughter and I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. What a trip and have new respect for the big blue ocean!

4)Driving up California Highway 101 backpacking, hiking and camping through state and national parks to Crater Lake and then back down through national parks back to San Diego. At Yosemite I was scared to death as they had these marraunding bears running the park. Visited San Simeon and will never forget seeing the mansion sitting above the clouds on the drive up. Big highlight was Jade Beach and visiting the town where Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" was set. My first signed book was from the actress, Tippi Hendren who starred in that movie. I could write a book on just that trip.

5)Marrying Jaybird. Our honeymoon was suppose to be at Caddo Lake State Park but due to some mean friends who trashed my house, we ended up getting to the park after it closed and having to stay at Curley's Fish Camp. Once when the author, John Berendt was visiting, I took him out on a boat tour of Caddo Lake. When I pointed out the place on the shore where I spent my honeymoon. He hollared, "May I have everyone's attention. This woman spent her honeymoon there!" pointed his finger at the now closed camp with waist high weeds. The boat load of passengers laughed hysterically. 21 years my friends and I have to say it's been all uphill from there ever since, hahahhahaha!

6)Having my girls, Helaina and Madeleine. Lainie 24 hours labor. Madeleine like 7. Pretty much sums up how it's been with my two girls. Labor intensive but also gifts from God. There is nothing I wouldn't do for my two chips off the old Jaybird and Kat blocks.

7)Our family trip through visiting nine national parks in nine days in the damn mini van. Highlight was driving across this mesa only to have to drive down a 2,000 foot drop. I wanted to walk down, no guard rails, and we can put a man on the moon, but we can't put up a guard rail? Once we hit the bottom we drove into Monument Valley at sunset. I will dream of that ride until I die.

8)Our family canoe trip to Beaver's Bend where Jay crashed his bike and then we went on a nine hour canoe trip in a canoe named THE TITANIC! I have never been more sunburned, stressed from the white water rapids of which we crashed big time, and poor Jay, asphalt and gravel was embedded into his shoulder the whole trip. My hero, he saved us all.

9) Combining two more trips, the family trip to Disneyland for Christmas and our Colorado ski trip vacation. Nothing is more fun than packing up the WHOLE family for some fun in the sun and fun on the slopes. Volumes could be written on these trips but highlight at Disneyland was drinking Margaritas at the Castle covered swimming pool on Christmas Eve and for Colorado our snowmobiling day where everybody dubbed me SNOWCAT as had on an entire polar fleece outfit all in leopard print complete with furry headband, gloves, scarf, and boots!

10) The Grand Finale would be the publication on my life story, "The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life"! Never in a million years would I ever had thought that I would get a book published by a MAJOR PUBLISHER! My book tour with the Pulpwood Queens we hit 27 stops in ten states and logged almost 7,000 miles has to be the Ultimate Roadtrip!

Man, I just remembered I left out our Pulpwood Queens DO Europe Literary Tour, and about fifty other kazillion Charmed Moments with Authors and GIRLFRIEND WEEKEND! How could I leave that out!

Well, one thing I know for sure if I have had a CHARMED LIFE and one that is unfolding as we speak. Won't you join me daily at this site for my book travels with Kat. I also do know all that shyness as a child has me practically bursting at the seams to get everything out now. As always, I have a lot to say and since I wrote my story, my life is now an open book. Just remember a book, is a gift that keeps on giving and the power of the word, the story, and our relationships with each other is what leads us to a CHARMED LIFE!

Now, it's your turn and do this. You will learn what is really important in your life for sure!

Tiara Wearing and Book Sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
Founder of the Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs
Beauty and the Book
608 North Polk
Jefferson, Texas 75657
903-665-7520
http://www.beautyandthebook.com/
http://www.pulpwoodqueen.com/

The Pulpwood Queen Travels Down "South of Broad"!

Dear Readers,

If you read my book, "The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life", Grand Central Publishing, you would know that Pat Conroy is my favorite contemporary author of all time. My greatest thrill was first, getting to meet him in person, and second, getting to meet him again in person and do my first author interview ever for an East Texas publication of which I was a contributing columnist. Pat Conroy is the poster child to me for the perfect author. He never forgets you, ever!

I met him years ago and then again four years later and as I walked in the door of my mentor, Mary Gay Shipley's That Bookstore in Blytheville. Pat spied me as I entered and said, "Kathy Patrick, what in the world are you doing up here all the way from Jefferson, Texas!" I was blown away that he remembered me, considering I go up and down the scale like a yo-yo, and you never know what color my hair is going to be. To say I worship the ground he walks on is an extreme understatement.

Then his books...I knew I had found a author soul mate when I read Pat's books. I have read them all, over and over again. Of course, you have to because it has now been fourteen years since the publication of his last book and now finally, it's here, "South of Broad"!

I had already been reading the reviews but they never deter me. I learned a long time ago that the book critics do not "get" Pat Conroy's books, but his readers do. I have been reading Pat's book for over a week now and that is not normal. Usually I fly through a book, but this is to me is like a box of the best Belgium chocolates, like each chocolate, each page is to be savored.

I never do this but in Pat's latest book, I actually have highlighted sentences including,"Among Roman Catholics of my generation, we play a parlor sport that is mean-spirited and partisan in nature but guaranteed to elicit laughter and to cause blood to pool in our collective memories: we tell nun stories."

Then another line that cracked me up, "Ten minutes, and then I'll be back to dry your feet with my hair. A Mary Magdalene kind of moment."

And I am just getting started with the book, I keep rereading the pages as nobody tells a story quite the way Pat does and one minute I'll be cracking up as in the lines above and the next moment I'll be sobbing, choked with tears. So all I have to say to the critics is you just don't get it. We want a full plethora of emotions in a book. We want a story that pulls us in like the tide. We just want more authors like Pat Conroy but they broke the mold when it came to this man. He's one of the finest storytellers I have ever known.

As our Pulpwood Queen September Book Club Selection, below is a teaser press release on his book and then the list of Book Club Discussion Questions for the Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs, really for you all to use.

Do yourself a favor this summer and find a hammock, a big ole glass of Sweet Tea, and perhaps whip up a batch of those Benne cookies, take a day off and read this book. We may be in the last days of summer but this reading will leave you with a summertime memory that you won't forget. Mark my words, Pat Conroy will be long remembered. His words are like balm to my wounded soul and help get me through anything, better than medicine!

Tiara wearing and Book sharing,

Kathy L. Patrick

Founder of the Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs

http://www.beautyandthebook.com/

http://www.pulpwoodqueen.com/

“[The] first novel in 14 years from the gifted spinner of Southern tales (Beach Music, 1995, etc.) – a tail-wagging shaggy dog at turns mock-epic and gothic, beautifully written throughout. The title refers, meaningfully, to a section of Charleston, S.C., and, as with so many Southern tales, one great story begets another and another. This one starts promisingly: ‘Nothing happens by accident.’ Indeed. The Greeks knew that, and so does young Leopold Bloom King. It is on Bloomsday 1969 that 18-year-old Leo learns his mother had once been a nun. Along the way, new neighbors appear, drugs make their way into the idyllic landscape and two new orphans turn up ‘behind the cathedral on Broad Street.’ The combination of all these disparate elements bears the unmistakable makings of a spirit-shaping saga. The year 1969 is a heady one, of course, with the Summer of Love still fresh in memory, but Altamont on the way and Vietnam all around. Working a paper route along the banks of the Ashley River and discovering the poetry of place, Leo gets himself in a heap of trouble, commemorated years later by the tsk-tsking of the locals. But he also finds out something about how things work and who makes them work right – or not. Leo’s classic coming-of-age tale sports, in the bargain, a king-hell hurricane. Conroy is a natural at weaving great skeins of narrative and this one will prove a great pleasure to his many fans.”
-- Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“An unlikely group of Charlestonian teens forms a friendship in 1969, just as the certainties and verities of southern society are quaked by the social and political forces unleashed earlier in the decade. They come from all walks of life, from the privileged homes of the aristocracy, from an orphanage, from a broken home where an alcoholic mother and her twins live in fear of a murderous father, from the home of public high school’s first black football coach, and from the home of the same school’s principal. The group’s fulcrum, Leopold Bloom King, is just climbing out of childhood mental illness after having discovered his handsome, popular, athletic, scholarly older brother dead from suicide. Over the next two decades, these friends find success in journalism, the bar, law enforcement, music, and Hollywood. Echoing some themes from his earlier novels, Conroy fleshes out the almost impossibly dramatic details of each of the friends’ lives in this vast, intricate story, and he reveals truths about love, lust, class, racism, religion, and what it means to be shaped by a particular place, be it Charleston, South Carolina, or anywhere else in the U.S.”-- Booklist
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________SOUTH OF BROAD
A Novel
PAT CONROY
New York Times Bestselling Author of THE PRINCE OF TIDES
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Against the sumptuous backdrop of Charleston, South Carolina, Pat Conroy’s SOUTH OF BROAD (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday; August 11, 2009; $29.95) gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, our narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school principal and a respected Joyce scholar.
After Leo’s older brother commits suicide at the age of ten, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death, and Leo, lonely and isolated, searches for something to sustain him. Eventually, he finds his answer when he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that includes friends Sheba and Trevor Poe, glamorous twins with an alcoholic mother and a prison-escapee father; hardscrabble mountain runaways Niles and Starla Whitehead; socialite Molly Huger and her boyfriend, Chadworth Rutledge Z – and an ever-widening circle whose liaisons will ripple across two decades, from 1960s counterculture through the dawn of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
The ties among them endure for years, surviving marriages happy and troubled, unrequited loves and unspoken longings, hard-won successes and devastating breakdowns, as well as Charleston’s dark legacy of racism and class divisions. But the final test of friendship that brings them to San Francisco is something no one is prepared for. SOUTH OF BROAD is Conroy at his finest: a long-awaited work from a great American writer whose passion for life and language knows no bounds.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Pat Conroy is the author of eight previous books: The Boo, The Water Is Wide, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, Beach Music, My Losing Season, and The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life. He lives on Fripp Island, South Carolina.



“Leopold Bloom King narrates a paean to his hometown and friends in Conroy’s first novel in 14 years. In the late ’60s and after his brother commits suicide, then 18-year-old Leo befriends a cross-section of the city’s inhabitants: scions of Charleston aristocracy; Appalachian orphans; a black football coach’s son; and an astonishingly beautiful pair of twins, Sheba and Trevor Poe, who are evading their psychotic father. The story alternates between 1969, the glorious year Leo’s coterie stormed Charleston’s social, sexual and racial barricades, and 1989, when Sheba, now a movie star, enlists them to find her missing gay brother in AIDS-ravaged San Francisco. Some characters are tragically lost to the riptides of love and obsession, while others emerge from the frothy waters of sentimentality and nostalgia. Fans of Conroy’s florid prose and earnest melodramas are in for a treat.”-- Publishers Weekly

For more information please visit:
http://www.patconroy.com/
http://www.doubleday.com/


SOUTH OF BROAD: A Novel
Pat Conroy
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday
Publication date: August 11, 2009
Price: $29.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-41305-3

Reading Group Questions and Discussion Topicsfor South of Broad
1. At the beginning of the novel, Leo is called on to mitigate the racial prejudice of the football team. What other types of prejudice appear in the novel? Which characters are guilty of relying on preconceived notions? Why do you think Leo is so accepting of most people? Why is his mother so condemnatory?
2. What do you think of the title South of Broad? How does the setting inform the novel? Would the novel be very different if it were set in another city or region?
3. As a teenager, Leo is heavily penalized for refusing to name the boy who placed drugs in his pocket. Why did he feel compelled to protect the boy's identity? Do you think he did the right thing?
4. When Leo's mother asks him to meet his new peers, she warns, "Help them, but do not make friends with them." Do you think such a thing possible? Through the novel, how does Leo help his friends, and how do they help him?
5. Leo's mother tells him, "We're afraid the orphans and the Poe kids will use you," to which he responds, "I don't mind being needed. I don't even mind being used." Do you think this is a healthy attitude toward friendship? Do any of the characters end up "using" Leo? Does his outlook on friendship changed by the end of the novel?
6. Leo admits that the years after Steven's suicide nearly killed him. How was he able to cope? How do Leo's parents deal with their grief? What does the novel say about human resilience and our propensity to overcome tragedy?
7. When Sheba suggests to Leo that he divorce his wife, he says, "I knew there were problems when I married Starla so I didn't walk into that marriage blind." Do you think that knowledge obligates Leo to stay with his wife? In your opinion, does Leo do the right thing by staying married? Would you do the same?
8. Both Chad and Leo are unfaithful to their wives, but only Leo is truthful about it. Do you think this makes Chad's infidelity a worse offense? Why or why not?
9. At two points in the novel, the group tries to rescue a friend: first Niles, then Trevor. But when Starla is in trouble, they don't attempt to save her. Why do you think this is? Has Starla become a "lost cause"?
10. At one point Leo remarks, "I had trouble with the whole concept [of love] because I never fully learned the art of loving myself." How does the concept of self-love play into the novel?
11. In the moment before Leo attacks Trevor's captor, he recites a portion of "Horatio at the Bridge," a poem about taking a lone stand against fearful odds. What is the significance of the verse? Do you think it's appropriate to that moment?
12. The twins are the novel's most abused characters and also the most creative. Do you think there is a connection between suffering and art?
13. What do you make of the smiley face symbol that Sheba and Trevor's father paints? How does the novel address the idea of happiness coexisting with pain?
14. At several points in the novel, characters divulge family secrets. Do you believe that this information should stay secret, or is there value in bringing it to light?
15. Leo examines his Catholicism at several points in the novel. What do you think he might say are the advantages and drawbacks of his religion? Do you think all religions are fraught with those problems?
16. One might interpret Leo's mother's attitude toward religion as one of blind faith. If Steven had admitted his abuse to her, do you think she would she have believed him? How do you think the information might have affected her?
17. Sheba and Trevor are literally tormented by their childhoods, in the form of their deranged father. How are some of the other characters hindered by the past? Are they ever able to escape its clutches and, if so, by what means?
18. Discuss the scene in which Leo and Molly rescue the porpoise. What does the event symbolize?
19. Why do you think the discoveries about Leo's mother and Monsignor Max begin and end the novel? What theme do these incidents convey?
20. Chapter one begins with the statement, "Nothing happens by accident," and Leo often reflects on the way that destiny has shaped his life. How does destiny affect the other characters? Do you agree that real life is the result of predetermined forces? Or can we affect our fate?

The Pulpwood Queen Talks About Why She Loves JEFFERSON, TEXAS!

Dear Readers,

It's a fact, I love Jefferson, Texas. Where else can you live "It's a Wonderful Life" meets "Mayberry RFD"! Last night the Marian County Chamber of Commerce had a fundraiser. My husband and other Timber Guys joined forces with BLACK WATER band and played for FREE for this event as The Blooze Brothers with BLACK WATER! Andy Looney and Bill Smith portrayed SNAKE and DEADWOOD and were really "SOUL MAN"S"! The band was comprised of my husband, Jaybird on keyboards as PULPWOOD, Johnny Nance as singer/guitarist as DRIFTWOOD, Biff the drummer as HARDWOOD, Waylon on as singer/lead guitar as PECKERWOOD, Jason on bass guitar as not sure what kind of wood as filled in for Matt Early who was on a gig with Music City Texas. I believe over $4,000 was raised with this fundraiser to help our chamber promote our businesses and Jefferson in our hometown. Jaybird and BLACK WATER will be performing TONIGHT, 9:00 p.m at The Memphis Club in Longview, Texas, why don't you go and give them some support for all their great deeds!

Now if my camera's batteries had not gone dead you would have seen all the locals who turned out for this fundraiser mixed in with all the out-of-town tourists who happened to stumble into this event! Big Time Fun was had by all.

Photos above are of the band, Timber Guys and Pulpwood Queens at the beginning of the evening and show. This was all held at probably the best watering hole in this part of the country Auntie Skinner's Riverboat Club where all the locals can be found on Thursday night with all our kids! Weekends it becomes the hottest night spot in the town for sure and perhaps in all of East Texas. A designated Harley Destination motorcycle dive bar, Sundays you will see motorcycles lined up all up and down Austin Street as riders come in for a great ride and place to meet and eat and of course, drink!

When I first came to Jefferson from San Diego, California it was Christmas time, in fact, Candlelite Tour of Homes times. There were people in period costumes caroling, private homes were on tour all decorated like Christmas past, by candlelight. The streets were lit up by lamp posts glowing with holiday spirit and folks packed the sidewalks visiting the local businesses and eateries. I was charmed, charmed to death.

After umpteen people told me you should move here, I did. Packed everything up and my cat, Mitten, to move into the one of the wonderful historic homes that I purchased on a wing and a prayer. I have had no regrets, only been blessed by this town. I married a hometown boy, raised two fine East Texas daughters who are ready to save the world, and add into this mix a love of authors, books, and reading and wa lah! It's a wonderful life my friends!

Won't you too come and visit our fair city? As I was reading Pat Conroy's latest book, "South of Broad" and his love letter to the city of Charleston, it reminded me how much I love the the little city that I live in, our "Belle of the Bayou", Jefferson, Texas.

You can check it out at http://www.jefferson-texas.com/ oh, and that t-shirt photo above. You can purchase it at Blessings on Polk Street and do notice of all the things listed on the back of the t-shirt,"Why I Love Jefferson, Texas", you can read The Pulpwood Queens Book Club! In fact, I went in and bought t-shirts for me and my daughter, Madeleine, and going back in today to purchase some more. I most certainly believe in too, "SHOP LOCALLY"! And don't forget to come and grace my doors of the ONLY Hair Salon/Book Store in the country, Beauty and the Book, World Headquarters of The PUlpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs as seen on Good Morning America and OPRAH!

Tiara wearing and Book, and WHY I LOVE JEFFERSON, TEXAS sharing,

Kathy L. Patrick

Author of "The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life"

Founder of the Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs

Beauty and the Book

608 North Polk Street

Jefferson, Texas 75657

903-665-7520

http://www.beautyandthebook.com/

http://www.pulpwoodqueen.com/

http://www.southernauthors.blogspot.com/

http://www.readinggroupguides.com/

The Timber Guys Band, Black Water featuring The Blues Brothers TONITE at Auntie Skinner's Riverboat Club in Jefferson, TEXAS!

“SNAKE AND DEADWOOD” TO HEADLINE CHAMBER FETE
Auntie Skinners’ Hosting “Hot Summer Nights” Benefit
　
JEFFERSON, Texas - Rockin’ blues and a chance to get away from it all will be the storyline on Friday, August 14 when Auntie Skinners’ Riverboat Club hosts a “Hot Summer Night Benefit” with proceeds heading toward the Marion County Chamber of Commerce coffers.
“Blackwater” will be the headline musical attraction with appearances by Snake and Deadwood Blooze. The rock and blues outfit features John “Driftwood” Nance on rhythm guitar and Jay “Pulpwood” Patrick on keyboards. “Deadwood” - aka local attorney Bill Smith - and “Snake” Blooze, also known as local thespian Andy Looney, lead the seven-piece outfit that also includes Weyland Graham on lead guitar, Matt “Basswood” Early on bass guitar and Biff “Hardwood” Rains on drums.
Blackwater will take the stage at 9 p.m. and perform until closing.
Attendees also get a chance to win a $750 airline travel voucher, compliments of Auntie Skinners‘ owner Gary Fant.
“This is great, and it’s going to be a lot of fun for the folks that come in that night,” said Marion County Chamber of Commerce president Charlie Chitwood. “Our hat is off to the Fants for being so generous as to come up with this idea and host a fundraiser for the Chamber. Thanks too go out to Bill Smith and “Blackwater” for volunteering their time and talent to put on a show - those guys are real entertainers.”
Admission to the benefit is $10 - tickets can be purchased at the door or ahead of time at either auntie Skinners’ Riverboat Club (107 W. Austin Street) or at the Marion County Chamber of Commerce office at 101 N. Polk Street.
Raffle tickets for the $750 travel voucher are $5 and can also be purchased in advance at both Auntie Skinners’ and the Chamber office.
For more information or to reserve tickets, contact the Chamber office at (903) 665-2672 or (888) GO-RELAX (467-3529).

Marion County Chamber of Commerce
101 N. Polk Street
Jefferson, TX 75657

888-467-3529 903-665-2672
Fax 903-665-8233
www.jefferson-texas.com

Darlene Wray, Historian

The Pulpwood Queen Challenges You Too To Become an "ECO BARON"!

Dear Readers,

It's not everyday that I get to tool around town with a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and an author to boot! After I finished my morning hair appointments, my daughter Madeleine and I zipped over to the McKay House Bed & Breakfast to pick up Edward Humes. Now Ed had been here before as we had him in for his book, "School of Dreams, this time for his latest "Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires That Are Saving Our Planet"! I like the books that his man writes and this book was right up my Pulpwood Queen alley.

You see, The Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys have made it our mission to promote literacy, help undiscovered authors get discovered in a big way, and by paying it forward. The men and women featured in Ed's book are mostly regular Joes who just happen to have a passion for something that all revolve around saving our planet.

As we partook in our "GREEN" summer time fare of fresh vegetables, pasta, and fruit, I proposed to Ed Humes and our Pulpwood Queens to begin something anew! I crowned all these members Queens and Kings, why not challenge each member to become an "Eco Baron"!

After Ed talked about his book, he read the list from his book of things we all could do to help save our planet. I then told everybody Ed's book could be our springboard to launch each and everyone of us to do something to conserve, protect, inform, be pro-active on our every day lives. We went around the room with ideas and suggestions of what those things could be. A new plan was launched, the Pulpwood Queens may have started out HOT PINK, but we vowed from now on we would go "GREEN"!

Perfect timing as our 10th Anniversary theme for our annual Pulpwood Queen convention is The Wizard of Oz, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"! We are going "GREEN" and our motto is "there's no place like books, there's no place like BOOKS!" The Early Bird Special will expire September 1, 2009 so if you have not purchased your Pulpwood Queen V.I.P. Package for our biggest TA DO EVER, you are missing out big time!

We will begin the "GREENING" of The Pulpwood Queens with Ed's new book which you all have to read immediately. I completely SOLD OUT of books last night but do have plenty of signed books plates that I will put in the books I ordered this morning. If you would like a signed copy, please call 903-665-7520 or email kathy@beautyandthebook.com.

Now my challenge to all of my Pulpwood Queen and Timber Guy Book Club chapters and to YOU, dear reader, is to come up with something you can do to save our planet and become a "Eco Baron"! One person can make a difference and if you don't believe me, look what I have done and read Ed's books! We can change the world, one person, one author, one book at a time and y'all, I plan on rolling up my sleeves and getting to work! Won't you join me!

Please send me in the comment box your "Eco Baron" plan of action and also check out Ed Humes, amazing website, http://www.edwardhumes.com/ and you too will be inspired. We were all born for a purpose, make your purpose one that will leave a "GREEN" legacy to our children's future!

Tiara wearing and Book sharing,

Kathy L. Patrick

Author of "The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life"

Founder of the PUlpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs

http://www.beautyandthebook.com/

http://www.pulpwoodqueen.com/

http://www.southernauthors.blogspot.com/

http://www.readinggroupguides.com/

P.S. Special NOTE! Thank you to Elizabeth and Betty Jo for traveling all the way from Monroe, Louisiana to represent our chapter there and for coming early to get your haircut! These kindnesses are so appreciated. Also to Marjorie and her friend Terry, for traveling from Shreveport, Louisiana representing our Northwest Louisiana chapter and I know that Ed was inpressed we pull in from a state away for our meetings. Thanks to my business neighbor, Robin Moore, who was our guest at last night's meeting. If I have a need, I call always call on Robing and she pays it forward BIG TIME my friends. Thanks to my girls, The Pulpwood Queens of East Texas, for being my "rock" to hold this "kite" from floating away. I will always be a dreamer and a schemer when it comes to promoting authors, books, and literacy and we won't even talk about milllionaire, okay! Hahhahhahhahaha!

The Pulpwood Queens host Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist and Author, Edward Humes!

Dear Readers,

Last night was the last night of our Arts, Letters, and Soul Author Lecture Series held at Soul Surroundings Art Gallery in Jefferson, Texas. Our featured author was Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Edward Humes. Ed spoke of his latest book, "Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving our Planet". We all enjoyed some fine summer time "GREEN" fare and listened as Ed spoke of the "planet savers" in his book.

I have to tell you I found the book and Ed fascinating. Never has non-fiction been so readible and I have learned some amazing things. The perfect book for book club discussion as tonight is out Pulpwood Queens of East Texas Book Club meeting, 6:30 p.m. at my Beauty and the Book, the ONLY Hair Salon/Book Store in the country.

I just received word that The Pulpwood Queens of Monroe, Louisiana will be coming in for this event and I have received quite a few long distance requests for me to get books signed and shipped out all over the country.

All the Pulpwood Queens are to bring a "GREEN" summer time dish! Guests are welcome just r.s.v.p to 903-445-2353 or email me at kathy@beautyandthebook.com. We accept a $10 donation for the meal that goes to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Project here in Marian County where every child born in this county receives a book a month from the time they are born until they start kindergarten. We are on a mission to get all our children reading ready!

Now read all of Edward Humes books and you are already ahead on saving our planet and being highly entertained and more importantly informed on a wide variety of issues.

They are as follows:

Monkey Girl

Over Here

School of Dreams - a previous Pulpwood Queen Book Club Selection

Baby ER

Mean Justice

No Matter How Loud I Shout

Misssissippi Mud

Murderer with a Badge

Buried Secrets

And check out his website at www.edwardhumes.com!

More tomorrow on the event with Edward Humes TONIGHT! Hope you can make it!

Tiara wearing and Book sharing,

Kathy L. Patrick

Founder of the PUlpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs

www.beautyandthebook.com

The Pulpwood Queen Wants YOU to Help Her Save the World!

Dear Readers,

The beginning quote in Pulitzer Prize winning Edward Hume's new book "Eco Baron: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet" states this,

"A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well ---or ill?"

- John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Everybody thinks they know me. Do you? Perhaps you read my memoir, "The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life"? But a lot was left out of that book, mostly because you would have had to been a weightlifter to hoist the mighty tome I originally wrote. What you may not know about me is that I love nature. I love the outdoors. My idea of a vacation is to get away from everybody and go back to nature, to go camping.

Now I have been camping where the family hauls the tent and all the supplies to a state park. My family once rented a three bedroom cabin in Colorado for Christmas ski trip. But my favorite way to really go back to nature is to backpack in someplace really remote. I once backpacked for two weeks in Colorado with nothing but what was on my back. I once drove up the Pacific coast Highway 101 camping with a backpack tent all the way to Crater Lake in Oregon to come back down staying at all the national parks. I could write a book of that experience. I always read books along the way to further connect me to that place in the world.

So when I heard of Edward Humes NEW book, Eco Barons. I was intrigued. A child of the 70's I believe I will always have a place in my heart for "Make Love, Not War", "Peace", and "Save our Planet". I was once told you are just a hippie child without the drugs. That person pretty much nailed me.

But this summer was really, really hot, so hot I found the weather disturbing. What is happening to our world. I read Ed's book and now all of you must read it too. We must begin with each of us and saving Earth!

Edward Humes is here TONIGHT, August 10, 7:00 p.m. to speak on his life as a journalist and his latest book, "Eco Barons", the story of the remarkable visionaries who have quietly dedicated their lives and their fortunes to saving the planet from ecological destruction. The event will be at Soul Surroundings, downtown Jefferson, Texas in this antique store/boutique's upstairs art gallery. Tickets are $30 or $40 a couple and include a "green" supper plus refreshments. Now by green, we mean summer fare of fresh salads and fruits, our earth's bounty. We hope you can make it.

Here are a few of the stories on this event in the news:

Cached
Texarkana Entertainment Blog " Jefferson
... at 7 p.m. on Monday at Soul Surroundings (121 N. Polk) in Jefferson, Texas. ... Jefferson, Texas, is no stranger to holding a fine event, especially in spring ...www.texarkanagazette.com/Entertainment-Blog/tag/jefferson - Cached
Texarkana Entertainment Blog " Blog Archive " Pulitzer Winner to Talk ...
Pulitzer Winner to Talk "Eco Barons" in Jefferson ... at 7 p.m. on Monday at Soul Surroundings (121 N. Polk) in Jefferson, Texas. ...texarkanagazette.com/Entertainment-Blog/2009/08/06/... - Cached
Jefferson Local News: Topix
Local news for Jefferson, TX continually updated from thousands of ... 8th, Monday at Soul Surroundings at 121 North Polk in Jefferson, Texas at 7:00 p. ...www.topix.com/city/jefferson-tx - 133k - Cached

BookTour: Author Page for Edward Humes
See when Edward Humes is coming to town, or request a visit from Edward Humes. ... Jefferson, Texas (More info) Tuesday, November 03, 1:45 PM ...booktour.com/author/edward_humes - 52k - Cached
BookTour: Authors Speaking at Pulpwood Queens Book Club (Jefferson, Texas)
Jefferson, Texas. Get Directions RSS Widget. Upcoming speakers. Edward Humes. Monday, August 10, 7:00 PM. Let your friends know about this event: ...booktour.com/places/3333-Pulpwood-Queens-Book-Club - Cached
The Pulpwood Queen's Book Club
... Winning Journalist and Author, Edward Humes To Be Featured in Jefferson, Texas! ... book clubs, Eco Barons, Edward Humes, The PUlpwood Queens and Timber ...www.pulpwoodqueen.com - 108k - Cached
The Pulpwood Queen's Book Club
... Winning Journalist and Author, Edward Humes To Be Featured in Jefferson, Texas! ... at First United Methodist Church of Jefferson, Texas Vacation Bible School! ...www.pulpwoodqueen.com/feeds/posts/default - 334k
Texarkana Entertainment Blog " Jefferson
Edward Humes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and journalist, will discuss his ... And down in Jefferson, Texas, from Friday through Sunday the folks there will ...www.texarkanagazette.com/Entertainment-Blog/tag/jefferson - Cached
Eco Barons
Are we living in the era of AD – After Detroit? Posted June 3, 2009 by Edward Humes ... Jefferson, Texas: Monday, August 10, 7:00 PM ...ecobarons.wordpress.com - 68k - Cached

And be sure and check out that last link as Edward does an amazing blog with photos and videos!

This is the last in our Arts, Letters, and Soul Author Lecture Series so we really hope you can support this venture as the author has traveled all the way from Los Angeles, California to our fair and historic city.

"Eco Barons" will be for sale at the event and is $25.99 + tax. Please R.S.V.P to Soul Surroundings, 903-665-8107 or to purchase your tickets. As this event is sponsored by The Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs, all of those book club members will get in FREE to the event but please let us know you are coming. Email kathy@beautyandthebook.com as we want to insure we have enough of a buffet to accommodate all our attendees.

I hope to see you there tonight and THING GREEN, in fact LIVE GREEN for that matter. This should be an evening that will make you think of your carbon footprint on our planet! Won't you join me, we all can save the world, one person, one author, one book at a time! Educate yourself and READ!

Tiara wearing and Book sharing,

Kathy L. Patrick

Official Nature Lover and Founder of the Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs

Beauty and the Book

608 North Polk Street

Jefferson, Texas 75657

903-665-7520

kathy@beautyandthebook.com

wwww.beautyandthebook.com

http://www.pulpwoodqueen.com/

The Pulpwood Queen Declares There are many "cats" in Her Bookstore, Where's Her Million Dollar Book Deal!

Dear Readers,

Just read this feature below in PW Daily's online email:

'Dewey' Author Lands Seven Figure Deal at DuttonBy Rachel Deahl

Peter McGuigan at Foundry sold a new book by Dewey author Vicki Myron to Dutton in a deal that's rumored to be in the seven figures. Myron, a midwest librarian who shot to the top of the bestseller lists with her 2008 book about caring for a cat she discovered in her Iowa branch, was at Hachette, which published the hardcover edition of Dewey last September and also has paperback rights. (Since the book hit, Hachette acquired two picture books about Dewey from McGuigan--the first, Dewey: There's A Cat in the Library, is out September 1--and New Line nabbed film rights, with Meryl Streep supposedly attached to star.) Read on »

You all, guess how many "Kat" and "cats" I have in my book shop! And our Pulpwood Queens Book of the Month even involves a leopard, what gives? What a hey dey they would have here in my shop with all my "cats" and with my storytelling, dang missed the big ship again and my own publisher too, Hachette!

And you all know that I am dying for Meryl Streep to play this southern hairdresser/bookseller/book club facillatator/author/youth group leader/wife/mother, you know the "Kat who where's many HATS" oh, and soon to be "Methodist of the Month"!

Guess I'll just try to keep following the path that God is leading me, sigh, make that PURRRRRR!

As always, thinking outside of the "litter" box!

Tiara wearing and SEVEN FIGURE BOOK DEAL sharing,

Kathy L. Patrick

Author of "The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life", Grand Central Publishing

Founder of the Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs

Beauty and the Book

608 North Polk Street

Jefferson, Texas 75657

903-665-7520

http://www.beautyandthebook.com/

http://www.pulpwoodqueen.com/

http://www.readinggroupguides.com/

http://www.southernauthors.blogspot.com/

The Pulpwood Queen INQUIRES, Who Wants to Go on a Road Trip?

Dear Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys!

Okay, I know this is last moment, but who want to either meet me or road trip to Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham, Alabama to go see Pulpwood Queen authors, Pat Conroy, Cassandra King, and Rick Bragg. This is a once in a lifetime event! If I can get some Pulpwood Queen Posse', I'm going!

Read the letter below from Jake and then press release on "South of Broad" by Pat Conroy, our October Book Club Selection!

Kat "on the road again"!
The Pulpwood Queen
www.beautyandthebook.com


Hi Y'All-
The world's largest publisher has declared the upcoming release of Pat Conroy's new book, South of Broad, THE PUBLISHING EVENT OF THE SEASON. Around this part of the literary world, we call it THE PUBLISHING EVENT OF THE DECADE. It has been 14 years between novels. This is newsworthy - big time.Here's more really big news - Pat Conroy is coming to Birmingham. He's doing a benefit for local public radio at The Double Tree Hotel at 6:30 pm, on Tuesday, August 18. Tickets to the show are only $39, including all taxes - AND - a signed first edition of South of Broad. That's pretty much the price of the book and tax alone.As they say on those dinky television commercials - "Wait, there's more". Sharing the stage with Pat will also be Best-Selling author Cassandra King (Mrs. Pat Conroy), and Pat's dear friend, Rick Bragg. We can't wait to hear this threesome talk trash. We guarantee a night to remember.However, exciting news comes with a warning - YOU GOTTA HURRY! Because of health restrictions, Pat has had to cancel most of his events, so fans from around the country are attending. In fact, the hotel is offering a special rate for our out-of-town guests. Just mention that you are coming to An Evening With Pat Conroy and you'll get your room for $99. Another motivation for immediate action is that WBHM is beginning to saturate the airwaves with Pat Conroy announcements. Don't miss out.Just reply to this note and we'll take care of your tickets. If you cannot attend but would like signed copies of South of Broad, you may also respond accordingly. If we do not already have your information on file and you'd like tickets or signed first editions, you may purchase either through our secure web site:EVENT TICKETS: http://www.alabamabooksmith.com/NASApp/store/Product?s=showproduct&isbn=NB12560302&BOOK ONLY: http://www.alabamabooksmith.com/NASApp/store/Product;jsessionid=aPoyf6MzJRl-?s=showproduct&isbn=NB12560301&A few final notes:Members of our Signed First Editions Club may relax - this is your August selection.We will have signed copies of South of Broad, as well as a few signed hardbacks of every previous Pat Conroy for sale at the event.There will be no copies of titles by Rick Bragg or Cassandra King at the event.All copies will be pre-signed - Pat will not be able to sign at the event. We look forward to seeing you on August 18th.The Booksmith GangThe Alabama Booksmith2626 19th PlaceHomewood, AL 35209205.870.4242booksmith@mindspring.comhttp://www.alabamabooksmith.com

The Publishing Event of the Season:
The one and only Pat Conroy return, with a big, sprawling novel -- his first in fourteenyears -- that is at once a love letter to Charleston and an ode to a longtime friendship.
"[The] first novel in 14 years from the gifted spinner of Southern tales (Beach Music, 1995, etc.) – a tail-wagging shaggy dog at turns mock-epic and gothic, beautifully written throughout. The title refers, meaningfully, to a section of Charleston, S.C., and, as with so many Southern tales, one great story begets another and another. This one starts promisingly: ‘Nothing happens by accident.' Indeed. The Greeks knew that, and so does young Leopold Bloom King. It is on Bloomsday 1969 that 18-year-old Leo learns his mother had once been a nun. Along the way, new neighbors appear, drugs make their way into the idyllic landscape and two new orphans turn up ‘behind the cathedral on Broad Street.' The combination of all these disparate elements bears the unmistakable makings of a spirit-shaping saga. The year 1969 is a heady one, of course, with the Summer of Love still fresh in memory, but Altamont on the way and Vietnam all around. Working a paper route along the banks of the Ashley River and discovering the poetry of place, Leo gets himself in a heap of trouble, commemorated years later by the tsk-tsking of the locals. But he also finds out something about how things work and who makes them work right – or not. Leo's classic coming-of-age tale sports, in the bargain, a king-hell hurricane. Conroy is a natural at weaving great skeins of narrative and this one will prove a great pleasure to his many fans."
-- Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"An unlikely group of Charlestonian teens forms a friendship in 1969, just as the certainties and verities of southern society are quaked by the social and political forces unleashed earlier in the decade. They come from all walks of life, from the privileged homes of the aristocracy, from an orphanage, from a broken home where an alcoholic mother and her twins live in fear of a murderous father, from the home of public high school's first black football coach, and from the home of the same school's principal. The group's fulcrum, Leopold Bloom King, is just climbing out of childhood mental illness after having discovered his handsome, popular, athletic, scholarly older brother dead from suicide. Over the next two decades, these friends find success in journalism, the bar, law enforcement, music, and Hollywood. Echoing some themes from his earlier novels, Conroy fleshes out the almost impossibly dramatic details of each of the friends' lives in this vast, intricate story, and he reveals truths about love, lust, class, racism, religion, and what it means to be shaped by a particular place, be it Charleston, South Carolina, or anywhere else in the U.S."
-- Booklist
SOUTH OF BROAD
A Novel
PAT CONROY
New York Times Bestselling Author of THE PRINCE OF TIDES
Against the sumptuous backdrop of Charleston, South Carolina, Pat Conroy's SOUTH OF BROAD (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday; August 11, 2009; $29.95) gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, our narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school principal and a respected Joyce scholar.
After Leo's older brother commits suicide at the age of ten, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death, and Leo, lonely and isolated, searches for something to sustain him. Eventually, he finds his answer when he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that includes friends Sheba and Trevor Poe, glamorous twins with an alcoholic mother and a prison-escapee father; hardscrabble mountain runaways Niles and Starla Whitehead; socialite Molly Huger and her boyfriend, Chadworth Rutledge Z – and an ever-widening circle whose liaisons will ripple across two decades, from 1960s counterculture through the dawn of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
The ties among them endure for years, surviving marriages happy and troubled, unrequited loves and unspoken longings, hard-won successes and devastating breakdowns, as well as Charleston's dark legacy of racism and class divisions. But the final test of friendship that brings them to San Francisco is something no one is prepared for. SOUTH OF BROAD is Conroy at his finest: a long-awaited work from a great American writer whose passion for life and language knows no bounds.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Pat Conroy is the author of eight previous books: The Boo, The Water is Wide, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, Beach Music, My Losing Season, and The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life. He lives on Fripp Island, South Carolina.
"Leopold Bloom King narrates a paean to his hometown and friends in Conroy's first novel in 14 years. In the late '60s and after his brother commits suicide, then 18-year-old Leo befriends a cross-section of the city's inhabitants: scions of Charleston aristocracy; Appalachian orphans; a black football coach's son; and an astonishingly beautiful pair of twins, Sheba and Trevor Poe, who are evading their psychotic father. The story alternates between 1969, the glorious year Leo's coterie stormed Charleston's social, sexual and racial barricades, and 1989, when Sheba, now a movie star, enlists them to find her missing gay brother in AIDS-ravaged San Francisco. Some characters are tragically lost to the riptides of love and obsession, while others emerge from the frothy waters of sentimentality and nostalgia. Fans of Conroy's florid prose and earnest melodramas are in for a treat."
-- Publishers Weekly
SOUTH OF BROAD: A NovelPat ConroyNan A. Talese/DoubledayPublication date: August 11, 2009Price: $29.95ISBN: 978-0-385-41305-3

Press Release on Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist and Author, Edward Humes To Be Featured in Jefferson, Texas!

Contact: Kathy L. Patrick

Beauty and the Book

608 North Polk Street

Jefferson, Texas 75657

kathy@beautyandthebook.com

903-665-7520

http://www.beautyandthebook.com/

http://www.pulpwoodqueen.com/

Press Release for Immediate Release:

August 4, 2009

Jefferson, TX - The last of the Pulpwood Queen Book Club initiated Arts, Letters, and Soul

Author Lecture Series will conclude this coming Monday night, August 10th, 7:00 p.m. Pulitzer

Prize Winning Journalist and Author, Edward Humes of "Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers,

and Millionaires Who Are Saving This Planet" will be the featured speaker.

From Booklist*Starred Review* An eco baron is the opposite of a robber baron, using talent, gumption, and wealth not for personal gain but for environmental good. Award-winning journalist Humes brings a fluency in complex issues and a love of David-Goliath stories to this illuminating group portrait of embattled visionaries who “are showing the world that nature can be nurtured.” Douglas Tompkins, a Mayflower blueblood, dropped out of high school, cofounded the Esprit clothing empire, then abandoned corporate life to devote himself to preserving the wilds of Patagonia, in spite of vehement resistance. Roxanne Quimby, the artist who founded the company Burt’s Bees, faced vicious opposition to her efforts to preserve the Maine Woods. Carole Allen, a citizen of modest means but immense passion, received death threats for her volunteer advocacy on behalf of endangered sea turtles. Eco-philanthropist extraordinaire Ted Turner has been harshly criticized for his part in re-wilding the West. The most maddening tale of derailed eco-ingenuity is the sabotaging of Andy Frank’s plug-in hybrid car; the most encouraging story is that of a gutsy not-for-profit, the Center for Biological Diversity. A dramatic, insightful history of environmental conflicts and breakthroughs threaded through timely and inspiriting profiles in courage and creativity. --Donna Seaman

Ed will speak on his life being a journalist and his latest book, "Eco Barons" followed by question

and answer time, then a book signing for purchased books. Books will be available for purchase

at Beauty and the Book prior to the event and on-site at the event and are $25.99 + tax.

The event will be held at Soul Surroundings, 121 North Polk, upstairs in their art gallery. A

summer "GREEN" supper will be served with refreshments. Tickets are $30 per person or $40

per couple and may be purchased at Soul Surroundings, 903-665-8107 or at Beauty and the

Book, 903-665-7520. Please call today to hold your spot for an evening that will be sure to

inspire and enlighten you!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 6:30 p.m. Ed Humes will also be the featured guest of The Pulpwood

Queens of East Texas Book Club at Beauty and the Book, 608 North Polk in Jefferson, Texas. All

Pulpwood Queens are to bring a "GREEN" summer time dish and don't forget their tiaras, as

they are mandatory.

For more information you may call either Soul Surroundings at 903-665-8107 or Beauty and the

Book at 903-665-7520 or email kathy@beautyandthebook.com.