Tornado!

“Kathy Murphy and her Pulpwood Queens are a source of much-needed inspiration and big-heartedness in the world of books and book clubs. The tales here are as wise as they are entertaining, a testament to living large and joyfully in a sisterhood of storytelling”. --Paula McLain, New York Times best-selling author of The Paris Wife and Love and Ruin

Thanks to Brother Mockingbird Publishing, I’d like to share an excerpt from one of the Pulpwood Queens featured in the collection, The Pulpwood Queens Celebrate 20 Years!

Kathryn Casey

It’s the 2010 Girlfriend Weekend. I stand at the entrance to the Great Big Ball of Hair Ball and watch the Pulpwood Queens and authors arrive. The party’s theme is The Wizard of Oz, and the room fills with blue-and-white gingham-clad Dorothys, raggedy scarecrows, complete character sets with thick-maned lions and clanking tin men. A Glinda strolls by. Then Ad Hudler, one of my fellow authors, shuffles in with his head encased in a green cardboard box. A curtain covers the front. He pulls a cord and it opens. Ad’s face painted emerald green, he’s OZ, the great and powerful. A maniacal look in his eyes, Ad says with a whiff of pomposity, “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t you think?” A Wicked Witch laughs so hard tears spill down her cheeks ruining her thick black eyeliner.

I’m an Oz aficionado. A display case in my office overflows with Wizard mementos, including a sign warning people that I have flying monkeys. I don’t see how the Hair Ball can get any better. Then Kathy L. Murphy walks in the room. Her long blond hair hidden beneath a knit cap that erupts into a spray of ominous black netting, the PQ’s matriarch wears a tented grey dress. Her eyelids painted dark, at her neck a Guernsey cow appears caught in a strong wind, a tractor on a chain dangles helplessly, and the pin on her chest reads: “I’d rather be in Oz.” The Pulpwood Queen has come to the ball as the tornado. It’s hard to imagine a higher-energy group. The enthusiasm at a Hair Ball flows like champagne spilling over a thousand champagne glasses stacked in tiers. The music pounds, the PQs toss off worries, dance and enjoy the night. One such evening, I was in a line of five authors who mimicked the Supremes dancing to Baby Love. Another year, I dressed as the Cheshire Cat and joined in on a pantomime routine while Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit bellowed through the room. Still, as important as laughter and good times are—the older I get the more vital I consider both—another aspect of my Pulpwood Queen adventure is even more satisfying: the camaraderie of readers and authors, the leisurely unstructured time to kick back and talk to folks who love books as much as I do.

At Girlfriend Weekend, I listen to readers, who tell me what they look for in a book. They explain why they enjoyed one book, while they never finished another. We share stories about our families, our lives, our pasts and our presents, our wishes and our dreams. It’s a rare opportunity to connect with others on a very personal level.

Read more about Kathryn Casey’s adventure here

The Pulpwood Queens of East Texas as Wizard of Oz characters at Somewhere Over the Rainbow Great Big Ball of Hair Ball Girlfriend Weekend 2010