Mindy Friddle Meets the Pulpwood Queens

South Carolina native Mindy Friddle's first novel just came out in paperback, and among all the other things she's doing to promote it, she was recently invited to meet up with one of the country's most unusual--and increasingly influential--book groups. I got her to send Beatrice the following report...

I kicked off the paperback tour for my novel,The Garden Angel, with a visit to Beauty and the Book in Jefferson, Texas--the only combined hair salon and book store in the country. Owner Kathy Patrick is also founder of the Pulpwood Queens, a book group franchise with more than sixty chapters spread across the United States. The motto? "Tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the rule!" Each chapter has a "head queen" who runs the group. Men are "timber guys" and "head kings."

Kathy's store, book group, and successful author events have received national attention, including appearances on Good Morning America. A profile in The Los Angeles Times called Kathy's book clubs "one part Empire of Oprah, one part Steel Magnolias, and one part Walt Whitman standing on the street corner hawking Leaves of Grass."

Pulpwood Queens selections have included books by Linda Bloodworth Thomason and Rebecca Wells, and an event still in the works will feature author and musician Kinky Friedman--who happens to be running for governor in Texas with an irresistible slogan: "Let's get Kinky in the governor's mansion." But Kathy also takes pride in including a number of debut novels in her selections. Hallelujah!

I arrived at the appointed time at Beauty and the Book--a restored historical house with a picket fence and an enormous front porch--a place that provides customers with "go to town hair" and novels. A crowd of eager book club members milled about the grounds, donned in rhinestones and feathered boas. After a covered dish dinner, we settled on the porch, I read a few pages from my novel (in keeping with the theme I read from a scene in which a character is knitting a hair doily) and then we talked about writing and publishing. I found some of the most attentive readers ever, a number of whom brought notes and written questions for me. I was then ushered inside where I sat in a cheetah-print barber chair among rows of Redken supplies and hairdryers to sign books for a line of readers that filled the shop and spilled out the door.

Kathy drove me to the Shreveport airport at 5:30 the next morning. It was still dark, but she was perky as usual, and brought coffee and croissants. Her passion for reading extends in many directions; she's a strong advocate for literacy and believes in the power of reading to change lives. (Her own book, The Pulpwood Queen's Tiara Wearing, Book Bearing Guide to Life, is forthcoming from Warner.)

I wouldn't wear a tiara for just anyone, but for Kathy Patrick's Pulpwood Queens? Yep. Crown me.