Turtle Summer

By: Mary Alice Monroe
Every morning I gaze out at the sea with anticipation. My back pack is filled with supplies, my probe stick stands at the ready, and my team T-shirts and cap lay patiently in my dresser drawer. My annual season of being a “turtle lady” lays just on the horizon.

Loggerhead laying eggs

Every spring the sea turtles begin their long journey home for a new nesting season along the southeastern U.S. coast. The stretch of South Carolina shoreline that I am blessed to call home will soon welcome home caretta caretta, the loggerhead, who will venture onto the beach to give birth. And her arrival will mark the beginning of another turtle summer for me.

Available May 8th

My fellow turtle team friends and I like to bet when we’ll get our first turtle nest on Isle of Palms or Sullivan’s Island. The year I discovered our first nest of the season happened to be on May 25-- my birthday! I’ve been a member of this wonderful turtle team since 1999. My experiences inspired my first southern novel, The Beach House, in 2002, followed by the sequel, Swimming Lessons. And now, ten years later, Beach House Memories, the prequel of the series, is ready to make its debut on May 8th. This serendipitous timing of a new hardcover release with the start of a new sea turtle nesting season and the tenth anniversary of my first bestseller---makes this an extra special turtle summer for me.



A rescued hatchling in hand



It is an honor to share with readers the inspiration I’ve felt from being a “turtle lady” all these years and the life lessons the sea turtles have taught me. I hope through the pages of Beach House Memories, others will feel inspired by the turtle team characters of my story world and the real life details of the magnificent loggerhead that I am so fortunate to write about and share with the world this turtle summer.

What is one thing you're looking forward to that will make this summer season special for you?

Mary Alice Monroe is an award-winning, bestselling author of 13 novels and is an active conservationist. She lives near Charleston, SC. Her newest novel, BEACH HOUSE MEMORIES is available May 8th. Visit her at http://www.maryalicemonroe.com/.



Best Advice

by Cathy Pickens

What's the best writing advice I've ever gotten?  In many cases, it's the same as the worst advice I've ever gotten.  For starters:

Write what you know.


Now, that's good advice.  I know about the Southern Appalachian Mountains, about being a lawyer and a daughter and a sister and an aunt.  I know where to find good food to eat (but not much about cooking it).  And I know I like mysteries.

But when told to write what you know, it's tempting to think you don't know nearly enough.  So you wander off to research all kinds of stuff that you'd like to know ... and that you would like people to think you know.

That can waste a lot of time and can easily get in the way of your story.

So I'd modify that advice a bit:

Write what you know ... but don't get lost on the way to your story.


The other useful advice I've gotten?  Ruth Cavin, my legendary editor, told me:

Write the book that's in you.


That's really good advice.  It might not be the book anyone else wants, but at least you'll be happy with it.  And Ruth, in all her years as a reader and an editor, had figured out that any writer's best book would be the one the writer wanted to write, not the one someone suggested she write or that the market was looking for at the time.

That's the gift of a writer's editor.  I'm very grateful for that advice.  Ruth also gave me another valuable piece of advice:

Walk beside your characters and listen in.


All good fiction (and most good nonfiction) starts with interesting characters.  Those characters bring with them the conflict that keeps us turning the page (whether we're reading that page OR writing it!).  We have to know them well -- and trust that they know the story that needs to be told.  We need to stay out of their way and not try to save them from their troubles all the time.

At the Apartheid Museum in South Africa.

And lastly?

Use the BIC method.


The only real secret to writing is ... writing.  (And, of course, reading.)  The BIC method is my tried-and-true, patented and registered method: the Butt In Chair method, with pen in hand.  Every day, whether I feel like it or not.

Inspiration ain't gonna chase you down in order to strike you.  You better be waiting where it can find you.

The Weight of the Day

by Nicole Seitz

In our master blog calendar, my name was slated to post on September 11th. It's quite daunting. I'd like to write something underlined with the importance of this day, and yet, I feel I'll fall short. Nothing I could write could come close to the true weight of the day, what happened 10 years ago. So, I'll lighten up on myself and simply...write from the heart. Here goes.

I wasted time today. In light of Septemember 11th, this feels like a grievous sin. And it was so ridiculous how it all happened. Long story short, I didn't get gas when I should have and because I didn't take two minutes to turn right and go one block out of the way to get gas, I literally didn't get anything done that I wanted to. Ever had one of those days? I didn't get to the lighting place before it closed. I didn't get my parents' computer network working properly. I didn't get home in time before the kids and husband had already left the house.

By the time I arrived back at home with nothing in hand and really nothing accomplished, I felt nearly in tears when I didn't see my husband's truck in the driveway. I felt I had wasted all this time, but I knew I could redeem it...IF ONLY I saw my family.

When you're a parent or spouse and you've done nothing at all in your day, if you spend time with your family, you've done something with eternal importance. I understand that now. I have days when I simply don't get anything done, and yet, if I spend a little time with my family, investing in them, I have done something with true and lasting value. What a gift of redemption.

Last night I watched Dateline about the September 11th attacks. I wept as I heard the stories of survivors and stories of those who didn't survive. As I watched the images again of apocalyptic New York, gray and covered in ash, twisted metal, I re-lived much of what I was feeling that day 10 years ago. What I took out of it most of all is that family is truly everything, and yet, it's the thing we take most for granted. No one who lost a loved one that day knew the importance of the day or what it would hold.

Right now, my husband is downstairs watching a football game, and I can hear my children's laughter. But you see, I'm here, writing this blog post. And although I am grateful for the opportunity to be here in such amazing company of authors and have the opportunity to share my heart with you, I remain painfully aware that I have the opportunity to go down and spend time with my family, a privilege so many lost on that Sept. 11 of 2001. I'll be honest. There have been many days like today when a wrong turn leads me to missing out on the most important things in life--my family. This has been a hard lesson for me to learn.

Now for the tie-in with this month's suggested blog post: your biggest writing blunder. Here's mine. There have been days when my writing came first.

I began writing my first novel when I was pregnant with my second child. Soon after, I published, wrote again, published, wrote again, and on and on and on, all the time meeting with book lovers, authors, doing events, etc, etc, etc. The writing seemed to come easier to me than breathing. I spent so many hours at my desk on the third floor that my husband finally had a "come to Jesus" with me and let me know I was pretty much absent in my own house.

I hadn't realized I could be there--but not be there. It was a turning point for me.

Once I understood that I seemed to be putting my writing ahead of spending time with my family, something changed in me. My books were still very important to me and my readers, and meeting my obligations and contracts, but soon, on the scale of equity, family begin to weigh more and more until they rightly found their priority in my life as number 1 (just under God). Everything else was cake. How had I blurred the lines so much? How did I slide on that slippery slope? For you writers out there, I imagine you understand. The pull of the characters, the story, the novel, can be sirens to Odysseus. Especially when you're under contract.

I thank God for my husband who helped me see that time was passing and the words would always be there but the children would not. Now that I'm beginning to write my seventh novel, I can assure you the words are NOT always there--but that's okay. Truly it is. Right now, my family is so adorable, I could scoop them up and put them in a bubble. My daughter just lost another tooth. My son drew me a picture of a farmer with an apple tree. Life is so good, SOOO good, and I realize it. Now. I don't want to have to look back on things years later to realize how good I have it now. I want to appreciate it all and savor it NOW.

There are countless families out there who lost loved ones on 9/11 who would give anything just to have another moment with them. So, if you don't mind, even though my day seems wasted and I didn't get anything done that I wanted to (except for this post and mailing a package), I will not waste this day. If you'll excuse me, there are people downstairs who are worth more to me than my writing, more than this post, most than just about anything in the world, and God has given me another day with them. Can you feel the weight of that?

I cherish this day. I think I'll go waste a little time with some children and a handsome man. I might watch some football or play a board game. We might just sit there and do nothing at all, and that would be just fine with me. In fact, I guarantee it'll be the most important thing I've done all day long.

------------------------
Nicole Seitz is the author of five novels, her next book coming in January 2012, BEYOND MOLASSES CREEK. She has two kids, a husband, a debonair cat, and a crotchety old dog with cataracts. She wouldn't trade any of them for the world. http://www.nicoleseitz.com/

The Pulpwood Queen's OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE for 11th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend, January 13 - 16, 2011!

Contact: Kathy L. Patrick
kathy@beautyandthebook.com
903-665-7520
Cell 903-445-2353

Press Release for Immediate Release:

November 3, 2010
Jefferson, TX-

11th ANNIVERSARY GIRLFRIEND WEEKEND
AUTHOR EXTRAVAGANZA
BEAUTY AND THE BOOK
January 13 – 16, 2011
Jefferson, Texas

On January 18, 2000, I opened the first ever Hair Salon/Book Store in the country, Beauty and the Book! Did I have any idea of what I was creating, I think not. Oxford American Magazine covered that event and the feature that ran dubbed me “Hairdresser to the Authors” written by Texas author, Carol Dawson. Shortly thereafter, I started The Pulpwood Queens of East Texas Book Club. What began with six, really complete strangers, has now grown to nearly 400 chapters of women and yes, a few good men who have become my nearest and dearest friends for a lifetime. After appearances on Oprah Winfrey’s OXYGEN NETWORK, ABC’s Good Morning American, The Oprah Winfrey Show and more newspapers, magazines than you can shake a stick at; we are now the largest meeting and discussing book club in the WORLD!

In celebration of our 11th Anniversary, the theme this year is
“IT’S ALL ABOUT THE STORY!”
Because you see, it really is. It’s all about the story and our relationships sharing and telling the story.

So shall we begin at the beginning, our story,
BEAUTY AND THE BOOK!

Once upon a time there was a young girl who always had her nose stuck in a book. Libraries passed through her fingertips as she read and read and read mentored by her wonderful teachers and librarians. A shy child, she grew tall and brave with those words being as nourishing and comforting to her body as food, water, and shelter. That woman was Kathy L. Patrick who became a woman with a mission, a mission to get everybody on the same page that reading was not only important, but leads to an authentic and purposeful life. She had big dreams,
really big dreams!
What if you created a world where all your favorite authors and readers gathered to share their stories!
Her dream became true!

You now may begin to read this story of a book festival like no other.
What is this story about?
Why don’t you read it yourself and see!


January 13th, 2010
THURSDAY
INTRODUCTION OF CHARACTERS OF BEAUTY AND THE BOOK
AUTHOR DINNER THEATRE
7:00 p.m. Featuring all our calvacade of author stars: Author chefs preparing the dinner, authors waiting the tables, and author’s play with all roles portrayed by authors! It’s called Conversations at Buzz Cut Barbershop an original play by MICHAEL LISTER.
Author chefs preparing dinner are:
JANIS OWENS of The Cracker Kitchen
KATHY L. PATRICK of The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life
EVENT SOLD OUT!

January 14 – 15, 2011
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
Jefferson Convention and Tourism Building
Austin Street
EVENT SOLD OUT!
The Pulpwood Queen Package includes all events on Friday and Saturday EXCEPT Pat Conroy/Bernie Schein Luncheon, it’s ticket to was to be purchased separately. Official 11th Anniversary T-shirt, and publisher give a ways will be included for those who purchased Pulpwood Queen Packages ONLY. 11th Anniversary T-shirts with original art by Children’s Author/Illustrator, MELISSA CONROY will be for sale at Pulpwood Queen Booth in VENDOR ROOM as long as supplies last!

All authors featured at their times will immediately go to AUTHOR AUTOGRAPH TABLES in VENDOR/BOOK STORE ROOM following their panel! You will need to pre-purchase books prior to having the books signed. As all authors are encouraged then to participate in all activities, feel free to ask for books to be signed throughout the weekend. But do note, some authors will not be able to stay. To ensure you get your books signed, go immediately to the AUTHOR AUTOGRAPH TABLES after they speak and have books already pre-purchased.
We will have a CONCESSION STAND in back of auditorium at convention center to purchase drinks and snacks run by the Junior and Senior High First United Methodist Youth Group with all the proceeds to go to the kids to help pay for their NEW Youth Building.

Barnes and Noble will provide the BOOK STORE for all the author books for the event unless self-published, in that case the author will provide the books themselves for sale. Also we will have a VENDOR ROOM, (open 8:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.), Friday and Saturday that will feature the best of the best SHOWCASED for our book loving attendees. For the first time ever we now are offering access to just VENDOR ROOM and BOOK STORE. Tickets are $5.00 per person and available at the outside entrance to VENDOR ROOM and BOOK STORE.

A SILENT AUCTION will be held with showcased items signed and donated by the authors around the perimeter of the VENDOR ROOM. All proceeds from the SILENT AUCTION will go to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Literacy Project here in Marion County that is being spearheaded by the Jefferson Rotary Club which is a not for profit civic organization. The Pulpwood Queens of East Texas endorse this literacy project and are partnering with the Rotary Club to help
Both Friday and Saturday night events will be B.Y.O.B. but we will provide the setups.

FRIDAY MORNING
8:00 a.m. Registration and Ticket Sales

CHAPTER ONE
9:00 a.m. BEAUTY AND THE BOOK, THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
KATHY L. PATRICK, founder of The Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs, Author of The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life
ROBERT LELEUX, Author of memoirs of a beautiful boy
Columnist for The Texas Observer, Editor of LONNY Magazine are back to host yet again their version of BEAUTY AND THE BOOK, a television talk show!
Dubbed BOBKAT by their fans, Robert and Kathy will welcome you to their show!

CHAPTER TWO
9:15 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. CRAZY IN ALABAMA to GEORGIA BOTTOMS!
Keynote Author and Speaker, MARK CHILDRESS of Georgia Bottoms!

BREAK FOR AUTOGRAPHING AND VENDOR/BOOK STORE

CHAPTER THREE
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. EVERYONE HAS A STORY
Author Panel featuring:
MARCIA FINE of Stressed in Scottsdale
JENNY GARDINER of Slim to None
CAROLYN HAINES of Bone Appetit and Delta Blues
TODD JOHNSON of Sweet By and By
TONY SIMMONS of Dazed and Raving in the Undercurrents
HELEN SIMONSON of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand


BREAK FOR AUTOGRAPHING AND VENDOR/BOOK STORE

CHAPTER FOUR
11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. STORIES THAT YOU WILL FALL IN LOVE WITH THE CHARACTERS
Author Panel featuring:
JUDY CHRISTIE of Goodness Gracious Green
DEEANNE GIST of Maid to Match
DENISE HILDRETH JONES of Hurricane in Paradise
SAM MCLEOD of Big Appetite: My Southern Fried Search for the Meaning of Life
JANIS OWENS of The Cracker Kitchen
LISA WINGATE of Beyond Summer

BREAK FOR AUTOGRAPHING AND VENDOR/BOOK STORE

12:00 p.m. Noon LUNCH ON YOUR OWN (historic Jefferson, Texas has many fine eateries, many within walking distance)

FRIDAY AFTERNOON

CHAPTER FIVE
1:30 p.m. – 2:15 a.m. IT’S ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTING to THE MOST THEY EVER HAD!
Keynote Speaker, Author, and Pulitzer Prize Winner RICK BRAGG of The Most They Ever Had!

BREAK FOR AUTOGRAPHING AND VENDOR/BOOK STORE

CHAPTER SIX
2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. STORIES FOR KIDS OF ALL AGES
Author Panel featuring:
KATHI APPELT of Keeper
MELISSA CONROY of Poppy’s Pants
KIMBERLY WILLIS HOLT of The Water Seeker

BREAK FOR AUTOGRAPHING AND VENDOR/BOOK STORE

CHAPTER SEVEN
3:30 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. MANLY MAN STORIES THAT WOMEN WILL LOVE
Author Panel featuring:
AD HUDLER of Man of the House
MARK E. GREEN, MD of A Night with Saddam
ROBERT GREER of Spoon
CHARLES MARTIN of The Mountain Between Us
NEIL WHITE of The Sanctuary of Outcasts
DAVID MARION WILKINSON of Not Between Brothers

BREAK FOR AUTOGRAPHING AND VENDOR/BOOK STORE

4:30 p.m.
Closing Remarks by KATHY L. PATRICK and ROBERT LELEUX


FRIDAY EVENING

CHAPTER EIGHT
8:00 p.m. PULPWOOD QUEEN, TIMBER GUYS, AND AUTHOR TALENT SHOW!

CHAPTER 9
9:00 P.M. GOODBYE LITTLE ROCK AND ROLLER to THEY CAME TO NASHVILLE
Author, Actor, Singer, Songwriter, MARSHALL CHAPMAN will speak of her book They Came to Nashville and perform of her latest CD, Big Lonesome!
B.Y.O.B, Set ups and soft drinks provided.
EVENT SOLD OUT!


January 15, 2011
SATURDAY MORNING
8:00 a.m. Registration and Ticket Sales

CHAPTER TEN
9:00 a.m.
BOBKAT is back to host their BEAUTY AND THE BOOK author/talk show featuring KATHY L. PATRICK and ROBERT LELEUX.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
9:15 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. FRIED GREEN TOMATOES to I STILL DREAM ABOUT YOU!
Keynote Speaker and Special Author Guest, FANNIE FLAGG of I Still Dream About You!

BREAK FOR AUTOGRAPHING AND VENDOR/BOOK STORE

CHAPTER TWELVE
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. AWARD WINNING STORIES
Author Panel featuring:
CATHIE BECK of Cheap Cabernet
JAMIE FORD of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
RIVER JORDAN of The Miracle of Mercy Land: A Novel
NICOLE SEITZ of The Inheritance of Beauty
SUSAN PARKER of Walking in the Deep End: A Memoir
ALLEN WHITLEY of Where Southern Cross the Dog

BREAK FOR AUTOGRAPHING AND VENDOR/BOOK STORE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. STORIES THAT ARE KILLER
Author Panel featuring:
KATHRYN CASEY of The Killing Storm (Sarah Armstrong Texas Rangers Series
KIT FRAZIER of Morgue File: A Cauley MacKinnon Novel
MARK E. GREEN, MD of My Night with Saddam
KATHLEEN KASKA of Murder at the Luther
MICHAEL LISTER of Thunder Beach and The Body and the Blood
M.L. MALCOLM of Silent Lies

BREAK FOR AUTOGRAPHING AND VENDOR/BOOK STORE

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Noon Luncheon
MY READING LIFE to IF HOLDEN CAULFIELD WERE IN MY CLASSROOM
PAT CONROY/BERNIE SCHEIN LUNCHEON
New York Times’s Bestseller, Publishers Weekly Bestseller, and Southern Independent Bestseller PAT CONROY of My Reading Life and his best friend and author, BERNIE SCHEIN of If Holden Caulfield Were in my Classroom: Inspiring Love, Creativity, and Intelligence in Middle School Kids!
Luncheon catered by STAGEDOOR DELI of Mt. Pleasant, Texas!
Pat Conroy’s latest book, a signed My Reading Life will be handed out as all depart the luncheon.
EVENT SOLD OUT!

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. THE PULPWOOD QUEEN PRESENTS STORIES I WISH TO SHARE BIG TIME
Author Panel Featuring:
SAM BRACKEN and ECHO GARRETT of My Orange Duffel Bag
MICHAEL MORRIS of King of Florabama
KAREN HARRINGTON of Janeology
JENNIE HELDERMAN of as the sycamore grows
SONNY BREWER of Don’t Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs They Quit

BREAK FOR AUTOGRAPHING AND VENDOR/BOOK STORE

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. STORIES TO SHARE WITH BOOK CLUBS
Author Panel featuring:
AMY BOURRET of Mothers and Other Liars
JEANINE CUMMINS of The Outside Boy
KARL LENKER of For Dear Life
KAREN ESSEX of Dracula in Love
CAROLYN TURGEON of Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale
KAREN WHITE of On Folly’s Beach

3:30 p.m. Break, as we know it gets crazy towards the end to rush out and get ready for the ball. It’s almost your last chance to buy books if you want to get them signed before the closing panel and Awards Presentation! Don’t miss this opportunity to purchase the authors books while they are still at the convention center. Barnes and Noble Book Store will be open too after Awards Ceremony!

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

3:45 p.m. – 4:15 P.M. STORIES FIT FOR A QUEEN
Authors featured:
DIANA BLACK and MARY CUNNINGHAM of WOOF: Women Only Over Fifty
DAVID VALDES GREENWOOD of The Rhinestone Sisterhood: A Journey Through Small Town America, One Tiara At A Time
OLIVIA DeBELLE BYRD of Miss Hildreth Wore Brown: Anecdotes of a Southern Belle
CINDY RATZLAF and KATHY KINNEY of Queen of Your Own Life
SHELLIE RUSHING TOMLINSON of Suck in Your Stomach and Put Some Color On: What Southern Mamas Tell Their Southern Daughters That The Rest of Y’all Should Know Too


CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

4:45 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. AUTHORS AND BOOKLOVERS WHO ARE AWARD WINNERS FOR SHARING THEIR STORIES OR THE STORIES
Awards Presentation as follows:
MELISSA CONROY to present Pulpwood Queen Children’s Book of the Year
JAMIE FORD to present Pulpwood Queen Bonus Book of the Year
PAT CONROY to present Pulpwood Queen Book of the Year
KATHY L. PATRICK to present The KAT Award
Special Presentation: MARY GAY SHIPLEY to present THE DOUG MARLETTE AWARD presented to an individual for the Lifetime Achievement of Promoting Literacy.
Silent Auction winners announced!

CHAPTER NINETEEN

5:15 p.m. RED CARPET PREMIERE OF BEAUTY AND THE BOOK!

SATURDAY EVENING

CHAPTER TWENTY

8:00 p.m. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE STORY PARADE OF BOOK CHARACTERS!

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

8:30 p.m. AUTHOR ENABLERS to WRITE THAT BOOK ALREADY!
Authors/Musicians, KATHI KAMEN GOLDMARK and SAM BARRY of WRITE THAT BOOK ALREADY!


9:00 p.m. GREAT BIG BALL OF HAIR BALL featuring the band,
DESTINY DUKE AND THE HAZZARDS, back by popular demand.
In celebration of the 11TH Anniversary of Girlfriend Weekend the theme is
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE STORY!
Come dressed for the occasion in costume as your favorite book character or book characters for contests as follows:
BEST GIRL GROUP AS BOOK CHARACTERS
BEST BOOK THEMED DECORATED TABLE
MS GREAT BIG BALL OF HAIR BALL QUEEN, best overall book themed character and
TIMBER GUY OF THE YEAR, the man who is the sexiest reader, books will be provided for reading!
Special Guest and Author, SUSAN VREELAND of Clara and Mr. Tiffany will be featured at the Ball.
A royal feast of appetizers will be served and set ups provided for B.Y.O.B.!
EVENT SOLD OUT!


January 16, 2011
SUNDAY MORNING

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

11:00 a.m. TELL ME THE OLD, OLD STORY
Worship Services at the First United Methodist Church
DR. MARK E. GREEN will be our Special Guest Speaker on his book, A Night with Saddam as Mark was assigned to be with Saddam Hussein on the night he was captured.
Wear your Sunday crown, that’s your favorite hat!

Noon lunch on your own in Jefferson!

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD FILM FESTIVAL
Featuring: Author, Kerry Madden of Harper Lee UpClose
Author and Independent Film and Television Writer/Producer, MARY MCDONAGH MURPHY of the book, Scott, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird and premiering her film Hey, Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a Mockingbird.
In a documentary and accompanying book, Mary McDonagh Murphy explores the novel’s power, influence and popularity. With reflections from Anna Quindlen, Tom Brokaw, James McBride, James Patterson, Wally Lamb, Oprah Winfrey and more, the documentary and the book chronicle the many ways the novel has shaped lives and careers.
Documentary Film Maker SANDY H. JAFFE of On Mockingbird, Our Mockingbird
Two high schools in Birmingham, Alabama – one black, one white – collaborate on a life-changing production of the play, To Kill A Mockingbird. How many lives have been changed by this story?
Details on all films, authors, and program T.B.A. soon!
$25 for Pulpwood Queen Book Club members, $75 for non-members for the film festival. Tickets are limited so please purchase your tickets while supply lasts.

I am here to tell you we make memories to last a lifetime at our Girlfriend Weekend in historic Jefferson, Texas. Jefferson, Texas was the beginning of our story and will continue to the end of our story.
We could write a book on all the adventures and shared stories from our weekends together! My hope and dream is that all of you too will become lifetime readers and writers. Only you can tell and share your story, so let us begin to write, as well as read. And remember, a story not written is a library lost to all your family and friends.
It’s like our official motto, “where tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the RULE!” Won’t you join us on as our royal story continues to unfold. Life can be a book loving journey because folks, life is not only about the destination, it’s about the ride! And oh what a ride! Thank you for joining me on our weekend IT’S ALL ABOUT THE STORY! I do believe I will be able to report, a very happy ending!

THE END




For more information on any of the above information, please email kathy@beautyandthebook.com or call Beauty and the Book at 903-665-7520. We accept all major credit cards. Pulpwood Queen Packets and Tickets can be picked up at Registration booth when you arrive!

All information above could be subject to change due to circumstances beyond our control. For the latest updated version of the program, please email kathy@beautyandthebook.com to send you latest revised program or go to www.pulpwoodqueen.com where updates are reported daily.

No refunds will be able to be given on tickets or packages purchased but we will be more than happy to roll over to the next year the tickets and packages you may have purchased if for any reason you have to cancel. Please contact us immediately if you have to cancel on any events as we do have a waiting list of those wishing to attend.

Why Do You Write This Stuff?

Someone once asked me, “Why is it all your characters are so stupid?” The answer, although I didn’t think of it at the time, is that usually my characters are based on me.

I’m not saying I’m stupid – far from it. I’m extremely bright and highly educated. I have a PhD. I read books. Hell, I write books. Still, I do things that others might consider odd.

For example one time I came in the front door, and my wife asked me, “Where have you been?”

“Walking around the block,” I answered. I had some weighty matters on my mind that day, and I often find a stroll clears my head.

“Wearing that?” was Nancy’s follow-up query.

I studied my ensemble. A perfectly clean – well, almost perfectly – white terrycloth robe, cinched at the waist with a matching terrycloth belt. I also had on tennis shoes, but no socks.

“Please, tell me, please,” Nancy said, looking at the floor with a frown, and pinching the bridge of her nose as if she felt a headache coming on, “that you weren’t also talking to yourself.”

I considered. I probably had been talking to myself, but had no specific recollection. As I said, I had been wrestling with matters of weighty import, hence the reason for taking a stroll in the first place, and it seemed probable I had made my ruminations audible. Still. Talking to myself was probably overstating it by a fair margin; mumbling to myself was probably more like it. That being said, it must also be admitted that when dealing with complex topics, it is my practice to take both sides of the issue, to give every point a fair hearing. In the midst of a heated debate, I am prone to dramatic gestures, the better to emphasize a point.

Nevertheless, I did see Nancy’s point: a grown man strolling the streets in his bathrobe – reasonably clean or not – and talking to himself – be it ever so politely – is apt to raise eyebrows and attract the attention of passing patrol cars, especially if he is also gesturing to himself – even if it’s only in the give-and-take spirit of a free-wheeling debate.

Again, let me emphasize, contrary to appearances, I am not insane. I’ve never actually had a test to confirm this, but to the best of my knowledge, I am not insane. I just think differently. I do things differently.

This is why I write what I do. In my first novel, a mechanic believes that if he takes apart and rebuilds the same Corvette over and over again, saving the leftover pieces every time, eventually he’ll have enough parts to build an entire car.

I wrote this because it’s the sort of idea that occurs to me.

In my second novel, Paradise Dogs – due out this spring from Thomas Dunne Books, and a dandy gift for any occasion – the protagonist, Adam Newman, borrows a dozen loose diamonds from a jeweler. And loses them.

I wrote that because it’s just the sort of thing that would happen to me.

This same Adam Newman believes there’s a secret government project to dig a barge canal across Florida, and his son, the world’s least accurate obituary writer, is in love with his brother’s girlfriend, and…

Well, you get the idea.

These are the sort of people who walk around the block in their bathrobes.


Man Martin is the author of Days of the Endless Corvette, which won him Georgia Author of the Year in 2008. His next novel, Paradise Dogs, is due out this spring from Thomas Dunne Books. Visit him on the web at manmartin.net.

MY CRAZY 10 YEAR PUBLISHING JOURNEY by Maryann McFadden

Since Kathy Patrick asked us to share our publishing stories—how we got started, and all—I’m going to do just that. If you’ve heard it before, sorry! But I love telling it, because it reminds me of how lucky I am to be sitting here, published, and participating in this blog! And yes, it’s kinda long, but hey, this is 10 crazy years we’re talking about!

When I was in my forties, and my kids were heading off to college, I rediscovered a dream I’d all but forgotten, to be an author. It happened quite by accident. You see, I went back to school, too, for a Master’s in Education because I wanted to teach high school English. After a decade in real estate, I wanted security, benefits, and summers off. But a funny thing happened, in the English class we did a lot of writing, and I just LOVED IT! I hadn’t written in a decade, since leaving a freelance journalism career for real estate. But suddenly, sitting in that classroom, writing those creative pieces, something lit up inside me! I was an eleven year old girl again, pecking away at my Dad’s old Underwood manual typewriter as I wrote my first short stories. Dreaming of being an author!

I switched programs and got into a Master’s in English with a concentration in Writing and in my very first class, I created Joanna Harrison, a corporate wife in a short story who runs away to Pawleys Island. Two years later, in 1999, when I wrote my thesis, I wrote 120 pages about a corporate wife who runs away from her life in NJ to start over on Pawleys Island, SC (exactly where I’d still like to run away to!). The Richest Season was born.

After graduating, it took 2 more years for me to finish the novel, getting up at 5 am most mornings and writing before work, and also on weekends. By August of 2001, I had a 500 page manuscript, with not just Joanna, the wife’s journey, but the corporate husband, Paul’s, transforming story, as well as that of an elderly woman, Grace, who gives Joanna a job. I was so excited! This book had everything I love in it, the beauty of nature, the need to get back to the simple things in life. Rediscovering our dreams after getting caught up in the busyness of life! (And I didn’t even realize art was imitating life, it was simply subconscious!).

Well, there wasn’t a happy, tidy little ending to my story. It got rejected for the next 5 years, again and again, and I shelved it 3 times! Now there were some good moments—I got some glowing rejection letters, the best one arriving on October 11, 2001, exactly a month after 9/11. She loved the book, but the publishing world was in flux. I decided to wait a while before trying again. Later in 2002, I had a very big agent call me on the phone! From her vacation home! She wanted the manuscript exclusively, and I was jumping up and down. Two weeks later when she called again, I heard the BUT before she uttered the word… “but I wanted some humor.” I was ready to bang my head against a wall. I had no idea chick-lit was becoming a hot genre, and that’s what agents wanted. Then another agent read my manuscript and asked me to (and I swear these are her words) “ditch Paul and ditch Grace, I just want Joanna.” I realized she wanted a romance novel. I wasn’t willing to give up what I thought were 2 incredible characters.

In the meantime, I kept hearing the same refrain from friends and relatives who were reading the manuscript in a fat 3 ring binder: Your book is wonderful! Why isn’t it published?

A milestone birthday came and went. I began writing another book, while still working full time as a realtor, and I was frustrated as hell. I began to do some soul searching.

I wanted to keep writing. I didn’t want to give up. But what defined success to me as a writer? To be read! And to move people when they read my work. I wanted The Richest Season to be out there in reader land, for people to know about Joanna, Grace and Paul, three characters who I believed deserved to live in reader’s imaginations. I wanted them to fall in love with Pawleys Island, as I had more than 20 years ago.

And so I decided to take one of the biggest gambles in my life: to self-publish The Richest Season. After all, I reasoned, if I could sell houses, which I’d done very successfully for nearly 20 years by then, I could sell this book!!!

I found a small print on demand publisher in California which I’d never heard of, and I was hoping no one else had either. I wanted the book judged on its own merits, not with the stigma I knew it would carry if the truth were known.

My self-published edition of The Richest Season debuted in May, 2006. I immediately orchestrated a book launch at our local college. I sent press releases to our local weekly, and our local radio station. I hung posters all over town. But the week of the launch I was a wreck. I was now feeling like a bit of a fraud. The local paper interviewed me, took a picture, and ran an article with the headline: DREAM OF BEING PUBLISHED COMES TRUE. I thought I would die from embarrassment! Obviously, that wasn’t exactly accurate.


The night of the launch, I was scared to death. I knew most people would have no idea it was self-published. I had no idea how many would show up. Despite a torrential downpour and with little parking nearby, I managed to fill the parlors. One of the first women who came in, who’d gotten the book online—the only place it was available-- hugged me and said, “I loved your book. I wanted to live it.” I went on to sell over 100 books that night. Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled. But still…there was that nagging feeling, despite what they thought: I wasn’t the real deal. I wasn’t a real published author.

I began pounding the pavement. Getting a bookseller to read a self-published book isn’t easy. The big stores and chains simply won’t. So I focused on the independents. I went into each store with shaking knees and trembling hands, as I brought a copy of my book to one store after another.


Then something magical happened. One bookseller loved it, and then another. They began to help me, recommending the book to their book clubs, asking me to do signings. I got up the nerve to call booksellers in other states. Tom Warner at Litchfield Books in Pawleys Island (my setting), loved it and said “next time you come down, we’ll have you for a signing.” I told him, “I’m coming later this month!” (I wasn’t actually, but after he said that, I knew I had to). The next thing you know, I’m on a Southern book tour, with stops at Park Road Books in Charlotte, and McIntyre’s Fine Books near Chapel Hill! I sent press releases to all the nearby papers and got coverage, because I was that squeaky wheel, who called and emailed until they responded.

I even went to a bookseller’s convention and walked the floor, handing out review copies to some surprised booksellers, as the big name authors signed at booths, with long lines, a very humbling experience.

The next eight months were exhausting as I continued to market my novel in any way I could, while still working. I racked up 25 signings, some library and senior talks, and met with nearly 40 book clubs in 10 states, many via web cam. Reader feedback was unbelievable. I sold more then 2,000 books, what some literary books do in a lifetime, I learned. In one indie, The Richest Season went on to become their top selling trade paperback for 2006, outselling The Kite Runner.

Needless to say, I was exhausted. I had no time to write, and booksellers kept saying to me, “You have to stop selling books out of the trunk of your car (I was supplying many on consignment) and get back to writing. People are asking for your next book.”

One night in November, I decided to search for an agent again. I sent out e-mail queries loaded with all my bookseller and reader quotes, newspaper reviews, and the fact that I had several thousand readers waiting for my next book. The very next morning I got a call from The Victoria Sanders Agency, asking me for an exclusive. I agreed. Eight weeks later they called, asking me to come in.

On the last day of January in 2007, after a harrowing trip into New York that included snow, ice and a train shut-down because of a terrorist alert, I was rewarded with a smile and these words from Victoria: “This is a wonderful book!” Validation! Finally!

But we still had to sell it to a publisher. I knew I was only halfway there.

Victoria asked me to add a few scenes early in the book, something I’d already been thinking about because of all my book club discussions. In April of 2007, with those new scenes added, she sent copies of the manuscript to major publishers in New York on a Thursday. The following Monday morning she called me and said “I think we’re going to have multiple offers.” I literally jumped up and down.

Shortly afterward, she decided to hold an auction for the rights to The Richest Season. It was an exciting and nail biting time, waiting for her call. When it came, I was thrilled to learn that Hyperion Books won, offering me a 2 book hardcover deal. This was it! After years of rejection, I was the real deal!

And the astounding thing was this. All during my low moments, and there were many over this entire journey, my best friend kept singing the Disney song, “When you wish upon a star…” I then learned that Hyperion is owned by…Disney!

Within a few weeks, Random House in Germany bought German rights in a 5 way auction, and Mondadori took it in Italy in a preempt. It’s now being translated into Spanish.

In June, 2008, The Richest Season debuted in hardcover, as an INDIE NEXT PICK. The following summer, my second novel, So Happy Together, also an INDIE NEXT PICK, also debuted in hardcover. Both are now out as trade paperbacks.

I’ve just turned in my third novel, The Book Lover, about a struggling independent bookseller who discovers…a self-published author! I don’t think there’s anything out there quite like it! It’s truly fiction, though I do use a bit of my backstory, but it tells the entire journey of how a book begins in an author’s head and ends up in a reader’s hands. And it’s got lots of drama, and some great characters, you’ll just love.

As I begin the first tentative steps into my fourth novel, there are still days I can’t quite believe it’s true, that I’m a real author. And I'd nearly given up.

My advice to aspiring writers with a dream is work hard, persevere, and BELIEVE!

Maryann McFadden lives in NJ, although her heart is in the Lowcountry of SC. She was a freelance writer for ten years, then sold real estate, before returning to writing, her first love. You can read more at www.maryannmcfadden.com

THE QUEST FOR A LITERARY AGENT

Behind every successful published author stands a good agent. Securing that partnership is the most important hurdle in this wild, wonderful world of publishing. However, it’s no easy feat.

I first began looking for an agent in 1986. I had a novel written but was clueless how to go about the business of getting published. During those early years, I felt I had to achieve the title of “published author” to view myself as a “real writer.” That accomplishment-- that crossing of some line I’d drawn in my mind--would be a validation. Only then would I consider myself on an equal footing with my published author friends.

Back in the day, from time to time we heard stories about fellow writers who landed book deals after their novel was plucked out of the mysterious slush pile by an editor. Yes, it really happened! That kind of good fortune is almost unheard of now. There is an old saying that literary agents are the first line of defense for editors. Today more than ever, agents and editors are deluged with submissions. The best weapon for getting your novel pushed to the top of the stack in an editor’s office is your agent.

Choosing the right agent is critical for the author. It can be a mistake for an author to accept any literary agent who says “yes.” Take your time doing research. Attend conferences where agents are speaking. Find out which agent represents books in your genre. Who are his/her clients? Does she demand a fee for reading your manuscript? You want an agent who believes in your work. If your agent doesn’t fight for your work, you could waste years.

Every relationship between author and agent is unique. But the common denominator is respect: an author’s for her agent’s time and effort, and the agent’s respect for the author’s work. Because in the end, it always boils down to the novel.

Choosing your agent, the right agent for you, is one of the most important business decisions you’ll ever make. There is a mountain of rejection in the world of publishing, and sometimes, getting published is a matter of your idea being at the right place at the right time. So believe in your talent, go to conferences, submit your work, and keep writing. Let me share with you one important thing I learned in the past twenty some years. You are a writer whether you are published or unpublished.



Mary Alice Monroe is a NYT Bestselling author and has written more than a dozen books, including Last Light over Carolina, Time is a River, and The Beach House. Her books have achieved several best seller lists, including SIBA and USA Today. Her latest novel, The Butterfly’s Daughter, will be out in spring 2011. You can follow Monroe on Facebook, Twitter and her weekly blog.

The Future of Publishing

By: Mary Alice Monroe

What is the future of publishing is a hot topic among all of us involved in the book publishing industry. At recent holiday cocktail parties, the fact on everyone’s lips was how Amazon sold more books on Kindle than they did “regular” books over the Christmas sales season. Anyone connected to publishing can’t help but ponder the future of publishing in light of the rise of the electronic books. While none of us knows with certainty exactly what the book business will look like just a few years from now, each of us has an opinion.

The electronic media reader, such as the Amazon Kindle or the Barnes & Noble Nook, continues to grow in popularity, while bookstores continue to post overall lackluster book sales. People have declared that we’re witnessing the end of publishing as we know it. Others argue that this isn’t true, that we are simply experiencing a shift. They claim that there will always be a demand for traditional books and the sense of community found in bookstores.

The most optimistic argument I’ve heard was from someone high up in the media world who believes this shift will actually increase overall book sales! For example, if you hear from a friend about a good book and it sparks your interest you can buy that book instantly with your electronic reader with the push of a button. If you had to get in the car and drive to the store, you might procrastinate and not buy the book. Hooray for instant gratification!

What concerns me more, as a writer, is how literature might change in light of use of electronic reading devices. Lynn Neary of NPR published a fascinating article last month on this topic titled How E-Books Will Change Reading and Writing. Writer Nicholas Carr was quoted as saying, “Thanks to the Gutenberg Press, you saw this great expansion of eloquence and experimentation” in literature. In contrast though, Carr also said, “the Internet is training us to read in a distracted and disjointed way.”

Also quoted in the article, Time magazine book reviewer Lev Grossman, who stated, ““They scroll and scroll and scroll. You don't have this business of handling pages and turning them and savoring them.” He says that particular function of the e-book leads to a certain kind of reading and writing: "Very forward moving, very fast narrative.””

Grossman believes more purchases will be based on brief excerpts. "It will be incumbent on novelists to hook readers right away," says Grossman. "You won't be allowed to do a kind of tone poem overture, you're going to want to have blood on the wall by the end of the second paragraph. And I think that's something writers will have to adapt to, and the challenge will be to use this powerfully narrative form, this pulpy kind of mode, to say important things."

This change Grossman speaks of won’t happen overnight.

Yet, no matter what changes I, and all writers, must make in the future to accommodate the changing patterns of readership, I remain hopeful. People will always want to read a good story, no matter if they prefer to turn pages or hit the scroll button. As for the conservationist in me, at the very least, I’m happy that the rising use of electronic books will preserve more trees!

Mary Alice Monroe is a NYT Bestselling author. She has written more than a dozen books, including Last Light over Carolina, Time is a River, and The Beach House. Her books have achieved several best seller lists, including SIBA and USA Today. In 2008 Monroe was awarded the SC Center for the Book Award for Fiction. She has served on the faculty of numerous writer's conferences and retreats and is a frequent speaker. Monroe publishes a weekly blog.

The Pulpwood Queen Declares NEVER, EVER, NEVER GIVE UP!

The Pulpwood Queens Speaks Out On Rejection!

I could be the poster child for rejection! I was the last kid picked during my elementary days for the softball team at school. I always came in dead last in the mile run we had to do for this President’s fitness plan in the sixth grade. I never made Homecoming candidate, let alone Homecoming Queen. I was not selected as cheerleader for cheerleading tryouts during my senior year. I did not even place in the Miss Eureka, Kansas pageant back in my hometown. But something in me, (I like to think GOD), told me that I had a talent for something and I should try everything at least once. I might fail but I think everybody should get big ole brownie points for at least trying.

So when I decided, I mean really decided to become a writer, I selected children’s books. I wrote seven in all and never even made it to getting an agent. I was a Children’s Bookstore Manager/Buyer at the time and strongly felt that I could write a better book for children than some of those that were being shopped to me from my book publisher’s reps.

I was wrong.

But I kept writing, I’ve written since I was a little girl. First, emulating Laura Ingalls Wilder as I too, in fact, had grown up on the prairie, the Flint Hills of southeast Kansas. I received my first Smith Corona typewriter that fifth grade Christmas and I taught myself to type with the typing book that came with it. I spent countless hours typing away about my life in the little house on Elm Street. But my dog wouldn’t die and I did not have to traverse swollen rivers to move. We literally carried boxes across the street and down the alley when we moved to our new home on Main Street.

I had discovered the downtown Eureka Public Library by then and Nancy Drew. I could write like Nancy Drew, if I only had red hair and a convertible AND a really cool dad who never lost his cool no matter how Nancy put herself in danger. Did I miss her really hot and attentive boyfriend too! I discovered boys around that time, secretively. The typewriter went into the case and I only drug it out for typing essays or later on term papers. Years passed……

In 2000 I opened the first hair salon/bookstore in the country, Beauty and the Book. All of a sudden, the press was contacting me. A combination hair salon, bookstore, this was newsworthy!
Then Oprah’s Oxygen network, then Good Morning America…. Then I got the call that would change everything. A southern publisher called me and ASKED ME if I would be interested in writing the story of Beauty and the Book, perhaps the story of my first year. Would I ever?

I always thought I would write as an adult the next “To Kill a Mockingbird”. I have been (secretively), working on that novel for years. A non-fiction memoir, well I never!

Then I got a call from my now literary agent asking if she could represent me? Me, the last kid picked in kickball, never the lead for the school play, but always cast as one of “dancers”!
I have to laugh now looking at the popularity of "Dancing with the Stars", but I digress!

After years of working on this book that would become “The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life” that was published NOT by a small southern publisher but a BIG NEW YORK publishing house, Grand Central Publishing. I debuted as a writer. I was an author, a published one. Hold please, I always faint on this statement…..

For those reading this, that was after I wrote, I think, about 30 revisions and six years. Don’t let me mislead you, the ONLY way a writer can do something that is really worthwhile is to work you little tail off. Yes, good fortune did fall in my lap but only after years and years of hard labor, blood, sweat, and tears. Did I mention also six years from start to publication?

Now in these dire publishing times, I can not sit, (on my throne as the Pulpwood Queen or), on my laurels though meager they may be. I am back hard at work writing my second book, “The Pulpwood Queens’ Guide to Reading and Writing for a Higher Purpose”!

The life lesson in this writer’s life story?

Never, ever, never give up. Keep working on your craft. Take every writing course you can and write. Write every day.

I still cannot believe I published a book. I put authors so far up on pedestals that they are to me in the same realm as the Gods and Goddesses of my junior high Greek mythology days in Mrs. Perrier’s literature class. What have I learned? I have learned that life is not just about a dream. Dreams are wonderful but dreams cannot come true unless you roll up your sleeves and go to work. Work makes life worth living and then makes your accomplishments have worth.

When my agent told me that my first book should be called, “The Pulpwood Queens Guide to Life”, I spit my coffee I was drinking all across my computer. Who me? I still have to pinch myself to believe that I wrote a real published book. I did and you can too but you will have to write and work for it.

One of my favorite stories is about Mr. Milton who invented the ant farms of my youth. He lived to be really old and became really successful. When asked about how he had accomplished so much success in his life he told the interviewer. “Success in life comes from perseverance. You never, ever, never give up and you will eventually succeed”. I paraphrased that story so may not be the exact words but you get my drift. Never, ever, never give up. You may not become a published author but the story you write or stories you write could be a library of your life to your friends and family. I just happen to believe that everybody has a story and now it is up to you to work on writing it the best you can to share with others.

I give thanks this Thanksgiving for God giving me the gumption to never give up. I have a whole bunch of other things to be thankful for too like all my relationships with the others. And isn’t that what writing is all about, a relationship with the reader. Think about that this Thanksgiving and also I give thanks to laptops. Because I can’t for the life of me understand now a single cursive word I have written and I thank God for Santa bringing me that typewriter that particular Christmas.

Love, the little “writer” that could,
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 Books Clubs
www.beautyandthebook.com
www.pulpwoodqueen.com
P.S. Please comment and also check out the biggest author event I have coming up for our 10th Anniversary, it’s called Girlfriend Weekend Author Extravaganza on my www.beautyandthebook.com website or email me at kathy@beautyandthebook.com and I will send you the last working program, January 13 – 17, 2010!
P.P.S. The never, ever, never give up I know is incorrect English but as I the Pulpwood Queen, I live to break the rules, so that line stays.

Pulpwood Queen Singing "Away in a Manger!"

Christmas to me is all about the birth of Jesus! I have my nativity up on the mantel, been reading up in the Bible to get ready for my role as Mary on Christmas Eve at my church.. You see I have a small part in the service where I will be explaining to six year old Jesus (my best friend Mary's son, Brent Whatley, (who is in my book) about the night he was born. A stretch for me as I'm a little long in the tooth to portray Mary but I have to think that my Pastor Allison knows best in this matter when she asked me.

The whole month has been getting ready for this special celebration which is to me my favorite time of the year. People are just flat nicer at Christmas. So as we prepare for this gathering of friends and family, I have also been fast and furious emailing my friends and family that I am celebrating another birth too. The birth of my book, "The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life".

I also believe in keeping the celebration of Christ in Christmas and that my book, my life story on how books saved me, is in keeping with that belief. God first, then family, friends, and then all that other stuff can follow. I also happen to believe that books can help send home those beliefs.

So my message this Southern Author Blog is first at this Christmas season, get right with God. Go to church no matter your faith, your beliefs, put God first in your life. Second, is to love one another and get it right with your family. I am working on that now. Third, is to say thank you to all my friends from the bottom of my heart. To old friends I hold near and dear and to new ones that I will meet on my travels for my book tour. You are loved and you are what makes life worth living. You see it is not about things, what we get for Christmas, but about relationships. My Pastor Allison asked us the congreation last Sunday what we received last Christmas. I could not remember a thing. She then asked us what was our happiest Christmas memory and for me that was playing Santa's elves under the Christmas tree with my little sisters or years later watching my children's faces as they woke up on Christmas morning. You see we don't remember the things we receive materially but we do remember the experiences. For my daughters, their happiest Christmas memory was not receiving the go-cart, or the ipod, digital camera, laptop computer, it was the Christmas we shucked the giving of gifts and took the whole family skiing for Christmas. I will forever have to live down, after I wore a leopard polar fleece outfit to the slopes, the nickname, "SNOW KAT!" If I heard that nickname once, I heard it a kazillion times over that vacation. Every time now anybody mentions that trip someone will hollar, "SNOW KAT" and everybody breaks down in stitches. Good times, my friends, good times.

So I am ending this Christmas, yes, this Christmas blog with an interview I did with author and my good friend and southern author, Christopher Cook for my publisher's website, www.hachettebookgroupusa.com. He may be living in Prague, the Czech Republic, but he's still a good ole East Texas boy. There's also a lot more on that site on my new book; a reader's group guide, an article on "What to Eat at Book Club Meetings", my Mid-South and Southern Book tour of which I am driving in a Cadillac with my Pulpwood Queens, the ultimate road trip and more. I hope you too will go to my website and order my book too, www.beautyandthebook.com. As they always say a book is a gift that keeps on giving and that could be my book's motto as my book is really a love letter to all my author friends. Most of you all are featuring in my reading lists in there and if not probably will be mentioned in the next book. I have this thing for southern authors, they are my PEEPS! Read the book and pass it on to a friend or your local library. To me reading is so much more important and special when you can share it with friends.

Merry Christmas to one and all! If you happen to be in historic Jefferson, Texas on Christmas eve, come see my debut as Mary at The First United Methodist Church, www.jeffersonfumc.com. This is probably my most challenging role as an actress. I think the last time you all saw me perform was in "Laundry and Bourbon" at Girlfriend Weekend a couple a years ago. That role I fit to a T. So channeling Meryl Strep and I think I just might be singing too!

Before you read further, I have to tell you I took little Brent (portaying Jesus and photo featured), his sister, Kaitlyn, and my daughter Madeleine to the local Bull Durham Playhouse recently to see their Christmas melodrama "The Big Toy". As one of the main characters was explaining to these little children in his Toy Shoppe that Christmas was the celebration of the birth of the Christ child, six year old Brent yelled out loud and clear, "Kathy, they're talking about ME! They're talking about ME!" As the crowd burst out in laughter and I too, I thought well I guess I would have some explaining to do this holiday season. But just remember, keep the JOY! Gather your family and friends and just love everybody to pieces! I can think of no better gift for Christmas than the gift of love.

God Bless You One and All!

Tiara wearing and Book sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
Founder of the Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs
www.beautyandthebook.com
www.pulpwoodqueen.com
www.hachettebookgroupusa.com

INTERVIEW WITH KATHY L. PATRICK
BY CHRISTOPHER COOK

Christopher: I've been to a couple of your meetings, and one thing I noticed is Pulpwood Queens sure like to party. Always laughing, eating, drinking, talking about music, movies, and pop culture. Plus the Queens are LOUD. It's a unique kind of book club! When do you actually read?

Kathy Patrick: Though it does appear at first glance that all these loud, boisterous, book club women would never actually read, in fact we do—and we take it very seriously. I cannot speak for other book club members, but when I get home it's quiet time and reading for the Kat. I usually read for awhile when I first get home, to wind down from the day's work, then read again when I go to bed. If it's a really great book, I'll read until late, then get up early to read some more—like anywhere from 3:30 to 4:30 a.m. I always read in the morning before I go to work, too." Reading relaxes me. Sometimes I read the Bible, and I usually have about four or five books going at the same time in all genres. I also keep a book in the car for when I have to stop and wait at the railroad tracks for the train to cross. Another book is kept in my purse for those long waits in line at Brookshire's grocery store or those arduous treks to Wal-Mart. If I am waiting, I'm reading. Or I should say, if I am still, I'm more than likely reading a book. I usually read four to six books a week.

Christopher: My mother didn't approve of my first novel, "Robbers". The characters in it have sex and they cuss a lot. But she didn't actively try to STOP its publication. Which your mother did try to do with your book. What gives?

Kathy: It's very simple, my mother did not like what I said about her in my book. She asked me if I could please just take her out of the book. I asked her, "How could I take out my mother? Your mother is the most important person in our life." She then called the publisher to ask for the book to be stopped. Now all of this happened only after the book was completely finished. She knew I was working on the book, in fact, for years. But never once did she inquire, in all those many years of drafts and rewrites, what I was writing about. So I decided to send her an advance copy of my book prior to publication. I thought maybe when she read it, it would help her understand me and my life. Maybe my book would help reconnect us as mother and daughter. Maybe it would be the catalyst to having the real relationship that we haven't had for most of my adult life. So you simply can't imagine how shocked I was to find out she had called my publisher to ask for the book not to be published. I have spent most of my life trying to receive her approval. I know now that it may never happen. How do I deal with this? I talk to my friends and I pray. I read and write. Fortunately for me, books have always been my psychiatrist's couch—my escape route when life just becomes too unbearable!

Truth is, we've become a culture of digital consumers. Computers, cell phones, iPods. And with digital content, we watch and listen, we don't read. By comparison, reading a book is a very slow, demanding process. Honestly, do we really need books anymore?

Kathy: My background is not in education. My major areas of study in college were art and geology. But I've always considered myself a life-long learner because I'm a reader. And I do know that kids who read succeed. After years of helping children in my bookstore and raising two of my own, I've noticed they just do better when they are read to when small. As they get older and begin reading themselves, their attention span becomes longer, so they have better concentration skills during school. Their vocabulary increases, too, and they seem to have a better understanding of other subjects besides reading. Letting some technological device entertain your child tends to make them dumb down in my opinion. Their reflexes may get better from playing video games, but there has to be some kind of balance. I guess it's like the difference between eating sugar all day or just having dessert every once in a while, as a treat. I'd prefer my children—and really all children—to develop good reading skills much the same way we teach the food triangle. Find a balance. For me that balance tends to lean towards fruits, vegetables and meats, and less towards the sugar. My children prefer reading over other outside interference because they believe their imaginations create something way cooler than any graphic on a screen.


Christopher: Where'd the name Pulpwood Queens come from? And what's this about Timber Guys? Is that some sort of men's auxiliary?

Kathy: The Pulpwood Queens name comes in part from pulpwood, which is the main industry in this area of East Texas. We grow super seedling pine trees here for paper and fiber products. Pulpwood is made into paper, and paper is made into books. But we don't read pulp fiction! We read books that I deem exceptional reads. Actually, there is pulpwood production in every state of the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska, according to my sources at International Paper. So that part of the book club name works everywhere. As for the "Queens" part... well, I thought it extremely unfair that only "beauty queens" get to wear tiaras. How can we be judged only for the way we look when we have no control over that when we're born? We are a product of our parents' genes. So I have crowned us Queens because we are "beauty within queens". And that's because we are readers! About the men... yes, we do have men in our book clubs. We've had male members since the beginning. We call them Timber Guys. But I have to tell you, they rarely show up, and only then if given the right incentive—like an incredible author! Mostly they're husbands of Pulpwood Queens who appear at our annual Christmas party or Hair Ball. I suppose if they showed up more, we would be called The Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs. I can tell you that a ton of these guys plan to attend our next Girlfriend Weekend because supermodel Paulina Porizkova is coming to talk about her book "A Model Summer", and actress-turned-author Adrienne Baribeau will talk about her book "There Are Worse Things I Could Do". Like I said, it seems that certain authors bring the men in to the club! But we do our best to keep everyone excited and motivated about coming to the meetings and about reading!


Christopher, Your bookstore, Beauty and the Book—surely the first (and only?) hair salon/bookstore in the USA, if not the planet—is located in a renovated Gulf service station in Jefferson, Texas, a town of about 2,500 people. That's a long way from national exposure on "Oprah" and "Good Morning, America". How'd that happen?

Kathy: Well, Jefferson has a population of 2,199 to be exact according to the latest census. And basically, the media exposure started when Oxford American Magazine covered my Grand Opening on January 18, 2000. I have never been shy when it comes to alerting the media and I send some pretty interesting press releases. I also follow up with phone calls and emails. I get the information out there and try to be intriguing enough for those in the media to contact me. Remember, the world is flat when it comes to the Internet. I just think to myself, "now why would I want to go to this shop?" And I try to think of something to do that is different than what everybody else is doing. So after that feature in OA, the media immediately started contacting me. I think word travels pretty fast when you do things a little bit different. No, make that a lot different. I mean, a hairdresser talking books or a bookseller doing hair? Most people think those statements are oxymorons. Fortunately, the media finds that a story—and one they want to share with their readership or viewership! I continue to be amazed by that fact. I am also so thankful to everybody who has done a feature that has helped me get the word out that reading is important.

Christopher: Are you really a hair stylist? I mean, do you really do hair, or is that just a front?

Kathy: Yes, I really am a licensed cosmetologist and take my job as seriously as I do my reading. I continue to educate myself on product knowledge and trends in cuts and color. I do hair every day. I also happen to take very seriously my job of selling books. Whoever said you can only be one thing in life is limiting their possibilities. People ask me this question all the time and all I can say is, Please come to my shop and experience it all for yourself. You can get a great haircut and a great book all at the same time. How cool is that? Most customers say to me, "Besides all the books and great hair services, you all are just so entertaining!" My answer to that is, "On with the show!"

Christopher: That is very cool. How much for a perm?

Kathy: We hardly do perms anymore at the salon. But if we did one, we would charge the same as for any other basic chemical service, $90.00.

Christopher: Okay, back to the Pulpwood Queens. If I wanted to go to a Pulpwood Queens book club meeting—or start a club chapter—how would I do that?

Kathy:Contact me at 903-665-7520 or email me at: kathy@beautyandthebook.com. Or to read more about it, go to my official website at http://www.beautyandthebook.com. We have first-time guests when we meet every month, and I'm continually starting more chapters. I started three new chapters just this past week. Word-of-mouth travels fast when it comes to the Pulpwood Queens.

Christopher: Your new book tells the story behind the origins of Beauty and the Book, and later the Pulpwood Queens. What else is in there? Why should folks read it?

Kathy: Do you remember in the book "The Secret Garden", how the hidden door was found to the garden, and then the key? I like to think that the reader is going to find out exactly what is so magical in that place—and for me the key is reading. Behind that door are some of the best reads you'll ever find. And the stories! Oh the stories, ones that will make you laugh and make you cry!

I wrote this book hoping that someone would feel just like I did while reading the first book that turned me on to reading, "Honestly Katie John" by Mary Calhoun. That book gave me hope. When I read that book at 10 years old, I felt for the first time that I was not alone. There were others like me. That book turned me on to reading. It showed me that through reading I could find my place and discover where I fit into this big, wide world. That book changed my life. And I hope when others read my book, it will change theirs for the better, too.

Christopher: You lead a very busy life. A lovely family, a ton of friends, a business, a noble cause—promoting literacy—and now you've written a book. What else do you want to do before you die?

Kathy: Yikes, before I die! Honey, I have no time for those kind of dire thoughts. I have so much I want to do, sometimes I'm overwhelmed. Right now, this minute, today, my mission is to help my daughter's friend, who dropped out of school in the 7th grade, to study and pass the GED. She'll be 17 in January and all of her friends will be graduating from high school soon. "Leave no child behind" means more to me than just a school sanction. I imagine I'll learn quite a bit along the way. Now, that's my short-term goal. As far as my long-term plans? I see many literary projects in the future, and hopefully much travel. I have always been a life-long learner, and to learn you must also get your nose up out of the book and live. I plan on taking all my daughters' friends to Europe next summer. Some of them have never been out of the county, let alone the state. I want them to experience everything—the people, the cultures, the food, the places, the history—so they can begin to dream of something bigger than working at the local Dairy Queen. I guess the first half of my life I spent taking and now during the second half of my life, I am hoping to give back. Playing it forward and being a mentor. I like to think God is my co-pilot on this big adventure and I'm ready for the ride. It has been a bit bumpy, and I've had quite a few wrecks, but the road looks smoother ahead. Who knows what may be over the next hill?

Christopher: Okay, this interview was supposed to be just 10 questions. But you get a Miss America bonus question! If you had a magic wand that could change one thing about the world, what would you change?

Kathy: Holy moley, that caught me by surprise! My first thought—since I do wear a tiara!—is "WORLD PEACE," and I ain't lying. But now as I really reflect on this miraculous magic wand, I would say, "For all people to treat our children as we would our most precious possessions, with great care, and make sure they have the best in education." If we want to change the world, then we all better start with adopting every single child and raising them with love, kindness, and understanding. God made each child and each child is special. They are the reflections of our actions. They hold our future in their hands. They are our little miracles, born everyday with a purpose. So my magic wand has been waved. Now I'm passing it on to all of you!



Christopher Cook is the author of two award-winning books, the novel"Robbers" and the short story collection "Screen Door Jesus & Other Stories". Both books appear in international translations and have been adapted to film. A native of Texas, Cook has lived in France, Mexico, and now the Czech Republic. He resides in Prague.)
Copyright © 2007 by Christopher Cook and Kathy L. Patrick