Today, I have one of the most unusual authors and persons, I have interviewed.  She is Kathy Patrick, owner of Beauty and the Book, the only hair salon/book store in the world, and the founder of The Pulpwood Queens, the largest book club in the world.  A truly amazing person.  But, I’ll let her tell you.

 JRC:   Beauty and the Book. I have to love it. How did that come about?

KATHY:  I got downsized from my job as a book publisher’s rep. I had not a clue what to do as no one was hiring for that type of position so I called my sister, Karen. She told me quite matter of factly, “Why don’t you go back to doing hair?” I put myself through college being a hairdresser, a means to an end. I told her I think I would be bored. She quickly replied, “Well do the book thing too!” All these bells and whistles went off, I could do author events, give them makeovers, thus Beauty and the Book.

JRC:   And this led into the Pulpwood Queens. How did that come about?

KATHY:  Shortly after I opened Beauty and the Book, January 2000, the local book club invited me to what I thought was an invitation to JOIN their book club. Not. At the end of the lovely luncheon meeting when we were sipping cordials, I blurted out, “Oh thank you for inviting me to be in your book club.” Before I could finish my spiel, the hostess pulled me out into the galley of her plantation home and whispered she was sorry, but I had only been invited as a guest. You see, only eight could be in their book club as that was all that fit around their tables. Unless someone died or moved away, only then would I be considered.

I was embarrassed, truly humiliated, that I had invited myself to join this club. So thus, The Pulpwood Queens Book Club was born as I was driving home and brainstorming. I thought if there is ever going to be a book club that I want to be in, I’ll just have to start it!

It’s the first chapter in my book, The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life, the story of my life in books, how they saved me and have given me everything I have ever dreamed for too!!!

JRC:   Am I correct that the Timber Guys Book Club came a bit later? Tell us how that happened.

KATHY:  Basically, there are a few, very few, guys who wanted to start chapters and then we have our husbands who haul and tote! They love to attend the parties but do they read? Some do, but most are just along for the book club reading ride!

JRC:   And you have world-famous authors visiting you. And I understand you give them a hair care services. Tell us about your most favorite author who visited Beauty and the Book.

KATHY:  I would have to say it was Pat Conroy, who is my favorite living author of all time and I wasn’t even there. Seriously, my booking agent asked for my shop key as Pat wanted to see my Beauty and the Book while I was running my book club festival! Lucky, for me, she did take pictures and I have a shrine to him at my check out station at my shop including his infamous khakis pants. His daughter Melissa Conroy wrote a children’s books called POPPY’S PANTS based on her childhood memory. When Pat Conroy found out I had asked authors for a personal item SIGNED to auction for my charity of choice, Dolly Parton Imagination Library, he dropped his pants, signed them and we raised nearly $1,000 for our cause.

The now Washington D.C. attorney/author, M. L. Malcolm walked up to me at the end of our Great Big Ball of Hair Ball festivities, handed me a bottle of wine and those pants saying, “Nobody deserves Pat’s pants better than you!”

The kindness of my author friends overwhelms me. But yes, I do offer hair care services to my authors and my favorite author is the late great Kathi Kamen Goldmark! I met her at a Rock Bottom Remainders Concert in New York City at the infamous Webster Hall and she dedicated a song to my Pulpwood Queens! She came to visit me and I since then did her hair for two of the Rock Bottom Remainder Concerts and she and her husband, Sam Barry would come in for my Girlfriend Weekends. She recently passed away from cancer and I will always hold near and dear our “beauty” times together.

JRC:  Give us one more famous person whose hair you do and who is a real book lover.

KATHY:  Hmmm.  There are so many.  But Joan Rivers is a great reader and a wonderful, wonderful person. If all my clients were like Joan Rivers, my life’s work would be a dream.

JRC:   Have you franchised this idea of Beauty and the Book, or the Pulpwood Queens?

KATHY:  I have 540 Pulpwood Queens chapters nationwide and now in 15 foreign countries and we are the ONLY “meeting and discussing” book club in the world that all read the same books that I select.

JRC:  There’s so much more to cover, I’m going to stop here.  We’ll pick up the rest of the story next week when Kathy tells about the books she’s written and the incredible events the Pulpwood Queens hold each year.  Be sure to come back.  However, don’t wait to leave a comment for Kathy.  She didn’t turn lemons into lemonade, she turned it into a franchise.  Stay tuned.

Of course, I encourage you to leave a comment today, also.  Thanks.