Book Tour Virgin is Will Clarke.com

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Where the hell is Matt?

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Amy Tan: Where does creativity hide?

Once Upon A School

The two smartest brands at RAC are both from Portland: Voodoo Doughnut and Nau

Nau, is a new clothing line. Think Prada meets Patagonia. Except, Nau gives 5% of their sales, not 5% of profits, not 5% of the net, but 5% of total sales to a charity that they allow customers to select. (Patagonia, the gold standard for corporate giving gives 1%) Nau's business model is greener than Kermit and their clothers are bad-ass. They only have 4  brick and mortar stores now, but they also sell direct from their online portal. Oh, and they also have a great blog called The Thought Kitchen. I predict these guys will be huge. Smart, smart, smart.

Voodoo Doughnuts are just nuts. They make crazy-as-fuck doughnuts and they preform marriages at their store in downtown Portlands nightlife district. The founders, Cat Daddy and Tres, are funny as hell and extremely savvy when it comes to creating retail theater.  Their Voodo Doll Doughnut is pure genius. It's a doll-shaped jelly doughnut filled with raspberry filling "blood" which comes with a pretzel stick to inflict their cure. I want to fly to Portland just to try their doughnuts (the most expensive one is 5 bucks) because according to Tres, they won't ship the doughnuts because it disrespects the doughnuts. They are firm believers in the 6-hour lifespan of a doughnut, and I have to agree with them. This is exactly where Krispy Kreme got in trouble. Once you get an oddly moist yet oddly dry, day-old Krispy Kreme that you bought at Albertson's, or worse–a gas station–you just don't have that same warm feeling about the brand.

Pancakes

Meet My Favorite Bookseller

Meet the amazing Elisabeth Grant-Gibson, the most kick-ass radio host ever. She and Pat Grant are my two most favorite booksellers on this big blue planet. They also host a show called The Book Report. (click on the link and give them a spin. they rawk!) They're like the Click and Clack of the book world.  Pat and Elisabeth own Windows in Monroe, Louisiana, and like The Pulpwood Queens, they are a literary force to be reckoned with.

Pulpwood Queen Kathy Patrick Tells It Like It Is

All Hail The Pulpwood Queens!

The Pulpwood Queen has written a book, and a mighty fine one at that. It's a sparkledy goulash: two-parts big-hair memoir, one-part sexy lit professor reading list, and three-parts ruby slipper magic. My prediction is it'll hit the NYTime's Bestseller List this year.

If you don't know Kathy Patrick, you should. She's not just HRM of the most bodacious book club in the world and a kick ass author in her own right, she's a beacon of hope in the pop culture darkness. She is the great champion of literacy, the duchess of up-and-coming authors, the patron saint of beauty parlors, and a friend to all, great and small, permed or bald.

Kathy Patrick founded the Pulpwood Queens in 2000 to bring women together around the magic of books. What Kathy and the Pulpwood Queens have accomplished from their little Beauty and the Book Salon in Jefferson, Texas is astonishing. In fact, this weekend is their annual Girlfriend's Weekend and the astonishment will be unleashed at full throttle.

Supermodel turned novelist, Paulina Porizkova will be there pumping her book, Model Summer. (Maybe even with Rick Ocasek in tow.) Along with throngs of other authors like the amazing Darnell Arnoult, the GalleyCat himself, Ron Hogan, the indomitable Debbie Rodriguez of "Kabul Beauty School", Adrienne Barbeau, and many, many more fascinating authors and celebrities.

I'll be in Jefferson this weekend as one of the authors featured at Girlfriend's Weekend as well. And I'll be moblogging to help capture the crazy brilliance and irresistible charm of the Pulpwood Queens

Rhode Island Disc Jockey, Dan Yorke, Gets Owned By One Smart High School Student.

High Schooler's Mood: Pissed Off        Click here to find out why!