Superb Book Launch Party for Sleeping With Ward Cleaver

Jenny Gardiner's next book should be "How to Promote Your Book." Last night, a few hundred of Jenny's closest friends (in other words, le tout Charlottesville) gathered upstairs at the Paramount Theater, where Jenny and husband Scott hosted a fantastic book launch party for Jenny's first novel, Sleeping With Ward Cleaver. By the time I arrived, the book-signing line snaked out the door, and people were snapping up multiple copies.

The food was so good, I wondered who the caterer was. I was thinking how lucky Jenny was, to get this kind of support from her publisher. Turns out, Jenny and her friends provided the food and drink, and the entire wingding was the author's undertaking. There were clever decorations using the graphics from the cover of her book, and the volunteer waitstaff sported matching aprons and pink rubber gloves which evoked the June Cleaver, early-'60s zeitgeist so intrinsic to Jenny's novel.

The evening was a huge success, and I have no doubt that in a few hundred Virginia homes this Sunday afternoon, people are chatting in person or online with their friends about Jenny's book, and curling up with a copy of Sleeping With Ward Cleaver and enjoying every minute of it.

My hat is off to Jenny (that would be a pink pillbox hat) for talent and creativity that extend well beyond the pages of her book.