Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Tiara-Wearing and Book-Sharing


















By Theresa Shadrix
Consolidated Publishing, Co.
01-28-08

It is not everyday that you come upon a Southern gal wearing a tiara in Jacksonville. Unless you are Lauren Moon, the newly crowned Miss JSU or perhaps Teresa Cheatham Stricklin, who surely must dust off her Miss Alabama crown every now and then just for fun.

Recently, Kathy L. Patrick, author of The Pulpwood Queens Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life, made a stop in Jacksonville during her first national book tour and I was able to meet her tiara-to-tiara. Yes, I greeted her in my tiara and of course, she was wearing a nicely polished tiara.

And, we turned a few heads.

Kathy is difficult to explain and even she admits it. “I am a beautician, turned book publishing representative who was fired so I opened the only beauty shop-book store in the country.” As she takes a deep breath, she adds, “Oh, and I started The Pulpwood Queens book club and it is the largest in the world.”

The Kansas native who now calls Texas her home talks passionately about her love of big hair, beauty, reading and books. Her salon in Texas, Beauty and the Book, is decorated with mementos of her book royalness and is a frequent stop of both authors and book lovers. You just have to read her book to soak it all in. Part memoir, part motivation and part book recommendations, it is one whole book of fun and inspiration.

Each chapter details her journey from a shy girl with an aspiring actress mother who often neglected her needs to a book publishing rep who was downsized to the owner of the only bookstore/beauty salon to a book club organizer. Then at the end, she gives book recommendations related to that chapter.

As you read this, you are probably trying to connect the dots from tiaras to reading, but Kathy is the Queen of making reading fun. You see, the Pulpwood Queens book club motto is “Where tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the rule!” This is not your grandmother’s book club because everyone wears a tiara, dresses up in hot pink and leopard print and reads a book selected by Kathy each month. This month, her own book and Robin Roberts’ From the heart: Seven Rules to Live By are the book selections.

Kathy Patrick is one of those people who never meets a stranger and oozes Southern charm. And, she does it holding a book in one hand and a shiny tiara on her big, Texas hair. But don’t take my word for it, check her blog out at www.pulpwoodqueen.com