Pulpwood Queen’s Girlfriend Weekend returns to Nacogdoches Jan. 14–17
The Pulpwood Queen’s annual book club convention will take place Jan. 14 – 17 at Mast Hall in Nacogdoches. Founded in 2000 in Jefferson, Texas, by Kathy L. Patrick in her combined beauty salon and book store, Beauty and the Book, the organization now has nearly 600 chapters nationwide and 15 in international locations.
The club selects a “book of the month,” and authors of the books appear at the convention. Keynoters for 2016 include Mardi Link, Julie Dolen, Dick Wall, Molly Crabapple, R.D. Vincent, Paula McLain, Kelly Carlin, and host and founder, Kathy L. Murphy.
The complete convention schedule as follows:
THURSDAY, JAN. 14
1:00 pm Registration opens for Girlfriend Weekend at the Nacogdoches Visitors Center located center of downtown historic square.
7:00 pm
- Mardi Jo Link of The Drummond Sisters: A Story of Fierce Friendship Beyond Time and Chance
- Julie Dolan of You’re the Best: A Celebration of Friendship by the Satellite Sisters
- Richard Wall, husband of author Carol Wall of Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart and his son, filmmaker Phil Wall, will screen his work in progress on his mother’s book and film our event to be included in the documentary.
FRIDAY MORNING, JAN. 15
9:00 a.m. MAST HALL Master of Ceremonies for the weekend will be Toby Wilkerson, introducing:
Kathy L. Murphy, founder of The Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Clubs, author of The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Keynote speakers Molly Crbapple of Drawing Blood: A Memoir and R. D. Vincent of the Donbridge Novella series, The Ring of Lazarus and The Witch of Tamerak Hill
11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
- Christa Allan of Digging Up Dirt
- Julie Cantrell of The Feathered Bone
- Judy Christie of Wreath: A Girl
- Elaine Clark of There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is
- Kimberly Willis Holt of Dear Hank Williams
FRIDAY AFTERNOON, JAN. 15
1:30 p.m. – 2:15 a.m.
- Susan Crandall of The Flying Circus: A Novel
- Melissa DeCarlo of The Art of Crash Landing: A Novel
- Kristen Harnisch of The Vintner’s Daughter and The California Wife
- Carla Stewart of The Flying Affair: A Novel
2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
- Kellie Coates Gilbert of A Reason to Stay
- Margaret Mooney of Redneck Opera
- Kristy Woodson Harvey of Dear Carolina
- Patti Callahan Henry of The Idea of Love
- Lisa Wingate of The Sea Keeper’s Daughter
3:30 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
- David Marion Wilkinson will speak on his latest filmmaking projects.
- Reavis Wortham of Dark Places: A Red River Mystery
- Richard Fifield of The Flood Girls
- Suzy Spencer of Secret Sex Lives
4:30 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
- Jim Grimsley of How I Shed My Skin: Unlearning the Racist Lessons of a Southern Childhood
- Pattie Walek Hall of A Mother’s Dance
- NancyKay Sullivan Wessman of Katrina Mississippi: Voices from Ground Zero
SATURDAY, JAN. 16
9:15 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. Keynote Speaker Paula McLain of Circling the Sun and The Paris Wife
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
- Stephanie Chance of Beautiful Seductions, From Italy to Decorate Ornate
- Terri Hale of The Stone Manor
- Anjali Mitter Duva of Faint Promise of Rain
- Mary Alice Monroe of Second Star to the Right and A Low Country Wedding
- Laura McNeill of Center of Gravity: A Novel
11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
- Peter Golden of Wherever There Is Light: A Novel
- Kathy Hepinstall and Becky Hepinstall Hilliker of Sisters of Shiloh
- Laura Lane McNeal of Doll-baby: A Novel
- Jonathan O’Dell of Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League
1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. Keynote Speaker Kelly Carlin of A Carlin Home Companion: Growing Up with George
For further information and registration, visit www.beautyandthebook.com.
(From organization’s press releases)
Lone Star Literary Life to introduce new features, crowdfunding in celebration of first anniversary Feb. 2
On February 2, 2015, Lone Star Literary Life published its first issue of Texas’s only comprehensive statewide books-news coverage. We launched on Groundhog Day with a robust subscriber list of Texas booksellers, publishers, libraries, authors, and, most important of all, readers.
We pledged to deliver thoughtful reviews of new Texas books, first-person profiles and interviews of Texas authors, news and coverage of awards, festivals, and author tours, and the state’s only full calendar of book events — every week. And we’ve done so for almost 52 weeks now, bringing readers, writers, publishers, publicists, and librarians the latest in bookish Texas news and information.
We’re supported by advertising, providing a guaranteed vehicle to promote Texas-related books. And in our first year, we introduced such popular features as Lone Star Book Blog Tours, author podcasts, and Top Texas Bookish Destinations, which present editorial content around which publishers, booksellers, and authors can build paid campaigns.
We’ve got even bigger plans in store for 2016. Stay tuned over the next few weeks. And watch for details on our Indiegogo campaign — to learn how you can help Lone Star Lit grow and also earn unique perks.
Make a note of our hashtags: #LoneStarLit2016 #ComeAndFundIt
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For those polishing up an existing manuscript to get it ready for potential agents, WLT executive director and former literary agent Becka Oliver provides guidance in an evening intensive class Tues., Jan. 12, in Dallas
Participants will learn the necessary components of query letters in the classroom component, and then work on their own letters in the lab component. Students will leave the class with a draft or revision of a query letter for their writing project.
Prior to the class, each student will submit a draft of a query letter for one writing project, a one-page synopsis of the same writing project, and an author bio. Registration is open to current members only and will be strictly capped at 8 participants.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016, 6:00 pm to 8:45 pm
Location: Texas Mezzanine Fund, 320 S. R.L. Thornton Fwy, Suite 110
Dallas, TX 75203
Fee: $99
For more information, visit www.writersleague.org
Becka Oliver joined the Writers’ League in September 2013 as executive director after more than sixteen years of experience working in book publishing. She spent much of her publishing career inside two of the “big six” publishing leaders — Macmillan and Hachette Book Group — licensing domestic and foreign rights on behalf of notable authors, including Sandra Brown, Brad Meltzer, Nicholas Sparks, Jon Stewart and the Daily Show, and more. In 2007, she made the leap from associate director of subsidiary rights at Grand Central Publishing to literary agent, first at Endeavor and then at William Morris Endeavor (WME) after the two powerhouse talent agencies merged in 2009. As a literary agent, Becka represented clients working in both fiction and non-fiction, including Brunonia Barry, Sheryl Crow, Kamran Pasha, Joanna Philbin, Susan Rebecca White, and the popular blog Awkward Family Photos.
{From the organization’s website)
Austin Book Arts Center invites visitors to ring in the New Year by learning book arts, Jan. 16
The Austin Book Arts Center Board of Directors invites the public to a Winter Open House Sat., Jan. 16, 12 pm-8pm. Attendees will learn about the Spring 2016 schedule of workshops, including letterpress printing, bookbinding, book repair, and paper arts. Attendees may print their own bookmark or make their own book. Admission is free.
The 2016 schedule offers workshops on a variety of techniques and structures.
- Bookbinding provides a basic foundation, while Japanese Bookbinding and Coptic Bookbinding will introduce students to centuries-old book structures, still perfectly appropriate today for journals and sketchbooks.
- Need a custom or personalized portfolio to house prints, photographs, or documents? Take the Portfolio for Artists workshop. Learn to make cyanotype prints and then house them in a hand bound photo album in the Alt Print and Photo Album workshop.
- Print your own business cards or another small project in one of the Introduction to Letterpress workshops. Learn to set type by hand, like Gutenberg, or learn about contemporary digital letterpress applications most often used today.
- Curious about book repair? Take Book Repair and Preservation. Do you have your own manuscript or book project you would like to bring to fruition? Learn the skills in DIY Publishing, or Bind Your Manuscript Using Lockstitch.
Complete workshop descriptions may be found at http://atxbookarts.org/workshops/
All workshops are “hands-on” and are appropriate for beginners, artists, and anyone interested in exploring the arts of the book. Workshop sizes are small, and instructors are accomplished artists and experienced professionals. Students can expect to walk away with a new skill set, in addition to beautiful, handmade books and prints that they will be proud to share with their friends and family.
The mission of Austin Book Arts Center is to engage people of all ages in creative, interpretive, and educational experiences related to the arts of the book. ABAC offers workshops in letterpress printing, bookbinding, papermaking, typography, book history and design, and various arts of the book. In addition, ABAC provides access to equipment for qualified users.
For more information contact: Amanda Stevenson, executive director at amanda@atxbookarts.org, (512) 417-5845. ABAC is located at 2832 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd #114, Austin, Texas 78702.
(From organization’s press release)
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