Denver White Elephant Extravaganza!

Scene at Denver Literary Ladies Luncheon December Extravaganza: Sharon Glassman, Christie Hartman, Nancy Hightower, Karen Carter, Kate Schafer Testerman (face obscured).

Denver's second annual LLL White Elephant Gift Exchange was held yesterday at the Gracious Home of Bella Stander, National Cofounder & Western Social Secretary. Everyone shared food, drinks and tastefully wrapped dreadful (or not-so) regifts. To add to the fun, there was an Accessories Swap. Gold hoop earrings were the thing to de-accession; at least 7 pairs were up for grabs (seen at Karen Carter's rear, above).

Carleen Brice demonstrated her "Welcome White Folks" video, to much hilarity. Andrea Cohen is seated at left; Sharon is looking over her shoulder. At the next screening, Tamara Greenleaf laughed so hard she cried; she's wiping her tears at right. Carleen gave a copy of her book, ORANGE MINT & HONEY, and an audiobook. Not exactly White Elephants, but they were greatly appreciated.

Left, Denise Turner receives the gift acclaimed as Best Wrapped. Little did she know what many of us guessed: that it contained the ghastly double-necked vase Carleen got last year. We expect it to reappear in 2009. A can of guava paste has been circulating in Charlottesville for a decade; here's hoping it turns up again this Friday.

Right, the Tackiest Gift, a balky lava lamp bestowed on Karen by Nancy Hightower.



Above left, Sharon models a fetching ensemble--black knit cap & mauve camisole--received from Janet Singleton (rear), who's holding the finishing touch: a red-flowered scarf. Center, Christie models a belt from the Accessories Swap. Right, Nancy models a flowered neck--we think--thing and black handbag, from Vanessa Appleby, who had to leave (escape?) before all the gift giving.



Left, Janet responds to Kristin Nelson's gift of a pewter spittoon...er, urn...er, vase?



Right, Bella with the Most Ghastly Gift, courtesy of Denise, who gave as good (i.e., bad) as she got.





As you can see, Janet was stunned by the spotted green frog from Denise. Carleen was amazed by an opened bag of Snickers bars (another Halloween leftover) and can of evaporated milk from Debra. They were packed in the most precious and patriotic gift bag EVER (the trifecta: teddy bear, angel & American flag). For some reason Carleen refused to take it with her, so it was squirreled away by Bella, to make a glorious reappearance next year.



More hapless giftees.

Left, Debra Goldyn with Nelly CD.

Right, Elizabeth Wrenn with PURE SKIN. (Note how her eyes match the book jacket!)



Left: Pleased (or faking it) recipient Paula Singer and giver Elizabeth Wrenn with--ick!--POOH'S LITTLE BOOK OF FENG SHUI.

Below: Best-Coordinated Package & Recipient Nancy Jarrell and bag (Denise is at left). Inside was a silver bookmark in the shape of a heart. Groans all around for its being truly lovely.













Happy giftees Kate Schafer Testerman with cat thingy; Kristin Nelson with DOGA: Yoga for Dogs (dog on left resembles her Chutney).

Welcome to the African-American Books Section!

The Welcome White Folks video is out in the world. LLLer Carleen Brice, aka the Black Book Welcome Lady, states that no non-black people were harmed in the making of it. In fact, she treated us to lunch afterward. (I'm in the rousing and heartwarming finale; most of the cast is in the LLL.)

New York Approves of LLLer!

Carleen Brice made it into the BRILLIANT HIGHBROW section in The Approval Matrix for her National Buy a Book By a Black Author & Give It to Somebody Not Black Month. I wrote about NBBBAGISNBM here and here (with demented pix of yours truly).

Be sure to read Carleen's new blog, White Readers Meet Black Authors. Today's post has the Top 10 reasons white people should read books by black people:

8. Seriously, haven't you read enough Philip Roth? Jewish guy obsessed with sex and death. Oy! Enough already.

Blurbs needed for WWII Book - Know Any Experts?

Maybe you know a WWII historian or other authority on the subject. LLLer Alice Faintich could use your help, and sends the following request:

As some of you might remember from a discussion one Friday, a second edition of my father’s book, The Ice Road, will be published in the U.S. and pretty much the rest of the English-speaking world either next fall to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the start of WWII or early in 2010 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the start of the deportations of Poles by the Soviet Union.

The book is dad’s memoires, as a 15-year-old, of being deported with his parents to a labor camp in Siberia; of life in the camp; and then of the long journey, including by raft from the forest to the nearest railhead, to get out of the Soviet Union and join up with the Polish army being formed under the British in what was then Persia.

The first edition, published in the U.K. got excellent reviews in the British papers and sold out, but the publisher fell down on the marketing side and did little to no promotion of the book, something we plan to redress with this second edition. The new edition is the same book, but with the addition of some new material, such as a historical background to put the memoires in context for readers, most of whom know nothing about this aspect of WWII.

To this end, we are looking for people to write blurbs for the jacket. Do you know anyone who has name recognition, possibly, but this is not critical, who is associated with, say, history or WWII, who we might approach for such a blurb once we have review copies ready?

Many thanks,

Alice
(Responses should go to me at alicefaintich [at] cyberwind [dot] net.)

Elizabeth Howard's Documentary Debuts at VA Film Fest!

Elizabeth Howard's documentary, Rosalina's Faith in America,
will be screened at the Virginia Film Festival on Sunday, November 2nd at 3 p.m. at the Gravity Lounge in Charlottesville. The film tells the story of an immigrant Italian's struggle to honor her faith and her family.

[Gravity Lounge is located at 103 South First Street, across the Downtown Mall from Hamilton’s restaurant.]

Moviemaking in Charlottesville
3:00 PM, Gravity Lounge

Four short films by Charlottesville filmmakers addressing aspects of the Aliens! theme: Space Movie by Aidan Keith-Hynes and Chris Yeaton, an animated short film from Light House that takes a whimsical and irreverent look at the possibility of alien life forms. My Day With Conrad, in which local filmmaker Doug Bari gets the chance to spend a whole day with Conrad Brooks, the last surviving member of the original Ed Wood film Plan 9 from Outer Space. Sahar Before The Sun, by Sahar Adish, the story of a young Afhani teenager's escape from the Taliban, produced at Light House.

Rosalina's Faith in America, by Elizabeth Howard, tells the story of an Italian immigrant whose religious conversion leads to family fury and the building of a church she believes in. This film is narrated by Vito Cetta, Rosalina's son and a Charlottesville architect.

[In photo: Vito and Rosalina Cetta.]

What's Your Book About?

If your answer to the above question is, "Um, well...it's kind of like Gone With the Wind meets The Wind in the Willows meets The Winds of War," then you might need LLL cofounder Bella Stander's "Polish Your Pitch!" seminar. She's coming back to beautiful Charlottesville to conduct it at WriterHouse next Saturday, October 18, 1-3pm.

You can read an interview with Bella (which includes the #1 mistake new writers make when describing their books) on the WriterHouse home page. There's more info about the seminar--and how to register for it--HERE.

Literary Ladies Awarded!

On October 8, Boulder LLLer Kim Reid won the Colorado Book Award in Nonfiction for her memoir, NO PLACE SAFE. Hooray for Kim!

On Sept 25, Denver LLLer Carleen Brice won the African American Literary Awards Show prize for Break-out Novel of the Year for her debut, ORANGE MINT AND HONEY. (Her 2nd novel, CHILDREN OF THE WATERS, will be released in July; read the prologue.) Hooray for Carleen!

Charlottesville Literary Ladies will remember Kim & Carleen from this year's LLL Summit at VaBook.