Press Release
For Immediate Release, August 8, 2011

Contact: Diane Blanco
diane@LipstickDigest.com
281-380-7939

Tour of England to Include the American Queen

Since Prince William slipped that stunning ring of Diana’s on the delicate
left hand of darling Kate, America has paid rapt attention to their every
breath. Their royal fairy tale wedding only revved up our interest.
Headlines scream, “Kate wears same jeans three times on trip” or “Kate buys
her own groceries and cleans her own house!”  We remain atwitter at their
every move. I suppose it is refreshing that this royal couple is displaying
the first signs of normalcy since…surely one of them was once normal. I just
can’t bring them to mind.

Isn’t it time that we showed the English our royalty? I am not referring to
Beyoncé and Usher, although they are a lovely couple. I am speaking of the
Queen, herself, the Pulpwood Queen, that is, the woman who brought her love
of books to the people in the strangest of places, a beauty shop. And that
is where the legend began.

Kathy L. Patrick was a born book lover who parlayed that love into a career
as a publisher’s representative in California. Hard economic times cost her
a career that she loved. Never without internal resources, Kathy embraced
her second love, turning limp, lifeless hair into a masterpiece, a “crowning
glory” for all she touched.

Unable to give up her love of books and her desire to spread that love, she
opened the world’s only Beauty Shop/Bookstore, Beauty and the Book, in the
tiny kingdom of Jefferson, Texas.

Build a better mousetrap or taller beehive and the world will beat a path to
your door. Not only did clients come to have their hair done, her friends
from the publishing industry soon took notice and Beauty and the Book became
a regular stop on author’s book tours.

Kathy found her love of books was contagious and what began as one book club
multiplied and divided until they numbered over 500 across the U.S. and 12
foreign countries

Kathy opened Beauty and the Book on January 18, 2000 , an event covered by
Oxford American Magazine. “That article, entitled, “Hairdresser to the
Authors”, literally put me on the map.  Authors have been coming in droves
ever since and so has the media. To me it is just combining my two passions
in life, beauty and books. Since John Grisham was the magazine editor at the
time, I have a shrine to him in my shop.”

She is now undeniably the Pulpwood Queen of America and her subjects turn to
her every month for reading guidance and introductions to emerging new
authors. Once a year, in what is definitely the coldest month of the year in
Jefferson, Texas, she holds her Annual Girlfriend Weekend, where club
members and more than 50 well-known authors come for a love-fest of reading,
giddiness and more than just a few tiaras.

The weekend is filled with author panels, book signings and fun events where
authors serve meals or stage a humorous production, which may or may not
involve some cross-dressing. While it is all fun, the highlight of the
weekend must be the Great Big Ball of Hair Ball, where costumes and over the
top hair are de rigger. This year’s theme is The Circus—“The Greatest Book
Show on Earth”, as if it wasn’t already wild enough. Someone will most
likely arrive riding a pony. The pony may or may not be wearing a tiara.

Kathy has been seen on TV screens across the country on shows such as Oprah,
The Today Show, and Good Morning America. Now it is time to show England
what we’ve got. Kathy will travel across the pond to England on December 6
as the featured guest on the Stately English Homes at Christmas Tour,
sponsored by Kingwood Travel and LipstickDigest.com.

The tour departs Houston on Dec. 6 for London and includes visits to the
historic Peak District and Stratford-upon-Avon, Blenheim Palace, Chatsworth
House and Shugborough Hall, concluding with 2 additional days in London for
sightseeing and shopping. The cost of the tour, from Houston, is $2450, per
person, double occupancy, which includes roundtrip airfare on Continental, 6
breakfasts, 2 lunches a 3-course dinner, the services of a professional
Trafalgar guide, deluxe motor coach and all transfers. The tour returns
December 13.

This is the perfect opportunity for women who love books and, of course,
traveling with royalty to also experience the beauty of historic English
homes decked out for the holidays. It is also time for the English to take
notice that in America, a woman with a good book, a strong will and a tiara,
can be a queen.

For more information about joining the Stately English Homes at Christmas
Tour or discovering your own inner Pulpwood Queen, visit
www.LipstickDigest.com or email diane@LipstickDigest.com. Visit The Queen’s
website at www.BeautyandtheBook.com. Her best-selling book, The Pulpwood
Queen’s Guide to Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Life, is available in
bookstores and online.