The Pulpwood Queen's Official Press Release and Program for our 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 29, 2010
Jefferson, TX-

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

ALL EVENTS SOLD OUT EXCEPT SUNDAY FILM FEST!
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! 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
and her Pulpwood Queens of East Texas as sous chefs!
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 ays 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 at the event bookseller 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.
BOTH FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT EVENTS SOLD OUT!

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

MARY BETH WHELAN of The Mailbox
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
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. KEYNOTE SPEAKER TO BE ANNOUNCED!
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:
ROBERT GREER of Spoon
CHARLES MARTIN of The Mountain Between Us
SAM MCLEOD of Big Appetite: My Southern Fried Search for the Meaning of Life
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
9:05 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
PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY of The Perfect Love Song

BREAK FOR AUTOGRAPHING AND VENDOR ROOM

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

3:30 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
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

BREAK FOR AUTOGRAPHING IN VENDOR ROOM

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!

LAST CHANCE TO PURCHASE BOOKS IN BOOKSTORE AND SHOP IN VENDOR ROOM!

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.
Special Guest Musical Artists throughout the evening including 12 year old Blues sensation, MATTHEW DAVIDSON!
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 historic Jefferson, Texas!

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 Televison 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
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?

All the details on event 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.

The Pulpwood Queen Posts UPDATE on Girlfriend Weekend, January 13 - 16, 2010!

Dear Readers!

Anybody who really knows me knows that "To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite book of all time!

So it with great pleasure and honor that I am pleased to announce our first ever FILM FESTIVAL to be held Sunday, January 16, 2011 as the Grand Finale of our 11th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend Author Extravaganza! Yes, add to your calendar our 50th Anniversary of "To Kill a Mockingbird' Film Festival, 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. at the Jefferson Tourism and Convention Center. As I type this NEW announcement, I catch my breath, as to do this event is the greatest thing I have ever done bar none. I have tears in my eyes of the joy I have in bringing this event to you! Books take you, indeed, magical places! I never dreamed in a million years I would be bringing this all to you! You all are in for an experience of a lifetime this Girlfriend Weekend! My hope and dream is that everybody will know that this event marks the event of my lifetime!

Featuring:

Author, Kerry Madden of Upclose: Harper Lee

Up Close: Harper Lee
When her reply came, it was short and succinct. She did not believe in biographies for those still living. She wrote, “I may be old but I’m still breathing." She closed the note wishing me the best whether I pursued the project or not. It was disappointing but certainly not unexpected. She hasn’t granted an interview to discuss her work since 1964 and even turned down Oprah. I thanked her and decided to continue with the book anyway. Harper Lee’s was a story I longed to write. For more on her story go to http://www.kerrymadden.com/

Author and Independent Film and Television Writer/Producer,Mary Murphy of "Scout, Atticus, and Boo"!

Reading To Kill a Mockingbird is something millions of us have in common. 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. Harper Lee has not given an interview since 1964, but Murphy’s reporting, research and rare interviews with the author’s sister and friends add new details and photos to the remarkable story of an astonishing phenomenon. Read the Book: Scout, Atticus & Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird or see the documentary film Hey, Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a Mockingbird. For more on Mary Murphy go to http://www.marymurphy.net/

The First United Methodist Church High School and Junior High Youth Groups will be running a concession stand with all proceeds going to their NEW youth building and The First United Methodist Church will be hosting a Chili Supper at the convention center with their proceeds to go to their mission and outreach programs, specifically their Food Bank Program!

Last, (see at bottom of letter), I would like to post a feature that was written by author, Mark Childress, photo above), that was written originally for Southern Living Magazine and being reprinted with his permission. This is story that I reread as often as I reread "To Kill a Mockingbird, a feature I hold dear to heart. Mark will be also attending our book festival to promote his latest book, "Georgia Bottoms". He grew up in Monroeville, Alabama and is also featured in the documentary "Hey Boo!". It is with great pleasure that I share his story and announce this big event!

Tickets for Pulpwood Queen and Timber Guy Book Club members are $25.00. Non-members, $75. Email kathy@beautyandthebook.com for tickets or call 903-665-7520.

Tiara Wearing, Beauty and the Book sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
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
http://www.beautyandthebook.com/
http://www.pulpwoodqueen.com/
http://www.southernauthors.blogspot.com/

Looking for Harper Lee


With a sad smile I close the cover of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” a book I hold close to my heart. Every year or so I read it again, to see if it’s as good as I remember, and to remind myself why I wanted to become a writer. This is the book that did it for me, the first grown-up book I ever read, the one that has stayed with me longest.
I’ll never forget where I was that first time: on Miss Wanda Biggs’ front porch in Monroeville, Alabama, my hometown, a few doors down from the house where Nelle Harper Lee grew up. It was my particular luck to enter the world of Jean Louise Finch (better known as Scout), her brother Jem, father Atticus, the peculiar boy Dill from next door, and all the good and bad people of Maycomb, Alabama, while I reclined in a porch swing on the street where it all happened.
My family had moved away from Monroeville by that time, but we came back in the summers to visit Miss Wanda and Mister Fred and their dog Whizzy. The Biggses lived in a big old rambly house with rooms on both sides of a long dogtrot hallway, and a deep, shady porch on the front.
Over supper, I heard the grownups talking about Nelle Harper Lee, who was by far the biggest celebrity Monroeville had ever produced. Her book spent eighty weeks on bestseller lists, won the Pulitzer Prize, and went on to become a first-rate Hollywood movie, which led to the biggest event in the history of Monroeville: the day Gregory Peck came to town.
Everyone thought Miss Nelle’s success was wonderful, but some in town were already pondering her well-known tendency toward reclusiveness. Nothing provokes the sociable Southerner like someone who wants to be left alone, and from the time of her enormous success Harper Lee had shown absolutely no interest in acting like a celebrity. "These southern people are southern people," she said in 1961, "and if they know you are working at home, they think nothing of walking in for coffee."
I asked Miss Wanda if she had a copy of the book I could read. She led me gravely to the glass-fronted case in the hall and handed over her copy of J.B. Lippincott’s first 1960 edition, inscribed in an open, ladylike hand: “To Wanda, love, Nelle.”
Tucked in the front cover was a black-and-white snapshot of Miss Wanda cheek-to-cheek with Gregory Peck at the LaSalle Hotel on Monroeville’s courthouse square. She asked me to take special care with the book, as it would be worth a lot of money someday.
I stretched out on the swing, my bare feet on the chain, rocking sideways, and read the opening sentence: “When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.”
Some hours later, I stumbled out of the swing, the closing lines ringing in my head: “He turned out the light and went into Jem’s room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.”
In those hours, I was transformed. Books had always been magical objects to me, but distant from my own experience. Authors were invisible wizards who swept me off to far places to work their magic on me. “To Kill A Mockingbird” was fiction, but it was real. It came from this place where I sat. It was written by a lady my parents actually knew, a lady who had signed her name in this book I held in my hands. It told a story about a childhood lived on this very street, in these houses, in these side-yards, in the schoolyard back yonder.
And not just a story -- the most wonderful story I’d ever read. Certainly it seemed so to me at the time, and I’m not sure that I’ve changed my mind. The book moved me as no book had ever done. It made me want to learn how to make that kind of magic, to tell that kind of truth.
Thirty-seven years after its publication, the book moves me still. Many Americans consider it their favorite novel -- a certified classic, seventeen million copies in print, translated into forty languages, assigned reading in nearly every high school in our land. What no one could have predicted was that “To Kill A Mockingbird” would become for the South of the 1960s what “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was to the North, a hundred years earlier: a novel to change the minds and arouse the consciences of a whole country. I believe that Harper Lee’s charming story was in fact a work of subversive literature, a popular book that did more to change white Southern attitudes about issues of race than any other work of art in this century.

HOW DID the author work this miracle? She begins gracefully, easily, with that ominous glancing reference to Jem’s broken arm, a quick geneaology of the Finch family and a tour of Maycomb, “a tired old town when I first knew it.” Then we’re out in the yard with Scout and Jem and Dill, telling spooky stories about the house where Boo Radley lives.
Scout is the perfect narrator, a funny little girl with a tart sense of injustice, as sublimely pure and smart-mouthed an innocent as any since Huckleberry Finn. Boo Radley is the boogeyman up the street, the recluse who never leaves his creepy shabby house, the man who wants only to be left alone.
Atticus Finch, widower attorney, treats his children with “courteous detachment.” He is raising them with the help of Calpurnia, “our cook,” actually the mother figure in the household, a source of wisdom and strength. Scout gives us a lovely, affectionate picture of growing up in the vanished world of smalltown Alabama in the 1930s, where everyone seems loving and lovable, eccentric but good-hearted, poor but happy. Life feels almost painfully sweet.
Only after the author has meticulously built this fond portrait does she proceed to undermine it, revealing the rottenness at the core of all that polite gentility. Atticus takes a case that he knows will mean trouble. A black man called Tom Robinson is accused of raping and beating a white girl, Mayella Ewell. Normally this would be an open-and-shut case, but Tom is a “good Negro,” and Mayella comes, literally, from trash -- the Ewells live in a shack beside the town dump.
The white people of Maycomb are roused from their summertime torpor to side against Atticus, simply because he dares to defend a black man against the charges of a white girl. The facts of the case do not matter. Trapped in the elaborate system of oppression they have helped to construct, the people of Maycomb have no choice: they must side with white against black, or risk destroying the illusion that supports their way of life.
The trial of Tom Robinson strikes Maycomb like a bolt of lightning, revealing layers of hidden bigotry along with glimmers of occasional humanity. In the bravura courtroom scene at the heart of the novel, Atticus proves Tom’s innocence beyond doubt. In the end, though, the jury must find him guilty, because the need to preserve the whites-only system is stronger than any notion of justice.
Jem says he’s “got it all figured out. There’s four kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes.”
Scout contradicts him: “Naw, Jem, I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”
Then Jem asks the unanswerable question: “If there’s just one kind of folks, why can’t they get along with each other? If they’re all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think...I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all this time...it’s because he (ital) wants (end ital) to stay inside.”
A few weeks later, Tom Robinson is shot to death trying to escape from prison.
Atticus is the rod the townspeople have set up to attract the lightning. He defended the man he was appointed to defend, and for this crime his children are assaulted on their way home from a Halloween pageant.
Boo Radley comes out of his house to save the children’s lives, but not before Jem has his arm “badly broken at the elbow.”
That’s the story, simple enough on its surface. No one in the story is completely good, and no one wholly evil -- except perhaps Bob Ewell, father of Mayella, who winds up under an oak tree with “a kitchen knife stuck up under his ribs.” The sheriff pronounces justice served: “There’s a black boy dead for no reason, and the man responsible for it’s dead. Let the dead bury the dead this time, Mr. Finch.”
Although “To Kill A Mockingbird” was a huge and immediate hit, the author’s combination of darkness and light was too strong for some critics of the time. As Harding Lemay wrote in the New York Herald Tribune: “The two themes Miss Lee interweaves throughout the novel emerge as enemies of each other. The charm and wistful humor of the childhood recollections do not foreshadow the deeper, harsher note which pervades the later pages of the book.... The two worlds remain solitary in spite of Miss Lee's grace of writing and honorable decency of intent."
Of course with hindsight we see that it is precisely the contrast of these “solitary” worlds, the polite fiction of a happily segregated society posed against the “deeper, harsher” truth of racial oppression, that gives the novel its immense power. Subversives do their work from within the society they are trying to topple. The world Harper Lee wrote about was distant enough in time, in the 1960s, to make her revelations acceptable to a wide Southern audience. Writing from a position of sympathy with the white society, she exposed the great lie beneath its surface. Her indictment was all the more devastating because it came from within.

HARPER LEE will celebrate her seventy-first birthday on April 28, 1997. People are sometimes surprised to learn that she is alive and well, still dividing her time between Monroeville and an apartment on the upper East Side of New York City, still invisible to the public. From the outside, her life seems to have been rather peaceful.
The youngest of three children born to A.C. and Francis Lee, she grew up in Depression Monroeville and followed her attorney father’s footsteps as far as law school at the University of Alabama, though she never practiced law. (Her sister Alice practiced with Mr. A.C. Lee until his death, and then on her own.) Nelle Lee spent the 1950s in New York, working for Eastern Airlines and honing a collection of short stories. At the suggestion of a literary agent she expanded one of these stories into “To Kill A Mockingbird.”
Monroeville has always taken it for granted that events in the novel are based on the author’s life. Miss Wanda pointed out for me the house where the real-life Boo Radley lived, and the stump of the tree where he hid his little trinkets for Scout and Jem -- as if they were real children, not fictional characters. Certainly the character of Dill was based on the young Truman Capote, who spent childhood summers in Monroeville and remained fast friends with Nelle Lee until his death.
After the astounding success of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Harper Lee retreated into a public silence that has endured all these years. She is one of America’s great literary recluses, refusing all interviews, resisting all honors, declining all approaches, as invisible to her fans as Boo Radley was to the people of Maycomb. Aside from the novel, and a couple of essays on love and Christmas she wrote for women’s magazines in the early 1960s, Harper Lee has never published another word. Like Boo, she seems to want only to be left alone.
Perhaps Scout was speaking for the author when she says “I could stand anything but a bunch of people looking at me.”
Nelle Lee spent years helping Capote research the Kansas murders that became his nonfiction novel “In Cold Blood,” which he dedicated to her. As far as I know, she has placed herself in the public eye only once in all the years since, in 19xx when she accepted an honorary degree from the University of Alabama. From all accounts she was generous and good-humored that day, spoke brief thanks from the podium, and went back to her privacy.
I wish I’d been there. Since that day in Miss Wanda’s swing, I have cherished an unrealistic ambition to meet Harper Lee, to thank her for writing that marvelous book. For a while, when I was a reporter for newspapers (and this magazine), I joined the crowd of people trying to break through her wall of silence. I learned that a friend of a friend was in touch with her, and wrote what I thought was a very nice letter, asking if she’d grant me a few minutes on the phone, or submit to an interview in writing. Weeks later my letter came back with “Hell No” printed in green ink across the top.
Hope does continue to spring, however. Some years later I wrote a novel of my own, and mailed a copy to Miss Alice Lee, Nelle’s older sister. Miss Alice had done some legal work for my father when we lived in Monroeville. Shamelessly I traded on that connection. I tried to explain in my letter just how much “To Kill A Mockingbird” meant to me, how it had inspired me to write my own book.
One day a white envelope landed in my mailbox, addressed in the same clear, feminine hand I remembered from the autographed copy at Miss Wanda’s house. A four-page handwritten letter from Nelle Harper Lee, kind words about my own work. I’ll never receive a letter that gives me more pleasure. It was better than meeting her, I think -- I didn’t have a chance to say anything foolish. Her voice, clear and warm and familiar, rose up like a lovely perfume from the pages in my hand.
That was when I gave up trying to meet Harper Lee. I decided to leave her alone. She had given me a gift greater than she would ever know, and if she wanted to be left alone, that was her right. I think ... I’m beginning to understand why she stayed locked up inside her life all these years. She wrote a book that was better than anybody else’s book, and never saw the need to publish another. I think she (ital) wanted (end ital) to stay inside.

© 1997 by Mark Childress. All rights reserved.

11th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend Author, January 13, 2011!

Dear Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys!

We have attained the TRIPLE CROWN! Announcing our Keynote Speakers for our 2011 book club hosted event, Fannie Flagg, Pat Conroy, and Rick Bragg! Woo! Hoo!


Mark your calendars for January 13 - 16, 2011, as that is THE DATE for the 11th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend Author Extravaganza, our Pulpwood Queen and Timber Guy hosted book club convention. Flamboyant comedian, actress, screenwriter, and author, FANNIE FLAGG, of "I Still Dream About You, Honey: A Novel" has just been confirmed by Random House Publishers to be one of our Keynote Speakers during Girlfriend Weekend 2011!

New York Time's Bestselling author, back by popular demand, Pat Conroy of "My Reading Life" has confirmed , also Random House Publishers, he will too be here with this incredible message below that he personally emailed me. Look out Pulpwood Queens, he's bringing with his entourage', his best friend, Bernie Schein! You have been warned!!!!!

dear kathy patrick,
it seems as though glory is breaking out all around you.my visit to the pulpwood queen weekend changed my life and all for the better.im still grateful that you let me sign books with my daughter melissa.it was a first for both of us and we could not have selected a more welcoming venue.we loved everything about it.and want to sign up for next year.janis and cassandra have answered your wild call and they want to come to.and ive created a monster in bernie schein.since my return from texas,ive heard only this from bernie...did you tell them i write all of your books?did you tell them that pat conroy is only a psuedonym for bernie schein?did you warn those poor texas women about my outrageous and mythic sexual attraction to all
>members of the opposite sex?did you tell them that texas women,in particular,are susceptible to my animal like magnetism that could only be compared to the wantonness of the great apes?bernies alredy overactive fantasy life has gone through the roof since i was in texas.
> so well be in texas if you still want us to come.i had the time of my life and fell in love with those sterred up writers who seemed caught up with the sweetness of our language,the wonder of the stories we tell in that language and the maddening world of getting those stories published.there was a lost spirit that i found again at girlfriends weekend.it was the joyfulness of creation,the pre eminence of writing well that entire ambiance that seemed to combine the fellowship of the ring with the sisters of the traveling pants.i simply cant wait to do it again.congratulations on all that is happening to you kathy.i wish i could say i was surprised.but you are on to something big,girl,something very big and it could not happen to a nicer woman.tell all those boys and girls i said hey.
great love,
pat conroy

AND if that is not enough, Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist and Author, Rick Bragg, of "The Most They Ever Had", MacAdam/Cage, told me in person, "I'll be there." at the Alabama Book Festival! His previous books, "It's All Over But the Shoutin'", "Ava's Man", and "Prince of Frogtown" have all been Pulpwood Queen and Timber Guy Book Club Selections so we are thrilled we have this man's word he is coming to our big ta do!

Last year we SOLD OUT on almost all events and this year I am letting you know that for OFFICIAL Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Club members, the Early Bird Special is NOW in effect and selling ever so briskly!

Authors that have been invited to attend are:

Fannie Flagg
Pat Conroy
Cassandra King
Bernie Schein
Janis Owens
Melissa Conroy
Rick Bragg
Robert Leleux
Neil White
Mark Childress
River Jordan
Shellie Rushing Tomlinson
Ad Hudler
Michael Morris
Denise Hildreth Jones
Charles Martin
Patti Callahan Henry
Elise Blackwell
Jeanine Cummins
Amy Bourret
Judy Christie
Marcia Fine
Kimberly Willis Holt
Kathi Appelt
Vladimir Radunsky
Sam Bracken
Echo Garrett
Lisa Wingate
Susan Parker
Deeanne Gist
Tony Simmons
Michael Lister
Olivia deBelle Byrd
Dr. Mark Green
Karl Lenker
Jennie Helderman
Robert Greer
Judy Christie
Kathleen Kaska
Jenny Gardiner
Jamie Ford
Nicole Seitz
Helen Simonson
Kelly O'Conner McNees
Robin Oliveira
Todd Johnson
Susan Gregg Gilmore
Alice Hoffman
Caroline Leavitt
Robin Hemley
Carolyn Turgeon
M.L. Malcolm
Kathi Kamen Goldmark
Sam Barry
Jane Porter

For Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guy Members ONLY:

Now until September 1st, 2010 or as long as tickets remain, you may purchase your ticket to our Author Dinner Theater for $50 per member. Author Dinner Theater includes:
Author Chef prepared dinner
Authors will be our wait staff and nobody can forget that at last year's event Pat Conroy, served the Sweet Tea!
And Playwright/Author, Michael Listor will be starring in one of his own plays set in a beauty shop with the all- star cast being authors!

Now until September 1st, 2010 or as long as packages remain, you can now book your reserved Pulpwood Queen Package for Girlfriend Weekend. $150 per person this price includes:

Bracelet that will get you entry for ALL Friday and Saturday author panels and for BOTH Friday and Saturday night entertainment including our Grand Finale, our "Great Big Ball of Hair" Ball!

This year's 11th Anniversary theme is "It's All About the Story"! So the costumes for the ball must be favorite book character, author, or perhaps for the Girl Group Competition you could All come as the characters for the book!

PLUS Official Pulpwood Queen T-shirt, this year's original design "It's All About the Story" by Children's Pulpwood Queen Book of the Year Author/Illustrator/Doll Designer, Melissa Conroy!

This year we also will be receiving some amazing complimentary galleys and I already have confirmed some pretty amazing authors returning and some brand spanking NEW ones that you won't want to miss! We are also adding a Pulpwood Queen V.I.P. room for Head Queens and Authors only so those running our chapters will get even more up close and personal time with the authors with refreshments and treats too!

Details on the event will be posted as confirmed and do note this event runs through Sunday Worship Service at The First United Methodist Church! Plan to wear your Sunday Crowns, your hats and Dr. Mark Green of "My Night with Saddam" will be our author speaker.

Our phone lines are open to reserve your tickets and packages at 903-665-7520 and we do accept ALL major credit cards. Checks may be sent and made payable to:

Beauty and the Book
608 North Polk Street
Jefferson, Texas 75657

To become an Official Member: Send in your check or call for major credit card, 903-665-7520, for $25 and you become a Lifetime Member. We will need this information for membership:
Name
Address
Phone number
Email, very important
T-shirt size
Name of Pulpwood Queen Chapter you wish to start of join as:
The Pulpwood Queens of ? and their city location
After I receive this information and payment I will mail out your Pulpwood Queen Packet or Packets :
Official Membership Card
Official Membership Certificate
Official Pulpwood Queen Hot Pink logo t-shirt
After receiving payment you are now eligible to purchase your Early Bird Special to our book club convention. You may go to our website http://www.beautyandthebook.com/ and click on Pulpwood Queens too, to read all about becoming a member or starting a chapter. Email me at kathy@beautyandthebook.com if you have any questions.

Book your hotel and bed & breakfast accommodations NOW here in Jefferson, Texas for our 11th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend, January 13 - 16, 2011 as all accommodations are booking fast as chapters are all ready booking their rooms for the weekend.

For those that have been here in the past, you know how fantabulous our event has been. I have, by invitation only, invited in some of the best authors in the country and out, to come right here to historic Jefferson, Texas. If you have never attended, be prepared for an experience to last a lifetime! I live for this event every year and work on it all year to make sure you have the best in authors and books for your reading year.

ONLY OFFICIAL Pulpwood Queen and Timber Guy Book Club Selections are invited and author, Robert Leleux, author of "the memoir of a beautiful boy" will be back by popular demand to co-host this event with me!

What are you waiting for? Welcome to the Wonderful World of The Pulpwood Queens and Timber Buys and do know, we put on the greatest book club author and book festival in the WORLD!

Tiara wearing and Book 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, the largest "meeting and discussing" book club in the world!
Beauty and the Book
kathy@beautyandthebook.com
http://www.beautyandthebook.com/
http://www.pulpwoodqueen.com/
http://www.southernauthors.blogspot.com/
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/

11th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend, January 13 - 16, 2011

Dear Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys!

Mark your calendars for January 13 - 16, 2011 as that is THE DATE for the 11th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend our Pulpwood Queen and Timber Guy hosted book club convention. Today's breaking news: flamboyant comedian, actress, screenwriter, and author, FANNIE FLAGG, has just been confirmed by Random House Publishers to be one of our Keynote Speakers during Girlfriend Weekend 2011!

Last year we SOLD OUT on all events and this year I am letting you know that for OFFICIAL Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Club members, the Early Bird Special is NOW in effect!

Now until September 1st or as long as packages remain, you can now book your reserved V.I.P Pulpwood Queen Package for Girlfriend Weekend. This price includes: Official 11th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend t-shirt, V.I.P. badge for ALL Friday and Saturday author panels and for BOTH Friday and Saturday night entertainment including our Grand Finale, our Great Big Ball of Hair Ball! This year's 11th Anniversary theme is "Tiara Wearing and Story Sharing", you see it's all about the story. So the costumes for the ball must be favorite book character, author, or perhaps for the Girl Group Competition you could All come as the characters for the book!

This year we also will be receiving some amazing complimentary galleys and I already have confirmed some pretty amazing authors returning and some brand spanking NEW ones that you won't want to miss! We are also adding a Pulpwood Queen V.I.P. room for Head Queens and Authors only so those running our chapters will get even more upclose and personal time with the authors with refreshments and treats too!

Our phone lines are open to reserve your spot at 903-665-7520 and we do accept ALL major credit cards. Checks may be sent and payable to:

Beauty and the Book

608 North Polk Street

Jefferson, Texas 75657

Book your hotel and bed & breakfast accomodations NOW as chapters are all ready booking their rooms for the weekend. We will have an author dinner on Thursday night that will be a separate ticket and perhaps more separate ticket meal author events.

For those that were here, you know how fantabulous our event was last year and this year I have more publisher endorsement than ever. We will have some of the best authors in the country right here in historic Jefferson, Texas. If you have never attended, be prepared for an experience to last a lifetime! I live for this event every year and work on it all year to make sure you have the best in authors and books for your reading year.

ONLY OFFICIAL Pulpwood Queen and Timber Guy Book Club Selections are invited and author, Robert Leleux will be back by popular demand to co-host this event with me!

What are you waiting for? Book now for greatest book club author and book festival in the world!

Tiara wearing and Book sharing,

Kathy L. Patrick

Founder of the Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs, the largest "meeting and discussing" book club in the world!

Beauty and the Book

http://www.beautyandthebook.com/

http://www.pulpwoodqueen.com/

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

http://www.readinggroupguides.com/

P.S. We were just feature in January in The Texas Observer, http://www.texasobserver.com/, Tex and the City by Robert Leleux and on http://www.publishersperspective.com/

Up-and-coming features in http://www.secondact.com/ and in October we will have a feature in Texas Highways. More too in the works so stay tuned!

Recap on Features on our 10th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend 2010!

Dear readers,

Check out The Pulpwood Queens of Katy, Texas, The Sirens in their rendition of The Wizard of Oz themed Great Big Ball of Hair Ball!

For photos that you can purchase, go to http://www.easttexastowns.com/ and scroll down to galleys of photos.

We have had some incredible photos posted on Facebook too and features in blogs as follow:

Jamie Ford, Author – Official Site - BitterSweet Blog - Not in ...
Just another day in the life of the Pulpwood QueensLong Live the Queens—Kathy L. Patrick started the Pulpwood Queens because she thought book groups should ...

A Good Blog is Hard To Find: Guest Blogger: Susan Cushman
Masters for the ceremonies were event organizer Kathy Patrick and Robert Leleur .... How I Took My Writing to the Next Level It's a l... Her name is Maggie. ...

The Book Club Cheerleader, Pulpwood Queen Marsha Toy Engstrom has posted a blog at http://www.bookclubcheerleader.com/. Author, Ad Hudler will be posting a blog soon and Kathi Kamen Goldmark has posted a blog at:
www.redroom.com/blog/kathi-kamen-goldmark

More soon as working on posting more photos!

Tiara wearing and Book sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
The Pulpwood Queen
www.beautyandthebook.com
www.pulpwoodqueen.com
P.S. Also go to the People page of www.umc.org to see a feature on me and my mission to promote literacy!

Tomorrow we begin our 10th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend!

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

Press Release for Immediate Release:

December 10, 2010
Jefferson, TX-

10th ANNIVERSARY GIRLFRIEND WEEKEND
AUTHOR EXTRAVAGANZA
BEAUTY AND THE BOOK
January 13 – 17, 2010
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 over 250+ 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; we are now the largest meeting and discussing book club in the WORLD!

For this 10th Anniversary, think of this year’s celebration as like whipping up the biggest tornado of a HAIR DO and road tripping in to historic Jefferson, Texas for the BEST of this countries authors blown in with YOU for the big TA DO! The Pulpwood Queens of East Texas do know how to throw a party and this one is over the top baby!
We are BRINGING IT ON all in the name of
LITERACY!

So as always when someone enters my Beauty and the Book, the ONLY Hair Salon/Bookstore in the WORLD, I prepare them for a NEW do by giving a consultation.
Here we go, as I seat you in my client’s chair, snap on a silk leopard printed cape, let us begin our
Beauty and the Book
Transformation!

January 13 – 14th, 2010
WEDNESDAY - THURSDAY
Author Writer’s Workshop with Linda Busby Parker!
Two day workshop $200, limited tickets so book your place today!
Event to be held just outside of Jefferson at Shepherd’s Pasture, a non-denominational Christian retreat.

BIOGRAPHY
Linda Busby Parker PhD, MFA (Fiction) Linda earned her undergraduate degree from the University of South Alabama (Mobile), her MA and PhD from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and her MFA from Spalding University (Louisville). She is the author of Seven Laurels, which was the 2002 winner of the James Jones First Novel Award and the 2004 Langum Prize for Historical Fiction. Shorter works have appeared in Provincetown Arts, Big Muddy, A Journal of the Mississippi River Valley, and regional anthologies. A short story titled “The Book of Days” was a semi-finalist in the 2004 Pirates-Alley Faulkner. A short story titled “Little Rock’s Fire” won the 2003 Kentuckiana Metroversity Competition; this same story won the Heartland Fellowship at the 2000 Indiana University Summer Writing Conference. She is a regular book reviewer for the Mobile Register and has published non-fiction in Alabama First Draft as well as in several other state-level writers’ newsletters. An article titled “Reading with the Eyes of a Writer” appeared in the Writer’s Digest, January 2006 issue. She has served as publisher and editor of Mobile Bay Monthly, a city-regional magazine on Alabama’s Gulf Coast. While at Spalding University, she served as a student editor of The Louisville Review. She was a Tennessee Williams Scholar in Fiction at the 2004 Sewanee Writer’s Conference and has been a contributor in fiction at Bread Loaf. She is the author of two college-level textbooks—The Art & Science of Radio and Mass Media in a New Age. Her research publications have appeared in Journalism Quarterly, Journal of Popular Culture, Broadcasting, and Feedback. Linda has taught on the faculties of Eastern Michigan University, Iowa State University and the University of South Alabama. In 2007 she was selected as the Fletcher Pratt Fellow in fiction at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference (Vermont) where she presented a lecture titled: “Place Equals Character and Plot,” as well as a reading from my her own works, and she assisted in the workshop directed by Lan Samantha Chang. She currently mentors students in the Spalding University MFA in Writing program and “The Writer’s Loft,” a program in Continuing Education at Middle Tennessee State University. Recently, Linda has been teaching Fiction Writing courses for the University of South Alabama at their Fairhope campus. She lives in Mobile with her husband, Don, and her daughters.
Email kathy@beautyandthebook.com if interested in this writer’s workshop.

Looks like you decided on a color! Time for the application!

January 14, 2010
THURSDAY NIGHT
7:00 p.m. First time ever, “A Moveable Feast” at the historic Excelsior Hotel featuring dinner prepared by author chefs:
Debbie Thorton of Any Blonde Can Cook, Any Blondette Can Do It!, and How to “MEAT” a Blonde, Brunette or Readhead!
Janis Owens of The Cracker Kitchen
Lynn Fredrickson of Lynn’s Specialties of the House
Kathy L. Patrick of The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life
and authors T.B.A. as our “Moveable Feast” wait staff.
Limited tickets: $50 dollars Pulpwood Queen Book Club Members
$60 Non-members
EVENT SOLD OUT!

January 15 – 17, 2010
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
Jefferson Convention and Tourism Building
Austin Street
Pulpwood Queen Package: $250 for members, $350 non-members
After December 31st, individual tickets for event are available on a first come, first serve basis as long as tickets last. Prices will be $50 for each morning, $50 each afternoon, and $50 for night time events each for members, $75 each for non-members and at the door. The Pulpwood Queen Package includes all events on Friday and Saturday. Official 10th Anniversary T-shirt, and publisher give a ways will be included for those who purchased Early Bird Package ONLY. 10th Anniversary T-shirts will be for sale at Pulpwood Queen Registration Booth as long as supplies last!

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 and their outreach and mission good works. 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. – 5:00 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.

A Silent Auction will be held with showcased items around the perimeter of the conference 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 this literacy program continue.

Both Friday and Saturday night events will be B.Y.O.B. but we will provide the setups.

Now it’s time for the shampoo!

FRIDAY MORNING

8:00 a.m. Registration and Ticket Sales

9:00 a.m. OVER THE RAINBOW
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 and
Robert Leleux, author of memoirs of a beautiful boy
Columnist for The Texas Observer are back to host yet again their version of a television talk show called BEAUTY AND THE BOOK!
Dubbed BOBKAT by their fans, Kathy and Robert will welcome you to their show!

9:15 a.m. DING- DONG! THE WITCH IS DEAD
Author Panel featuring:
Kathleen Kaska of Murder at the Arlington
Lt. Colonel Karl Lenker of Final Trumpet and For Dear Life

10:00 a.m. WE WELCOME YOU TO MUNCHKIN LAND
Author Panel featuring:
Jenny Gardiner of Winging It: Twenty Years of Caring for a Vengeful Bird Determined to Kill Me
Tracey Lea Carnes of Excess Baggage
Karen Harrington of Janeology

11:00 a.m. THE LULLABY LEAGUE
Author Panel featuring:
Janna McMahan of The Ocean Inside
Linda Busby Parker of Seven Laurels
Patti Callahan Henry of Driftwood Summer
Judy Christie of Gone to Green

12:00 p.m. Noon New York Times Bestseller RON HALL of Same Kind of Different as Me and What Difference Do it Make Luncheon at the Fellowship Hall of the First United Methodist Church of Jefferson. The luncheon will be prepared by the good ladies of FUMC and feature some of the best in East Texas dishes and dessert! Tickets are $30 for Pulpwood Queen Members, $40 for Non-members made payable to The First United Methodist Church. This is a fundraiser for my church to help provide a NEW nursery for the church. Seating is limited so call 903-665-7520 to reserve your ticket! EVENT SOLD OUT!

FRIDAY AFTERNOON

1:30 p.m. THE LOLLIPOP GANG
Author Panel featuring:
Cassandra King of Queen of Broken Hearts
Janis Owens of The Cracker Kitchen
Lauretta Hannon of The Cracker Queen
Mary Kay Andrews of The Fixer Upper

2:30 p.m. COME OUT, COME OUT, WHERE EVER YOU ARE
Author Panel featuring:
Hester Bass of The Secret World of Walter Anderson
Heather Hepler of The Cupcake Queen
Jill S. Alexander of The Sweetheart of Prosper County

3:30 p.m. IF I ONLY HAD A BRAIN
Author Panel featuring:
Melissa Conroy of Poppy’s Pants
Pat Conroy of South of Broad

4:30 p.m. YOU’RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD
Closing Remarks by Kathy L. Patrick and Robert Leleux

Ready for the rinse and an overnight extensive hair treatment conditioner!

FRIDAY EVENING

7:00 p.m. HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY BARBIE!
Come dressed as your favorite Barbie or Ken and as we know Barbie can be anything!
We will begin the evening with a Barbie Fashion Show featuring all of our authors walking the walk as Kathy L. Patrick and Robert Leleux MC the event and talk the talk of the author’s books!
Following will be a skit entitled BARBIE AND KEN TODAY that will feature authors, Ad Hudler, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Kathy L. Patrick, River Jordan, Robert Leleux, Sam Barry, Shellie Rushing Tomlinson and The Timber Guys!
Then debuting at Girlfriend Weekend, The Timber Guys band, DESTINY DUKE AND THE HAZZARDS with Special Guests, THE BLOOZE BROTHERS!
Happy Birthday BARBIE Cake and Ice Cream will be served! B.Y.O.B, Set ups and soft drinks provided.

Time to rinse out the hair conditioner!

January 16, 2010
SATURDAY MORNING

7:30 a.m. Registration and Ticket Sales

9:00 a.m. THE MERRY OLD LAND OF OZ
BOBKAT is back to host their Beauty and the Book author talk show featuring Kathy L. Patrick and Robert Leleux.

9:15 a.m. THERES NO PLACE LIKE HOME, THERES NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Keynote Speaker and Special Author Guest, Elizabeth Berg of Home Safe

10:00 a.m. IF I ONLY HAD A HEART
Author Panel featuring:
Jamie Ford of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Susan Jane Gilman of Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven

11:00 a.m. IF I ONLY HAD THE NERVE
Author Panel featuring:
Ad Hudler of Man of the House
John Pritchard of Yazoo Blues
Kathryn Casey of Blood Lines (Sarah Armstrong Texas Rangers Series)
M.L. Malcolm of Deceptive Intentions

Shall we begin the set! Under the hair dryer you go!

Noon Break FORGET TORNADO, WE HAVE A HURRICANE OF AN AUTHOR FEATURED!
New York Times’s Bestseller, Publishers Weekly Bestseller, and Southern Independent Bestseller PAT CONROY now called “SOUTH OF BROADWAY” Luncheon for a REAL TEXAS BBQ lunch catered by Joseph’s Riverport BBQ!
Separate Ticket Price: $50 for Pulpwood Queen Book Club Members, $60 non-members
Includes Pat Conroy’s latest book, a signed “South of Broad “ and the luncheon.
Tickets are selling really, really fast so if you want to come, please call 903-665-7520 a.s.a.p.! ALMOST SOLD OUT! Call tomorrow, 903-445-2353 for the last few tickets!


1:30 p.m. WE’RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD
Author Panel Featuring:
Connie May Fowler of The Problem with Murmur Lee
Deva Gantt, author sister duo, Deb and Val Gantt of A Silent Ocean Away, Decision and Destiny, and Forever Waiting of The Colette Trilogy
Nicole Seitz of Saving Cicadas
Suzanne Arruda of The Leopard’s Prey

2:30 p.m. THE JITTERBUG
Author Panel featuring:
Deeanne Gist of A Bride in the Bargain
River Jordan of Saints in Limbo
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

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!

3:45 p.m. THE MERRY OLD LAND OF OZ
Author/Musicians Kathi Kamen Goldmark featured in Food That Rocks: Recipes from the Hottest Kitchens in Music, The Face in the Mirror, Feed Me!: Writers Dish About Food, Eating, Weight, and Body Image and author of And These Shoes Keep Walking Back to You and Sam Barry of How to Play a Harmonica! Kathi and Sam will sign books after there panel ends at autograph area!

4:30 p.m. SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW
Awards Presentation as follows:
Pulpwood Queen Children’s Book of the Year
Pulpwood Queen Bonus Book of the Year
Pulpwood Queen Book of the Year
The KAT Award being presented the first time this year!
Special Presentation: PAT CONROY to present The Doug Marlette Award presented to an individual for a Lifetime Achievement of Promoting Literacy.
Silent Auction winners announced!

Time for the comb-out, tease, and NEW DO! Wa La! Darling, you are ready for the GREAT BIG BALL OF HAIR BALL! Now look in the mirror and see, who is going to be the BEAUTY at the ball! Why perhaps it could be YOU!

SATURDAY EVENING
8:00 p.m. Pre-Show
"Over the Pulpwood Rainbow" performed by The Pulpwood Queens of Woodland, CA; AKA, Readers in the Hood™
The Pulpwood Queens of East Texas perform their version of “Dancing with the Stars” which they call, “Dancing in the BARS!”



9:00 p.m. GREAT BIG BALL OF HAIR BALL featuring the band, BORDERLINE, back by popular demand. In celebration of the 70th Anniversary of The Wizard of Oz” the theme is SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW! Come dressed for the occasion in costume for contests for:
BEST GIRL GROUP
BEST DECORATED TABLE, Girl Group with the best decorated theme table wins tickets to next year’s GREAT BIG BALL OF HAIR BALL!
MS GREAT BIG BALL OF HAIR BALL QUEEN and
TIMBER GUY OF THE YEAR!
A royal feast of appetizers will be served and set ups provided for B.Y.O.B., or bring your own Wicked Witch of the West brew!

January 17, 2010
SUNDAY MORNING

MAYBERRY ON THE BAYOU OR WHY I LOVE JEFFERSON, TEXAS DAY!

Kathy L. Patrick a.k.a Floyd, will act as your tour guide for a day in historic Jefferson, our “Mayberry on the Bayou” featuring:

11:00 a.m. Worship Services at the First United Methodist Church
Wear your Sunday crown, bring your favorite hat! Perhaps you can dazzle us with your church singing like Gomer Pyle!

Noon lunch with KAT! We will take you back in time for some good old fashioned cooking like Aunt Bee’s!

Afterwards, celebrate the 70th Anniversary of Gone with the Wind as you will tour with me:
Scarlett O’Hardy’s Gone with the Wind Museum
The House of Seasons Tour Home
Beauty and the Book, the ONLY Hair Salon/Book Store in the country and shop Jefferson! Perhaps you’ll see our own Deputy Barney Fife as
frankly, Scarlett we do give a damn and love our hometown of Jefferson, Texas!

6:30 p.m. WINE DOWN PARTY at the Patrick’s home and ditch the ruby slippers. A southern supper will be served and wear your lounging clothes! Word has it that someone a lot like Sheriff Andy Taylor may be playing their music at this little ole soiree’ so we want you all to be really comfortable to sit down, kick back, and share a story or too of your own. As Dorothy always said, There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home! And now as The Pulpwood Queen says, There’s no place like books, there’s no place like books!

The Wicked Witch is really, really dead, we’ve been to Oz, and now we are at my Home “not neat” Home. And I’ll be the designated driver in case some of you all end up like Otis Campbell, Mayberry’s loveable yet town drunk!

$50 for members, $60 for non-members for the day’s events and does include all tours, lunch and dinner. Tickets are limited so last chance to WINE DOWN!

I am here to tell you we make memories to last a lifetime in little ole Jefferson, Texas. Jefferson, Texas was the beginning of our Pulpwood Queen adventure and is the place for our 10th Anniversary adventure. And it’s like our official motto, “where tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the RULE!” Won’t you join us on our book loving journey because folks, life is not only about the destination, it’s about the ride! And oh what a ride!


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. Your 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.

10th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend UPDATE!

Click on photo to enlarge!

Email kathy@beautyandthebook.com for the absolutely latest version of the working program or go to www.beautyandthebook.com and click on Girlfriend Weekend!