Ann Hood talks about her new novel, The Red Thread

I first heard of Ann Hood years ago, back when I picked up her extraordinary debut, Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine. I was enthralled and began following her career obsessively, to the extent that though we've never met, I feel, because her work is so bold and brave, (Read Comfort for its blazingly honest exploration of loss), that I feel that I do.

Ann's new novel, The Red Thread is a gorgeous story based on her own experiences adopting a baby girl from China following the death of her daughter Grace. I asked Ann if she'd write something for my blog, and she graciously agreed. Many, many thanks Ann, for both another book for me to love, and for your piece below.

Every Mother’s Day for the past five years, I pause to think about a woman I have never met. A woman who, in fact, I will never meet. In 2004, halfway around the world, that woman gave birth to my daughter Annabelle. Because of the strict one child policy in China at that time, women were abandoning their baby daughters in parks and marketplaces, on the doorsteps of police stations and orphanages, in the hopes that the baby would be found and taken care of. In Hunan Province, where Annabelle was born, women could have second babies if their first one was a girl. However if that second—or third or fourth—was also a girl, she would likely be abandoned to allow for another try at a son.

On the morning of September 6, 2004, Mrs. Li, the director of a small orphanage in the industrial city of Loudi, arrived at work and found a baby girl in a box at the door. Most of the abandoned babies were only a few days old, usually with the umbilical cord stump still attached. This baby was different. Dressed in blue pants and blue and white flowered socks, she appeared to be five or six months old. Between 2003 and 2004, over 500 baby girls were adopted from this one orphanage alone. Mrs. Li was finding babies at the rate of five or ten a week. Like she did with all of them, she took this baby inside where the doctor examined her. She was given a crib to share with another baby who had been found a few days earlier. She was given a name: Lou Fu Jing. Six months later, that baby girl would become my daughter Annabelle.

It is illegal to abandon babies in China. Yet mothers who give birth to daughters do it every day. For fear of being caught, they leave no clues, no records, no letters or information with the babies. Therefore, the first five months of Annabelle’s life will forever remain a mystery to us. Ever since we brought her home, I have found myself imagining the woman who gave birth to her, kept her for five months, then one morning dressed her in blue pants and white socks with blue flowers, placed her in a box, and left her on that orphanage doorstep. Had she tried to hide her and got caught? Was Annabelle a second daughter abandoned when her mother got pregnant again, hoping for a son? Or did her mother die and her father was unable to keep her? Or? Or? Or? I imagine so many histories for my daughter, spinning tales to complete her life story.

When I began to write my novel, The Red Thread, I wanted to tell the stories of the women in China who are forced to abandon their baby girls. Since those women do not speak of what they’ve done, I had only my imagination to create their lives. By inventing their stories, I felt closer to that stranger who gave me the gift of her daughter. This Mother’s Day—my fifth as Annabelle’s mother—I will pause in my day. I will close my eyes and imagine that city. The air there is polluted and gray from the steel mill that dominates its landscape. I will imagine that woman, moving through the crowded streets.

Perhaps she holds her son or daughter’s hand. Perhaps she is thinking of what to make for dinner that night. Perhaps she has a husband who will touch her cheek lovingly, a baby who will lift her arms for her to hold it. Perhaps my gratitude will reach across continents and oceans and land in her heart. In her busy day, perhaps she too will pause, and know the daughter she had to leave, is safe and healthy and loved.

In which Caroline guest stars in a Paper Rats Video

I've blogged here before about how much I love the Paper Rats and I talked myself into a video with them, which is now ready for viewing! A

Sublime authors Kristen Tsetsi (Homefront) and R. J. Keller (Waiting for Spring), otherwise known as The Paper Rats, gave me a list of expressions to film (rolling my eyes, looking appalled, smiling, blank stare), and a list of scenarios (do five things you'd do if you were bored--I chose playing with my one-legged Barbie, lifting weights, playing with my hair, and having a game with my rubber Mr. Tofu and Mr. Bacon; introduce yourself in an alarmingly self-promotionary sort of way; show myself watching one of their videos and saying something; and generally acting like a fool. They also insisted that I say the word "boobs" as if I were totally appalled.

Of course, I obsessed about how I was going to look. Would my hair look too chaotically stupid? (It did) Would I look a thousand years old? And most importantly, would I be FUNNY?

I had Jeff shoot the videos and made him reshoot a lot due to some of the above issues. (Told you I was obsessive) and then I turned all the segments in to the Paper Rats. I love the final project, and hope you do, too. These women are genius--and a whole lot of fun.

Anne Lamott talks about Imperfect Birds

Anne Lamott should be a national treasure (complete with a holiday named after her.) Her book on writing (Bird by Bird) is required reading for any budding writer (or anxiety written pro), her book on having a child (Operating Instructions) should be tucked inside every diaper bag, and her novels simply soar. Her newest, Imperfect Birds, returns to one of her earlier novels, Rosie, to tell the story of teenage drug culture and parents being terrified for their the safety of their kids. It's as remarkable as she is--and thank you, thank you, Anne for answering my questions.

Of all your books, this one was the one that absolutely terrified me. It was so raw, so real (plus, I’m the mother of a 13 year old and I worry about the future endlessly) and yet, it also was, to me, the most spiritual of your books, too. Would you say this is because in those dark, scary moments, that’s when there is light (if you can notice it?) Or that being tested give us an opportunity to reveal our best (as well as our worst) selves?

When we are faced with really frightening developments in our lives, like loss or a bad diagnosis or a lost child, we get stripped down to what is true and essential--and this is the most spiritual place we can arrive at. And then to be deeply loved in such a raw and undefended state--without armor, routine, and the ability to Fake it--is the absolute definition of Spiritual.

Knowing Rosie (from your novel Rosie) as a child and then seeing her as a teenager here also made this book more nerve-wracking for me. Because Rosie was the child of an alcoholic mother, I was sure Rosie would never want to have anything to do with substance abuse. Is this usually the case?

There's no such thing as "usually the case". Kids with alcoholic parents have a genetic predisposition to be alcoholics or substance abusers. I really have not observed a "norm". What I've observed in Marin is high-achieving kids with seemingly ideal family circumstances, who have lost their lives, minds, futures, to high risk behavior. We just lost another gorgeous 17 y.o. Marin girl last weekend, about to graduate, who got drunk with her girlfriends about 20 minutes from my home, fell off the cliffs into the ocean, and washed up near Muir Beach.

Elizabeth doesn’t believe in God, though she does seem to have a belief in some things, and there was that powerful scene in the sweat lodge where she feels a glimmer of something larger than herself. Do you think it matters whether you do or you don’t believe, as long as you are open to the moment? And that being open to one moment, like in the sweat lodge, might make you open to more moments?

Yes, I do think there an many many ways to opening our hearts and awakening to the present--and Presence. To seek this presence, of a deep rich reality, the shimmering Now, is to find it. And then some commit to developing this sense of Life, and other people keep hitting the snooze button via workaholism or multi-tasking, which is absolutely life-destroying

For me, the novel was about the reality we create for ourselves—i.e. Rosie’s reality is that what she is doing isn’t so wrong, but James and Elizabeth reality about what she is doing is really something different. Rosie lies, but so does Elizabeth to James. You nail the fierce love parents have for their kids, and the pain when those kids start to pull away into their own lives (as well they should) and their ignorance of the pain it causes their parents. How do you think it’s possible for anyone to really know the truth and reality of someone else’s life? And is there a way we can be better at it?

I don't know that we can really understand what it's like to be another person's, but we can see when people are exhibiting self-destruction and deceit. Parents have to be willing to risk not being the coolest parent on the block, in order to set healthy boundaries, and to impose appropriate consequences for lying, stealing, smoking, etc. A lot of parents so desperately need their kid's affection that they (maybe unconsciously) don't see what their kids are up to--don't see the cries for help, the out-of-controlledness. They don't want to fight with their kids, or have their kids pull away, and so they keep their heads in the sand, or get it to come out OK in their minds--ANYthing that will keep the appearance of closeness: anything to avoid making waves. But as I said, another 17 year old died this weekend.

I’m intensely curious about process, so can you talk a little bit about yours in writing Imperfect Birds? And can you talk about what you are working on now?

Well, novels as you know are a lot harder than stories or essays--it takes close to 3 years, and you never quite know what you're doing. I really try to commit to my characters, and capturing each one's voice and truth, instead of committing to a finished novel. It can be a nightmare for a lot of the process, because you're trying to keep so many plates spinning in the air. So I just to get a day's work done everyday. I let myself write incredibly shitty drafts. I ask one or two cherished writer-friends for feedback. I read novels, to see how other people handle tough stories of being human, and in families, and community; how we survive unsurvivable loss, how we grow, how we age, how we heal, how we keep our senses of humor. And I write everything over, and over, and over; and rely DEEPLY on great editing.

What question didn’t I ask that I really and truly should have?

You could ask how Sam is doing! He is 20 now, a student of industrial design at an art academy in San Francisco, and he and his girlfriend have an 8 month old baby boy, who (along with Sam) is the apple of my eye. His name is Jax; my grandma name is Nana.

In which I happily humiliate myself!

I've written about my love of Paper Rats videos and now I'm going to be in one! They won't tell me what it's going to look like, but they've given me directions for filming (shots of bored, rolling my eyes, saying certain things) and they have this preview!

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett talks about writing and Orange Country Noir

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett's the host of the fabulous radio show Writers on Writing, the award-winning author of Pen On Fire, and one of her short stories has just appeared in the anthology Orange County Noir. Since I'm a sucker for anything noir (and I happen to revere the films Barbara mentions here), I couldn't wait to ask Barbara questions. Thanks so much, Barbara!

So when you were asked to write a piece for Orange County Noir, what went through your head? Do you usually think of your home as the stuff of noir?

Actually, I heard about the idea from Susan Straight at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, as we stood at the breakfast buffet, contacted the editor (Gary Phillips) and he said he'd like to see a story. I love noir movies (Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice) and wanted to try my hand at it. Plot worried me at first; it's my biggest weakness as a writer. And as for my home, Orange County, well it may be sunny and happy seeming here, but darkness lurks. my home town, in fact, has a bunch of domestic abuse, white collar crime, and rich people crime--deaths in the ocean (Oh, she just fell off the yacht!) and suicides. So my home town, and probably most home towns, have the makings of noir.

I loved the story, which played out like a Robert Mitchum film noir to me right down to the knockout ending. Tell me where the idea came from and what it was like writing the story?

Oh, I loved Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear. Like I said film noir is my favorite genre in film. My story has its genesis in another movie, Days of Heaven (one of Richard Gere's first movies.) When I first started toying with plot, I thought: She could be a knitter (like me) an has a studio in the industrial section of Costa Mesa and this guy stalks her and she stabs him with a knitting needle. Then I thought: too typical. And then Days of Heaven began swimming through my head so I watched it again. I loved that film. It's so bittersweet and tragic and Sam Shepard is at his finest. I thought about the movie's plot and how I might contemporize it, and that's how my story Crazy for You came about. You'd never recognize the movie in my story, but that's where it came from. I had great fun writing the story. I suppose writing dark fiction is especially fun because it's not a world I care to go to in my daily life. I have known shady characters and loser types, though mostly when I was a teenager, and strains of those boys found their way into Levi.

Your book, Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman's Guide to Igniting the Fire Within was an LA Times bestseller and it won an ASJA Outstanding Book Award. I've recommended this book in my UCLA writing classes simply because it has a real understanding of the whole writing process while making you feel that any obstacle is not insurmountable. I also loved the idea that it's never too late, and it's always a mistake to give up. What do you think the most important component is for a writer to succeed?

You're a sweetheart for saying that. probably the most important component for success is becoming your own biggest advocate and taking yourself seriously. If you don't, who will? And then, of course, keeping your derriere in the chair on a regular basis.

You also host the fascinating radio show, Writers on Writing, which is downright revelatory about craft and the experience of being writer. (Plus, as someone who's been privileged to be a guest on your show, you really are one of the best interviewers around.) Have there been interviews that have really surprised you in terms of what the writer revealed?

I'm sure there has been, but it's been 12 years since I started the show so if there were huge surprises, they probably came early on. But one thing that I hear often is how serendipitous publishing is, and how if you keep on writing and progressing in your chosen craft, you will often succeed.

What project is obsessing you now?

My agent is circulating a book proposal that very much deals with the business end of writing, specifically about agents. And I'm working on a memoir. The rough draft is done. Now comes refining and revision, which can be greatly satisfying, y'know?

What question didn't I ask that I should have?

Oh, I don't know, maybe something about setting priorities and still having a life. I'm big on sacrificing social occasions--lunches, dinners, shopping, movies--for my writing, but not for my family--my son, in particular who's 15 now. He comes first, and I wouldn't have it any other way. They go from being little kids to big kids in a flash. I've been there for most of it. So if you have to give something up to make time for your writing, take that time from somewhere not all that important, and keep that time with those close to you.

In praise of deadlines

Usually if I don't have a deadline, I can spend three whole months on one sentence. I've been working on this new novel set in the 1950s for almost a year now. I was working on another novel at the same time, and then shelved it to work on this one, called The Missing Ones (at least for now. I'm not very good with titles, but that's a whole other story.) A few months ago, I realized I had no idea what I was doing and began talking the story out with another writer and finally realized what the main thread was. Throwing out 200 pages wasn't easy, but at last I felt that I knew what I was writing about. I felt what I needed to write towards.

Last week, I had lunch with my adored agent and she asked what was ready to be shown, and I had a revelation. If I told her I would have something to her by, say June, then I'd really have to work hard. I'd have to produce. No more sitting on one sentence for weeks. "I'll have a few chapters to show you by June," I said.

So, after being weak with nerves and nauseous (Could I do this? Was I insane? Wouldn't it be better to just hold on tight to the pages I have rather than risk failure?) I set to work. I've been putting in ten hour days, but I have two chapters and 40 pages that don't make me want to flay my own skin off. I have a third chapter brewing. I feel feverish with excitement, manic with drive, and so, so happy to be writing. And even better, if this does sell on a partial, than I'll have another deadline for the full ms. And to me, well that's just bliss.

READ THIS BOOK: Connie May Fowler's How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly

I’ve loved Connie May Fowler’s books years before I knew and loved her. Yes, she’s a friend, and the first thing you have to know about her is how warm, funny and smart she is, the kind of person who’s always on your side. Essayist, screenwriter, and novelist, she’s the author of six novels, most recently The Problem with Murmur Lee, and a memoir, When Katie Wakes. In 1996, she published Before Women Had Wings, which became a paperback bestseller and was made into a successful Oprah Winfrey Presents movie. She founded the Connie May Fowler Women With Wings Foundation, a non-profit organization that was dedicated to aiding women and children in need. For over six years, the foundation provided money to establish new domestic violence shelters or to improve existing ones. The organization funded the establishment of libraries and medical clinics within those shelters.

How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly takes place in the space of 24 hours and is peopled with ghosts, circus dwarfs, a love besotted fly (my favorite), an inner Deepak Chopra and the moving story of how one woman finds her inner strength and transforms her life.

Thanks so much for answering my questions, Connie.

I deeply admire the structure of the novel, how though it takes place in just 24 hours, it still veers back and forth from the deep past to the present. How did the structure of the novel come about—planned or did it surprise you?

It was a surprise born from necessity. When I realized that the past and present were rubbing against one another like narrative-based tectonic plates, I asked myself, How am I going to reign in this mess? The last thing I wanted was a 2000 page meandering manuscript on my hands. I decided my best bet was to squeeze Clarissa’s learning curve into one amazing day. That decision was crucial because it gave me a workable canvas.

I loved that Adams, one of the characters, tells Clarissa that to write, you have to risk being scared. That’s one of the most astute descriptions of being a writer that I’ve read. Can you talk more about that, please?

Writing is an exercise in fear. Everyday you face the blank page and engage in an activity that is part craft, part art, part hallucination. If you’re doing your job right, you really don’t know what’s going to happen next. You might trick yourself into thinking you know, but at the same time you have to be open to the possibilities the story presents. The story and the process always surprises. I think that the willingness to live on the edge—to open yourself up to the story, rather than playing it safe by trying to assert your will upon the page—is what separates writers from hobbyists. We know that when we begin a new project, we have—emotionally and intellectually—jumped off a cliff. And we have no idea if it’s going to be a soft or hard landing. All we know is that even amid our fear, we have to keep writing.

The novel is filled with astonishing characters. You get into the minds of a Olga, a ghost who has been grappling with her own tragic wrongs, a fly madly in loved with Clarissa, ghostly children and more. There’s a kind of magic in the world, and other realms that Clarissa just doesn’t see at first. So where did these characters come from? And do you think the past is always existing alongside the present day? And do you believe in ghosts?

I really enjoyed creating this part of Clarissa’s world. The notion of seen and unseen worlds is very important to the overall thematic structure because it reinforces Clarissa’s temporary writer’s blindness: She can’t face things that are right in front of her because she’s wracked with emotional anemia.

The characters arise naturally from the page. The story demands they exist. There is something about the fly being so in love with Clarissa when she feels so devoutly unloved that pleases me greatly. The idea for the novel first came about when I was researching pre-Civil War Florida history and stumbled upon an entry about the Adams-Onìs Treaty of 1819. It required that Spain relinquish Florida to the U.S. two years hence. But Spain, compared to America, was very progressive. Women and black people could own property. Black men could sit on juries. Slavery was deeply discouraged. So what happened, I wondered, to folks who found themselves—with the stroke of a pen, thanks to a real estate deal—homeless and enslaved? As I mused on that hard nut, Olga Villada and her family began to take shape.

I believe that the past and present constantly co-mingle. We carry with us many legacies—some good, some not; some weigh us down and others allow us to fly. But we surely don’t exist in a time vacuum. I think that when we’re at our best, it’s because we’re heeding the lessons of the past.

I grew up in a family primarily composed of ghosts. Our ancestors were all around us. And sometimes—when it got too chaotic or the ghosts too cranky—my mother would freak out and move us, leaving all of our belongings behind. With that kind of upbringing, how could I not believe in spirits?

Clarissa sees many different Clarissa’s in that single day, including the one who goes through the motions and the one who is real. She discovers a power she had given up, and in one hilarious scene, appreciates the abundant curves she’s hidden under voluminous clothing for so many years. Why do you think women give that their power so easily and what can we do about it?

I think mass media, capitalism, and consumerism is the unholy trinity that conspires to steal our power. We are bombarded with images and messages that tell us one thing: You are not good enough. And that message is designed to also do one thing: part us from our money. Buy a face lift, buy a new hair color, buy a tummy tuck, buy liposuction, buy Botox, buy skinny jeans, buy fat jeans, buy, buy, buy. And oh yeah, buy a year of therapy because we’ve made you feel so bad about yourself that you’re really going to need it.

To make matters even meaner, a recent AMA study contends that women over 50 need an hour’s workout a day just to maintain their weight; forget about losing any.

Given that, a pessimist could easily surmise that we are God’s eternal joke. But we’re not. We are beautiful—fat, skinny, young, old, black, white, purple, yellow, and red.

We have to stop believing that there is only one person in the world who is beautiful and that person is white, pencil thin, 20, and sports bleached teeth, big boobs, a flat stomach, no butt, and comes from a “respectable” family.

I once had a woman tell me, “The most depressing part of my day is when I pass the magazine rack in the grocery store.” Amen, sister!

The scorpion’s tail is that not only have we bought into the message that we’re no good unless we stuff ourselves into the marketeers’ vision of beauty, but men have bought into it too.

I think women need to truly be sisters to one another, praising each other’s natural beauty and goodness and teaching—always teaching—how dangerous the dominant message is. When we start believing in our unvarnished beauty and brains, we’ll take back our power. And the men will follow our beautiful ample behinds wherever we might go, and they will be in awe.

Can you talk about the Clarissa Burden Postcard project?

If you don’t have permission to speak—and Clarissa doesn’t—you naturally find yourself riddled with secrets. So, I’ve just launched the Clarissa Burden I’ve Got a Secret Postcard Project so that folks can anonymously unburden themselves. People can send by email or postcard their secrets and I will post them on my website (www.conniemayfowler.com). So far, the secrets are very moving: full of candor, pain, humility.

I have to ask about the arresting cover photograph of your novel. I think I read that is was taken by a sixteen-year-old?

Isn’t it absolutely amazing? Lauren Withrow is sixteen-years-old and she took up photography a mere year ago. The cover image is part of her 365 Project. You can see her work on Flickr and at www.laurenwithrow.com.

What’s obsessing you these days in terms of work? And what question should I be mortified that I didn’t ask you?

I’m taking up a project that I abandoned when Clarissa simply wouldn’t leave me alone. Right now, it’s a novel titled This Experiment I Call My Life. It’s early . . . I can’t really tell you anything about it. And I’m thinking about a non-fiction piece called Sleeping with Dogs, but I’m beginning to think that its creative energy should be incorporated into the novel.

You’ve covered everything, my dear! The only thing I can possibly add is that I’m a newlywed who lives on a sandbar with my wonderful husband Bill and four brilliant dogs. We live frugally. We’re growing a garden. We fish. Bill is considering raising rabbits (Michael Pollan insists they are a sustainable food source and are more nutritious than chicken). We stare at the water a lot. We dance. We laugh, especially when the dogs howl at the moon. And we’re happy. Finally, finally . . . what a great thing to be able to say! Happy.

Pictures of You

I am dazed, amazed and thrilled to present the cover of my new novel Pictures of You (coming November 2, the Amazon date of January is wrong and will be fixed soon.) I really love this cover (I tend to draw wings on objects all the time and I have a big huge pair of white feather wings in my office), and I really love being with Algonquin, who are just splendiferous. (Love my editor, love my agent, love the publicity department.)

I'm already going to be at BEA signing books and speaking at a luncheon, which made me rush out and buy a dress, since my usual wardrobe tends to be jeans, a black t-shirt or sweater and my beloved black sneakers with white shoelaces. If any of you happen to be there, please come say hello to me!

There's more about the book (including more blurbs and an interview) at my website, http://www.carolineleavitt.com.

Oh! I'm so excited.

Talking with Kathy Louise Patrick of the Pulpwood Queens!

Who is more hilarious than Kathy Louise Patrick, the founder of the Pulpwood Queens and the owner of the only bookstore/hair salon in the world and a great blog? Writers and readers need people like Kathy, whose passion for books and authors is legendary and whose wild sense of humor makes reading a cause of celebration and fun. Thanks for letting me ask you all these questions, Kathy! (And check out the bookshop in the photo! I dare you to tell me you aren't dying to go there!)

Your bio is fabulous: you're a hilariously funny red-headed book selling hair stylist, who looks like she is in her twenties, has a franchise of Hair Salon/Book Stores in all the major cities of the world, runs the largest "meeting and discussing" book club in the universe, and you star on your own television show called "Beauty and the Book" that Oprah has deemed the best thing to watch on her NEW network. How did all this come about?

First all, regarding question #1, all of your statements are fact except the last part. That was a fantasy or what I call "faction", ( fact combined with a mighty wallop of fantasy fiction), of me starring in my own television show that Oprah has deemed the best thing to watch on her NEW network. The way I figure it, if I can visualize something actually happening, perhaps through hard work and determination it will. I mean I have been featured in Time, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Oprah, and Good Morning America. It seems to be working. Whose with me on this?

No seriously, my book club began with six complete strangers that has now grown to 277 Pulpwood Queen and Timber Guys Chapters nationwide and in ten foreign countries. Again, if you can visualize it, through hard work and determination your dreams can be accomplished. For those who don't believe a word of what I have said, read my book, "The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life"! It's all in there and the book is memoir, so you know what that means. It's my memories! Singing "That's my story and I'm sticking to it!"

So tell the truth, do you ever want to change the authors' hairstyles? And do they let you?

Do I ever? I mean any serious author has been holed up in some garret with a comfy, snaggly, snuggily bathrobe for months, perhaps years, my word. Their hair is a mess! Skin care? I don't think so! And talk about getting back to their roots? Someone say, "Color!" Wa la, the magical and artistic hands of Kathy L. Patrick!

Do they let me work my magic! Do they ever! One New Orleans author after her makeover declared after her cut, color and new do, "Good Lord, I look like I could be my own daughter". Her husband later declared that he didn't care how much it cost, she was to road trip to Jefferson for all her future hair care needs. They don't call me "Hairdresser to the Authors" for nothing. See March/April 2000 issue of Oxford American Magazine, feature titled "Hairdresser to the Authors" by Carol Dawson, photographs by Patricia Richards!

Tell me about The Pulpwood Queens Guide to Reading and Writing For a Higher Purpose?

"The Pulpwood Queens' Guide to Reading and Writing for a Higher Purpose' is the working title for my next book. I found myself when I wrote my own story of my reading life. I also found that by reading books amazing connections and insights can be made. Stories can be life-changing. One book in particular changed my life, "Same Kind of Different as Me". I ended up spending a year working with the homeless at a local shelter helping them write their stories. You see reading can change your life for the better, but writing can too! I went into the project thinking how wonderful I was to be helping them but you know what I found out? That their gifts to me far surpassed anything I ever gave to them. I am still in awe of the experience.

But on second thought, I may go against all sound advice and write something I have been dying to tell, my stories with all the authors. Or then again finish that darn novel I have been working on most of my life called "EUREKA!" As always, I have a lot to say and a lot to write!

Your Girlfriend weekends are legendary. You've just celebrated your 10th anniversary, so how are you ever going to outdo yourself for your 11th?

Fire baton twirl! Oh wait, we have done that! Well first of all, I tweak and change up my event each year! Last year we had an author "Moveable Feast" where the authors actually prepared the meal and served it! This year we are doing it again but this time, I am having some of the authors perform a play. Kind of Author/Moveable Feast/Dinner Theatre! It should be a hoot! Can you imagine the surprise of all the dinner guests as Pat Conroy served them Sweet Tea. And authors, Jamie Ford and Ad Hudler obviously had waited some tables before as they carried tray after tray high above their heads. Though Mary Kay Andrews was quite a trooper as she had never waited a table before and about had a Calamity Jane moment as she careened by me with a tray of dishes. Ah, the reader's life, dee-vine!

I am also adding a panel that will be spouses or partners of authors so we can get the real scoop of some of our favorite authors! At the end they will bring up their significant other! And I also had a little birdy tell me that New York Times Bestselling Author, Pat Conroy would be back! That alone will make the event SELL OUT AGAIN! You have been notified so call 903-665-7520 for your V.I.P. Pulpwood Queen or Timber Guy Package TODAY! We accept all major credit cards, checks, and even CASH! Shameless but sincere self-promotion!

I love it that you throw out the rules for chapters of your bookclub. You also do road trips to author events and have even taken groups to Europe. What else do you think many other bookclubs miss--and should be doing--when they set up their clubs?

Think outside of the box! Change up your book club meetings! I try to tailor each author event to a special place. Coming up next, actress, author, Kathy Kinney, (Mimi Bobeck) of Drew Carey Show fame and author, Cindy Ratzlaff are coming to promote their NEW book, "Queen of Your Own Life". I decided to have my Pulpwood Queens host the Queenly event at this fantabulous NEW 50's diner, Glory Dayz. Better yet, weather permitting, it will be outside in their retro wine and beer garden! We will really roll out the leopard and hot pink carpet. I am even making for this event a gigantic PINK Tiara Cake with Texas own Blue Bell ice cream for dessert!

Last time author, Charles Martin was here for "Where the River Ends" I booked a boat to take us down the river. Charles read aloud as we cruised down Big Cypress Bayou! Move over Nicholas Sparks as Charles had us all in the palm of his hand after that event! I passed out the publisher provided promo Kleenixes! I could have booked a fleet of boats if we were to do it again, it was that successful!

It's a little harder to be creative but the pay-off! I started 7 more book clubs in the last two weeks. Now that is in places like Blytheville, Arkansas, Golden, Colorado, Carollton, Georgia, to Anchorage, Alaska! We put the BIG TIME FUN in book club!

I already mentioned my next book projects so my next burning project right now is The Great Pulpwood Queen Purse Release held every spring. I urge all chapters to gather their slightly used handbags and purses and tag them, "FREE TO THE FINDER!" Placed inside each purse is a great read and enclosed the following letter:

To the Finder of this Purse!

You have found a real treasure! First of all, a book to show the true purpose of our Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs, to promote reading and literacy! Second, a purse with our compliments, as we want the world to know that our book club is all about reading and having Big Time Fun! Please enjoy then pay it forward, pass it on!

Tiara wearing and Book sharing,

The Pulpwood Queens of ?, (whatever their chapter title might be)

www.beautyandthebook.com

www.pulpwoodqueen.com

Talk about SPRING INTO READING! And we got the idea from a book by Michael Lee West, so all good comes from reading great reads!

What question should I have asked that I didn't?

The Barbara Walters question, you know, the one that makes all her guests cry. "When you die, Kathy, how would you like to be remembered?"

Kathy: "As a good Mother and second, that her life was devoted to following her passions of Beauty and the Book".

I might also add, (if I wasn't going to be cremated and my ashes thrown to the wind on my grandparents, Mudd & Dirt's, old homeplace that we called "Outhome" outside of my hometown of Eureka, Kansas, Greenwood County), that my gravestone be carved "She tried". That pretty much sums it all up for me because I surely did.

And mark your calendar for January 13 - 17, 2011, our 11th Anniversary Girlfriend Weekend. The theme, "Tiara Wearing and Story Sharing", you see it's all about the story!