Dear Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Club members and readers everywhere!
First my BIG NEWS! Thrilled to find a contract in my mailbox this morning as my story of “My HERO” was accepted by The University of Georgia Press for a NEW anthology edited by Nicole Seitz tentatively titled, OUR PRINCE OF SCRIBES: WRITERS REMEMBER PAT CONROY! You can guarantee this will be an OFFICIAL Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Club Selection. Cannot wait to read all the other stories from of some the best writers out there including many of my Pulpwood Queen Book Club Authors. We all loved PAT CONROY and remember this year ALL the proceeds from our Girlfriend Weekend Silent Auction go to the Pat Conroy Literacy Center. He was my hero and let his words and stories live forever!
Our featured author TODAY is Pulpwood Queen Patricia C. Davis who runs the Pulpwood Queens of Lake Las Vegas! Check out her Guest Blog and all she is doing in her Pulpwoodqueendom to promote literacy. Do note her book that it too is going to be an Official Pulpwood Queen Book Club future read!
Books, Bubbles and Pulpwood Queens
by Patricia V. Davis
It all started when I went to a women’s conference down in Long Beach, CA. The rooms at the conference center were sold out, so I ended up staying nearby, aboard a “floating hotel and museum,” the Queen Mary. I had no idea that I was on an iconic, historic ship Time magazine calls one of the “Top Ten Most Haunted Places.”
The surprising and unexpected experience I had during that stay inspired “The Secret Spice Café Trilogy” ─ three novels set aboard that very same remarkable, majestic ocean liner: Book I, Cooking for Ghosts, released in 2016, was nominated for a Book Critic’s Circle Award for Fiction and is a Pulpwood Queens Book Club Selection. Book II, Spells and Oregano, was released just two weeks ago on December 1 of 2017. And Book III, Demons, Well-Seasoned, is scheduled for 2019.
All from one stay aboard a haunted ship … and a visit from one little ghost. (A visit which you can hear about here)
How does one ship inspire so much writing, you might ask? It’s simple. The Queen Mary is an extraordinary ship, almost like a living woman.
Fast forward to today, and I’ve met three more extraordinary women, and one of them is another Queen. They are vintner Sharon Cohn, fellow author Rebecca Rosenberg, and Kathy L. Murphy, the head Pulpwood Queen herself.
Rebecca and I met at a writers’ conference. As soon as we sat down to chat, we discovered we had more in common than our love for the written word. Both of us believe in helping other women. Both of us seize life by the horns, celebrating the good and minimizing the bad. And we’re both risk-takers who aren’t afraid of hard work. Very much like the women in my Secret Spice novels, in fact.
But doesn’t this also sound like someone else you know? Head Queen Kathy, perhaps? Yep. I’m getting to her, for sure. Hang on just a few more minutes.
At that time, I still had The Women’s PowerStrategy Conference, which was a conference I founded in support of Girls Inc., and other women’s organizations I invited Rebecca to be a speaker. Coincidently, this was just about when Rebecca’s close friend, Sharon Cohn, had started a wine label along with her two sisters, called Breathless Wines. They named their label “Breathless” in honor of their mother who always taught them to celebrate the ‘breathless moments in life.” Sharon liked what she heard about the purpose of the conference, so she offered to pour her champagne at the conference after-party.
And when she offered to pour, she sure meant it. Sharon poured ─ free of charge ─ superb, award-winning champagne for everyone at the party. And I mean, endlessly. I still can see it: Sharon in her Art Deco vintage dress, her lovely hat and jewelry, elegantly pouring champagne, next to the beautiful Rebecca, who was of course, wearing lavender. I didn’t have a camera, but I sure wish I had. It was a marvelous moment, a true celebration of friendship and dynamic womanhood. Not to mention fabulous outfits.
(Don’t you think these two women fit in perfectly with the philosophy of The Pulpwood Queens?)
This lovely story gets better. A few months back, Sharon, Rebecca, and I thought of the connection between the Breathless wine label and the “breathless” women in the Secret Spice Café Trilogy, as well as the daring woman in Rebecca’ upcoming novel, The Secret Life of Mrs. London. (January 2018) With that came an idea for a fun collaboration, and “Breathless Books” was born.
What better offering for a favorite female on your gift list than a fun, inspiring book featuring women characters who dare to dream ─ breathlessly ─ and a bottle of Breathless bubbly, together? These wine and literature pairings would be wonderful for so many special occasions and holidays, we thought. Currently, a bottle of Breathless champagne is available with a book, together in a beautiful gift box, for only 35.99 plus shipping.
The pilot Books and Bubbles program launched in time for holiday gift giving with Cooking for Ghosts and Spells and Oregano They’re now available on The Breathless Books and Bubbles pilot web page. And The Secret Life of Mrs. London will be available at Breathless when it’s released in January.
But then we thought, “We need more books for Breathless Books and Bubbles.” And so the idea formed to choose books selected by ─ here it comes, drumroll, please ─ Kathy, The Pulpwood Queen. Starting in January, look for some of your favorite Pulpwood Queens Book Club books being paired with a beautiful bottle of bubbly.
Wine, books, and book club friends. What else does a gal need?
See you all at the Pulpwood Queens Girlfriends Weekend in January. I’m so looking forward to meeting you all!
Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New READING Year!
Kathy L. Murphy
thepulpwoodqueen@gmail.com
www.thepulpwoodqueens.com
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