Ballard Author Event

You are invited to a one-of-a-kind event on October 19: Ballard Authors & Neighbors. For the locals reading this post, you know that Ballardites stick together. It has the feel of a small town inside a big city. What has changed since I was a child is that Ballard has become a diverse quilt of art, music, hip shops and restaurants.

Mixed in, quietly among the stitches, are those of us that work with words. We wallflowers will come out of the Norwegian wood, so to speak, for an evening roundtable with 30 authors talking about writing, playing bingo, and signing books. Ballard's own Secret Garden Bookstore will sell books.

Come on out to Sunset Hill Community Club, 7-9pm, and join in the fun. Read the Ballard News Tribune article for more information and a peek at some of the authors that will be there.

Dish Up Literacy Tonight

Come eat out at Smokin' Pete's or other participating restaurants for a good cause! Page Ahead, Washington State's leading provider of children's books and literacy programs gets over 160,000 new books into kids' hands each year.

Tonight restaurants will donate 20% of sales to Page Ahead for their annual "Dish Up Literacy" night.  At Pete's also have live music tonight by Dysfunction Junction! So whether you come for the bluegrass, or the books, it's going to be a great night.

One last extra special perk: Secret Garden Bookstore will give you a 10% discount on book purchased for Page Ahead. We will have a book drop at Pete's all week, or you can purchase books and leave them there.

She-Smoke Contest Round Up -Week One

What a week! I just got off the phone with Rebekah Denn with Eat All About It. Many of you know her from her food writing days with the Seattle PI. She is a household name in foodieville. Now that the PI has closed it's doors (sigh), Rebekah is continuing to write about food around town and beyond at her blog as well as freelancing at a bazillion publications. Look for her interview with me this weekend!

Launching the She-Smoke contest brought a flood of interest and cool contest supporters. In case you missed it, click here to read all about it or go to my website.

A shout out to these bloggers who posted the contest:

The Diva, Ms. Dimovsky, on her Diva Q blog:
The lovely Holly Cupala on her blog Brimestone Soup
Heifer International, Portland
Grill Gal, Cyndi Allison on her Barbecue Master blog. Cyndi also has a great website - http://www.yesyoucangrill.com/

We've also lined up some exciting interviews and events for the book. These are also on the website:

-June 1st: Launch event at Smokin’ Pete’s, 6:30pm, co-sponsored by Secret Garden Bookshop. RSVP to julierbq@q.com.

-June 6th: Radio interview on Cooking Outdoors with Mr. Barbecue, Time TBD, Bruce Bjorkman, KXL radio

-June 8th: Radio interview on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Morning Living Show, 6am

-June 9th: Cooking demonstration/author event at Third Place Books, 7pm

-June 16th: radio interview on The BBQ Central Show, Time 6pm

And finally...big news....that I will post about tomorrow!