Greetings!

On this magical Sunday before Christmas, I finally feel like I have a moment or two to write! "Finally," indeed - it's been a month since my last entry!

Today, by the way, is not a day off - I'm working my final day at The Granada. After today's matinee performance of A Christmas Carol: Scrooge & Marley, I'm hosting the Book Group Reception.

It was my idea, I'm proud to say - after the show, several actors and the director will return to the stage and have a short discussion, a la "Inside the Actors Studio." After the discussion, Book Group members are invited to the gorgeous Founders Room, for a casual meet-n-greet, and some food, provided by local restaurant, The Chase. We've promoted this, albeit perhaps a bit late, in my mind. But I have about 25 people from book groups, coming to this show, for this event, and I'm thrilled! There may be more - who knows what groups finally read the Book Group Reception info in Thursday's Independent, or Friday's Daily Sound.

As I told my friend Irene, the Director of the SB Library - anything that has the word "Book" in it, with my name on it, I want to be a success."

And speaking of success!

Starshine and Cupcakes!, on Tuesday, December 9th, was a HUGE success! I arrived at Sullivan Goss early, to set up with Grant, who helped me immensely by running the register and handling all the book sales - about 165 sold that evening! We had a few very minor scares, before the 7pm start time, but nothing horrible, and the evening went off without a hitch.

Did I mention "success?" We had, in-and-out that evening, about 300 people at the party! Unbelieveable! I wanted this to be big, not just for me, but mostly for Starshine - and it was! She started signing books a bit before 7pm, and I had to cut the line and escort her to the microphone, about 10 minutes after our planned "event part" start time. Jerry Roberts was fantastic - he did a great intro, with some jokes and teasing, but very heartfelt support.

Starshine spoke a bit, read a bit, took some questions, and then back to the signing table. As I predicted (and hoped!), both lines were huge - to buy books and to get them signed. We planned the details quite well, I thought. John Roshell was invaluable to me - he got a "sound guy," who brought great sound equipment; that helped keep the audience's attention while Starshine spoke. Also, we all learned a valuable lesson after the last event we attended at this location - the speaker needs to up, on a platform, or a "stage." That way, all attention is focused on the speaker. John's makeshift platform worked like a charm!

We had a such a great time and it was such a wonderful and delightful surprise to see the turnout, to hear the happy and excited chatter of the crowd - they all seemed thrilled to be a part of what really felt like a fabulous and successful evening! The cupcakes were amazing! And Jen Malkin from the Independent was a fantastic partner, setting up "supplemental" food and pouring wine - all compliments of the Independent.

I've included a few photos here: John and Starshine, Starshine signing a book for Councilwoman Helene Schneider, and Starshine holding her "Star of Balloons." Another fantastic partner - Georgette Owens, of Festivities. Her balloon contribution was amazing and huge and was the frosting on the cake that evening - or perhaps I should say "frosting on the CUPcake!" This photo, by the way, appeared in the December 15th issue of Publishers Weekly. Guess who?!? :-)

Remember, you can purchase your copy of Keep Your Skirt On at local stores, Amazon.com, and http://www.keepyourskirton.com/.

As for plans for my next Launch Party - I've added a photo of my next client, Jane Heller (http://www.janeheller.com/). Clear your calendars for the Launch Party for Jane's book, Confessions of a She-Fan, February 28th, at Hollister Brewing Company, in Goleta (http://www.holllisterbrewco.com/).

Have a wonderful holiday, everyone!

K8.

Welcome to the Weekend

Another week gone, with lots of work done. Between Thursday night and Friday morning, I added three potential clients! "Yippee!" as my Mom says.

I sent my email blast for Starshine & Cupcakes, including the link to this blog. We'll see if anyone clicks and checks it out.

And the job at The Granada is getting more interesting.

Now, for a weekend off. You know, it took a bit of "work" to get used to being off on the weekends. When at Borders, I was often traveling or handling an event, or logged on to work on newsletters or press releases on the weekends. In fact, Sundays were pretty much given over to Borders DMM work - I would even go to the store and work there on Sundays.

But now that I'm no longer with Borders, I find myself with the weekends stretching before me, in what seems like a huge amount of time OFF. Today, I planned to spend all day cleaning my condo. All Day. Instead, even with my A.D.D. method of cleaning, I was done by 10:30am!

So now, I hit the road to run some errands! What a great thing a weekend off is.

K8.

Wednesday at Work

Good afternoon!

I'm working at my Granada job, trying to get inspired. What group or groups can I reach out to next, for tickets to A Christmas Carol? It's not easy, this group ticket sales world.

In my other life, I've added a new client, Erik O'Dowd, author of Gaviota, a novel. And planning Starshine Roshell's Launch Party, "Starshine & Cupcakes!" That will be a blast, I think, but a lot of work. Still - looking forward to it. Today, when I'm back in the home office, I intend to send out the email-invite, to my email list. "Presented by Great Books Literary Services." How cool is that?!?

K8.

After a Strange Weekend...

Good morning!

On this Monday morning, after that horrible weekend, all is nearly well. The Tea Fire, here in Montecito, is now 80% contained. That's great news, but the fires in Northern L.A., Sylmar and Orange County continue to rage.

I never got back to the SCIBA posting - sorry about that. It was a lot of fun, I think I made some contacts, but most importantly, I reconnected with that Book and Author Lover within me, that part of me that has driven me and my life and dreams for over the past two decades; or indeed, nearly my whole life. I was thrilled to see some of my favorite authors (and favorite people, actually): T. Jefferson Parker, Robert Crais, Kim-from-LA and Wade Lucas, to name a few. I met Joseph Wambaugh for the first time! And Whitley Strieber -as I told him at dinner, "I have been listening to you on Coast to Coast AM for years!" I really enjoyed our conversation. A new pal, I hope, will be Paula Yee - what fun we had for the few minutes she sat at my table during dinner. And of course, it's always wonderful to run into my new friend, Selden Edwards.

I'm so glad I went - of course, I had my doubts and my grumblings: "why did I sign up for this, why am I schlepping to L.A. for this?!?" But I'm so glad I spent the money and made the effort. Alas, going to SCIBA has only served to whet my appetite for Book Expo 2009, in NYC!

That's it for the SCIBA Roundup.

I have to say, before I post this and log off - I had a wonderful week of books and book events recently. More confirmation that I'm still destined for a career in some way in the wonderful world of books and authors.

My Book Week started at Tecolote, in Montecito, for a reading/signing by author and poet Diana Raab. It was an event I set up, but she took it further, with a delightful launch party, attended by about 70 people, noshing, talking about books and writing, listening to poems from Diana's new collection, Dear Anais: My Life in Poems for You.

Friday, November 7th, I went to a publication celebration for Hometown Santa Barbara. My client Starshine Roshell is a contributor. It was another delightful evening, meeting writers and others, for what is a lovely book. I strongly recommend it, for gift-giving!

This past Tuesday, I not only attended a SB Book & Author Fest board meeting (I'm happy to say it's still alive and kicking - stay tuned!), I also went to another book launch party downtown. This one was for Jenna McCarthy, author of The Parent Trip. It was a great little party at Due, the maternity store, and I enjoyed reconnecting with Jenna.

Although last Saturday's AfterWORDS event in Santa Clarita was cancelled due to the fires, it was still an amazing week of books and authors. Honestly, I feel reinvigorated, in this new career I've chosen!

Gotta run - meeting a new client today, at Borders. See? I just keep moving forward!

K8.

SCIBA!

I attended the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association trade show and Author's Feast, last Saturday.

I'll write more about it later, but in a nutshell - it really made me miss working with books, authors, bookselling and being a part of that world. I saw some old friends, scooped up some great books, made some wonderful connections.

And I realized that, come what may, I'm glad to be starting my freelance publicist business, working with a couple of local authors, learning as I go along, and staying in the wonderful world of books.

More about SCIBA later - right now, I have to dash out on an assignment for one of my clients, Starshine Roshell!

K8.

Real Employment Pending

On this lovely Tuesday morning, I find myself almost too busy!

I start a new job tomorrow, at the Granada, doing group ticket sales for the holiday show, A Christmas Carol. Should be a fantastic show - local actors, produced by the Granada, this version is written by Israel Horowitz, keeping it very true to Dickens' original prose and leaving much of his great dialogue intact.

First time for me, this "group sales" thing. But I'm looking forward to it. Or maybe I'm just looking forward to being employed again. Either way, I'll keep you posted on my progress!

K8.

Tuesday in Paradise

Fires are raging in SoCal, and although not close to Santa Barbara, they are close to several friends of mine.

David Lawrence, my favorite cookbook author (Boy Eats World!) is in Santa Clarita. Sue R. is in Thousand Oaks. Cathy Silvers is in Valencia. Many, many Borders pals are in various Valley locations. As far as I know, all are safe at the moment.

It's one of those things a California dweller learns to live and deal with - sudden, unexplainable, often very serious, even deadly wildfires. No more horrible than hurricanes on the Gulf Coast, tornadoes in the heartland, floods nearly everywhere, heatwaves in the desert states, and ice storms in the East and Northeast and Midwest. And did I mention earthquakes?

Where to live? Where is it completely safe? Nowhere, really. Every place, every section of the country has its issues and "downsides."

I guess it all boils down to: live where you love living, and hope for the best. Just like everyone else.

Stay safe, everyone - K8.

Working on a Monday

It's Monday, and I'm hard at work.

Yes, really. Work.

I'm becoming quite the volunteer these days, with all my free time. Today, I'm sending out invites to a fundraising luncheon, for a great org called Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. With a vision statement of "to give everyone equal access to the printed word," how could I NOT support this org? So some of my blog readers will get an invite to a free one hour luncheon, at the fabulous Fess Parker DoubleTree resort, on November 13th. Hope you all can come!

Sure, it's not a paying gig...OK, I promise to spend the next couple of hours trying to find a real job. How's that?

K8.

Kate Re-Blogs

Welcome to my blog! So far, I've made a blog, lost it somehow, rebuilt this one, and now I'm trying to recreate the two posts I've written thus far.

To no avail, as it turns out.

Be that as it may, I'll just move on, with this new blog post.

Today, I was on a radio show as a guest of Gigi, who hosts "Lunch Poems with Gigi." Her show comes from Kettering University, in Flint, MI. Trying to get my client on her show, she and I hit if off and she invited me to be a part of the show myself.

Who am I to turn down the opportunity to talk about myself? But Gigi threw me for a loop when she said, "Great! Think about your favorite poet, so we can discuss him/her on the show!"

Favorite poet? Me?!? I'm a haiku girl, myself.

Then I remembered a fabulous professor I had while at Indiana Central University - Dr. Allen. I took at least two of his classes, and those are the ones I remember the most (Econ Class, with my barely-squeaking by grade of D+, notwithstanding).

Dr. Allen taught Great American Novels and Short Stories, and American Writers. He was a master at deconstructing poems, showing us what the poet meant, showing us the crafting of the poems. He was really great when it came to Sylvia Plath, and her amazing poem, "Daddy."

So: Sylvia Plath, she's my favorite. Gigi didn't know much about Plath, but she plunged into Plath's journals and poems, and between the two of us, we gave a great show. Gigi asked me to read a poem I'd found while thumbing through my new Plath collection: "Ode to Ted."

It is, in short, a love poem to her husband, Ted Hughes. And it's beautiful, full of strong and lovely images. I hope I did the reading justice; for my part, I'll confess to getting a bit choked up after reading it aloud.

Gigi played an audio of Plath reading "Daddy," which makes that poem even more haunting. We had a great time discussing Plath, her poems, and poetry in general. I learned a lot, from Plath and from Gigi.

And really...that's my new goal these days - learn as much as I can, about my new life and new things, all the time!

Today, I'm heading to my pal Wayne's store, to see an author I've worked with in the past, Kathryn Cushman. Can't wait to see her - and Wayne!

Have a great Sunday - Kate.