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Just a reminder that the next Red River Pulpwood Queen meeting will be Tuesday night (June 29) at 6:30, Columbia Cafe in Shreveport. 
What do you get when you cross a writer, blues music and a stylish beauty salon? Lots of fun! Author Allen Whitley traveled to Jefferson, Texas all the way from Austin to promote his new book and CD Where Southern Cross the Dog. With his blues music playing in the background and his pen at the ready, I found Allen to be friendly, charming and eager to find out more about his public rather than gloating about his writing career. After spending the afternoon signing books at Queen Kathy Patrick's salon Beauty and the Book, this up-and-coming shining star in Southern fiction joined Kathy and her husband Jay for an evening of music and fun at the T-Bone Walker Blues Festival in Music City, TX. Contact Kathy Patrick to get your own signed copy of Where Southern Cross the Dog today!
25% of proceeds from signed copies of The Sound of Building Coffins by New Orleans author Louis Maistros sold in his Ebay Store will be donated to America's Wetland Foundation to help clean up the Gulf oil spill. Purchase MUST be made using here for the donation to be made. Louis attended the 2009 Author! Author! Shreveport book festival as well as the 2009 Louisiana Book Festival.
Finished with the June book selection? Reading something alongside Abraham Verghese's Cutting For Stone? I always keep a pile of books on my bedside table. What's in your pile? 
Beauty and the Book is please to announce author, Allen Whitley of Where Southern Cross the Dog, (book and blues CD) will be doing a book signing Saturday, June 19, 2010 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Beauty and the Book, 608 North Polk Street, Jefferson, Texas. Read the interview that Kathy Patrick gave Allen Whitley here. 
August Pulpwood Queen book selection Zeitoun by Dave Eggars will be released in paperback format at Barnes & Noble on June 15! Barnes & Noble card members can pick up a copy for only $10. 76, whereas non-members must pay $15.95. Signed hardback copies are, of course, available at the Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans (where I got my copy!).Synopsis: When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four, chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business. In the days after the storm, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and helping those he could. A week later, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared. Eggers’s riveting nonfiction book, three years in the making, explores Zeitoun’s roots in Syria, his marriage to Kathy — an American who converted to Islam — and their children, and the surreal atmosphere (in New Orleans and the United States generally) in which what happened to Abdulrahman Zeitoun was possible. LikeWhat Is the What, Zeitoun was written in close collaboration with its subjects and involved vast research — in this case, in the United States, Spain, and Syria. (Barnes & Noble)
The Louisiana Book Festival is canceled for 2010 because of state budget cuts, State Librarian Rebecca Hamilton announced this week.
The annual festival outside the State Capitol could be in doubt for 2011 as well because budget problems are only expected to worsen when federal stimulus dollars run dry.
The Louisiana Book Festival, which premiered in 2002, takes place in October or November each year and features plenty of local authors, speakers, readings, book signings, food booths and musical performances.
About 5,000 people attended in the first year and it grew to more than 25,000 people in 2009, she said. In the past, only Hurricane Katrina has derailed the festival. (The Advocate)
Judy ChristieSynopsis: In Gone to Green, Lois goes from being a corporate journalist at a large paper in the Midwest to the owner of The Green News-Item, a small twice-weekly newspaper in rural North Louisiana. The paper was an unexpected inheritance from a close colleague, and Lois must keep it for at least a year, bringing a host of challenges, lessons, and blessings into her life.
When Lois pulls into Green on New Year’s Day, she expects a charming little town full of smiling people. She quickly realizes her mistake. After settling into a loaned house out on Route 2, she finds herself battling town prejudices and inner doubts and making friends with the most surprising people: troubled teenager Katy, good-looking catfish farmer Chris, wise and feisty Aunt Helen, and a female African-American physician named Kevin.
Whether fighting a greedy, deceitful politician or rescuing a dog she fears, Lois notices the headlines in her life have definitely improved. She learns how to provide small-town news in a big-hearted way and realizes that life is full of newsworthy moments. When she encounters racial prejudice and financial corruption, Lois also discovers more about the goodness of real people and the importance of being part of a community.
While secretly preparing the paper for a sale, Lois begins to realize that God might indeed have a plan for her life and that perhaps the allure of city life and career ambition are not what she wants after all.
Delta BluesA dollar donation for every book sold will be given to the Rock River Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping the arts and literacy in the Delta.
Contributing to the volume are Ace Atkins, Lynne Barrett, James Lee Burke, Suzann Ellingsworth, Beth Ann Fennelly, Bill Fitzhugh, Tom Franklin, John Grisham, Carolyn Haines, Charlaine Harris, Suzanne Hudson, Alice Jackson, Dean James, Toni L.P. Kelner, Michael Lister, Daniel Martine, Mary Saums, David Sheffield, Nathan Singer, and Les Standiford.
From the introduction by Morgan Freeman:This collection of short fiction captures both the art of the tale and the power of the blues, and is a nod at the human condition that often inspires musicians to write and sing the blues. These stories tell about bad men and bad women who sometimes do good—or sometimes follow their true nature. Some of these characters know all about the dangers of making a bargain with the devil. And some know the power of redemption. These are characters who would not be out of place in a Honeyboy Edwards tune, and would be right at home alongside the desolate wail of Clarksdale, Mississippi, native Son House. (from Square Books)
