Home > Pulpwood Queen Blog > Archives > 2006 > July > 05 > Entry
Booking it to Book Group Expo!
Head Queen Margie Dilday of my Pulpwood Queens of Squire Creek Country Club and I had finally arrived in San Jose, California for Book Group Expo, the first ever book club convention in the country. I was to speak on Saturday morning and then Moderating a panel of Sunday with southern authors, Loraine Despres of “The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell, Ronlyn Domingue of “The Mercy of Thin Air, River Jordan of “The Messenger of Magnolia Street, and Michael Morris of “Slow Way Home”.
Margie and I walked the short distance from Hotel St. Claire where we were staying to the San Jose Convention Center. I have never been so impressed with a venue. We were handed darling hanging name tags that were just like the manila pockets in books at libraries, Book Group Expo book bags and our program.
As we walked through the airing convention center, we could see women from book clubs gathered in groups, a marketplace resplendent with booths of books and related book items. The center was a full four sided booth on wine tasting from California wineries. Wow, I thought, “I hope we have time to shop.”
We headed to the green room prior to our meeting and there we met all our moderator, Lauren John who is a librarian at San Francisco’s Town and Country Club. She has led book discussion groups in public libraries, living rooms, and synagogues. She is also the author of “Running Book Discussions: A How to Do It Manual for Librarians. I shared the panel with Leslie Sbrocco, who is an award –winning author; writer, speaker, expert, and television Host of KQED’s Check Please, whose entertaining approach makes learning about wine and food fun. “Wine for Womenâ€? is her first book. Both women were more than friendly as we helped ourselves to coffee and croissant and sank into the chairs to get to know each other and prepare for our panel.
As our Book Group Expo volunteer motioned that it was time that we took the stage in our salon, we entered the room and it was packed with women. Wearing my tiara, the sound man miked us for sound and we were ready to go.
As Lauren introduced us, I scanned the crowd and we began our stories. The hour flew by and before we new it we were ushered to autograph tables in the back of the market place. Since my book, “The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Lifeâ€? has not been published yet, I signed Girlfriend Weekend postcards that The Marshall News Messenger had made up for me to promote out event at Book Group Expo. We had a blast talking to the California book club attendees. Lauren quickly sold out of her “Women and Wineâ€? book and then we were off to attend some panels ourselves.
As I sat in on all the wide array of author salons, I was amazed by the diversity and quality of the authors. You would be doing yourself a great service by going to www.bookgroupexpo.com and I would highly recommend that any booklover attend. Never have I had so much access to authors in such a comfortable and relaxed setting.
Highlights for me on the weekend was of course meeting all my author friends but what really kicked the event off was listening to Khaled Houseini who wrote “The Kite Runner. He spoke eloquently on his book and remembrances from his homeland of Afghanistan. I also met a young man by the name of Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi who was there promoting his debut novel, “The Last Song of Duskâ€? that I can’t wait to read.
Hearing Dorothy Allison speak who wrote “Bastard Out of Carolina and then meeting her was a special treat as I have loved her writing for years. Author, April Sinclair had me in stitches talking about her book, “Coffee Will Make You Black� and the list could go on, and on.
Sunday I met all my southern authors back in the green room and I also have to mention that they also just happened to all be Pulpwood Queen authors. Loraine Depres, www.lorainedespres.com, I met last Girlfriend Weekend and she is most famous for writing the episode of “Who Shot J.R.?â€? on the popular television show. I became hooked on Loraine’s writing when she wrote her first book, “The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlancâ€?. What a romp of a read!
Michael Morris I adopted years before as the man who would make the perfect brother and he is. I me his wife for the first time, Melanie and she is the perfect sister. If you haven’t read Michael Morris’s books, www.aplacecalledwiredgrass.com ,you are doing yourself a great disservice. He is a writer to watch with “A Place Called Wiregrassâ€?, “Slow Way Homeâ€?, “Live Like You Were Dyingâ€? and now as soon as he finds a publisher home, “The King of Florabamaâ€?. If I was a publisher, I would put him at the top of my list and his body of work is amazing and he is divine storyteller that touches your heart and soul.
River Jordan,www.riverjordan.com and Ronlyn Domingue, www.ronlyndomingue.com, I had never met but we soon became friends. River began her talk by explaining that even though she grew up in the south, being from a broadcasting background, she had lost her accent. When Michael spoke he assured everybody that he would more than make up for River’s lack of accent which got a huge laugh from the crowd. Ronlyn sat in a yoga position and I have never been that limber. An eloquent speaker she unfolded her story as beautiful as a flower blooming. I was well pleased with the amazing talent of my panel and thoroughly enjoyed this great excuse to talk books big time. Again, it was too soon over and we headed back to the author autograph tables.
Now some people talk of heaven as a place where there are quiet streams, rainbows and puffy clouds floating by. My idea of heaven was Book Group Expo, did you hear that God. Put me in a place with authors and I will no that I died and had gone to heaven.
I headed over that afternoon to sit in on “The Book Club from Hell� and about died laughing. Amy Tan and her co-horts in literary crime put on a hilarious skit where they reenacted a book club meeting. I seriously almost wet my pants when my friend and author, Kathi Kamen Goldmark burst into the book club meeting talking on a cell phone and apologizing for not having read the book. She reminded the book club that she had bought the book though. They had the crowd in the palm of their hand as all of us were guilty of all these book club disgressions.
I ran into my new author friends, Kurt Wisner of “Honeymoon with my Brother� and his brother Kurt at the autograph tables. They stopped signing books to give me brotherly hugs and I was touched as Kurt still had the African lunch box I had given him when he was at my shop with his “Honeymoon with my Brother� passport stamps inside. They had a line that wrapped all the way to the Lonely Planet Booth. Check out their website at www.honeymoonwithmybrother.com to see why.
More to come on Book Group Expo so check back next week!
Tiara wearing and Book Sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
www.beautyandthebook.com
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