Meet Kathy L. Murphy

“Kathy L. Murphy is a force of nature. She didn’t merely take a lemon and make lemonade. With her drive, courage, imagination, and, most powerfully, her abundant love, she made a big lemon pie with whipped cream and cherries on fop. She is proof that dreams are out there to be realized. Read her book and go forth!”

—Rue McClanahan, author of My First Five Husbands . . . And the Ones Who Got Away

“Kathy Murphy is the patron saint of writers and readers. If she didn’t exist, we writers would have to invent her.” —Doug Marlette, author of Magic Time

You know Kathy is passionate about connecting readers and authors, but did you know that she once worked as a book publisher’s representative? Y’all it’s all about the story and Kathy L. Murphy has many to tell. Below is an excerpt from book, The Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing, Guide to Life

“…a couple years later, after having our first child, I decided I was going to pursue a job that was—besides hair—my other true passion. I love to read and I love books. I decided that I wanted to work in a bookstore. Starting as a lowly bookseller, I began working from the ground up in a nearby independent bookstore. Several months later, I was promoted to children’s manager and buyer. I read everything I could get my hands on—books, trade magazines, and book-publisher catalogs. I absorbed the book business like a sponge. I lived and breathed books and began to feel as if printer’s ink was coursing through my veins. I commuted back and forth to the bookstore even through my second pregnancy, and I worked there for most of my children’s formative years. Then I was made an offer I could not refuse. I accepted the job of a book lover’s lifetime: I became a book publisher’s representative. I loved working in the bookstore. Not only were books my friends, but that bookstore and my coworkers became my second family. I compare those years at the bookstore with my first twelve years of schooling and being raised by my family. I had learned everything I possibly could, but now, with my new job offer, it was time to graduate. Here would be the job, the career, that would be my lifelong profession.

Being a publisher’s rep was my dream come true, and I would have happily done that job for the rest of my days.

You know the expression Every cloud has a silver lining? A friend of mine once reversed it. She said, “Every silver lining has a cloud.” I am here to tell you that, backwards, it is every bit as true.”

Read more of Kathy L. Murphy’s journey in THE PULPWOOD QUEENS’ TIARA WEARING, BOOK SHARING, GUIDE TO LIFE. “Kathy Murphy is an American original—a renegade housewife, mother, beautician, and bibliophile, who has made books as much a part of her life as hair curlers and car pools. She has a voice as unique and memorable as many of those she has championed.” —Linda Bloodworth Thomason, author of

Liberating Paris