Showing posts with label Big Book Club Getaway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big Book Club Getaway. Show all posts

Friday, September 12, 2014

The Big Book Club Getaway Presents "Mystery and Martinis" at the Kate

There's mystery and suspense brewing at the The Kate! 

Saturday, September 27 at 7:00 p.m., join the folks that bring you the Big Book Club Getaway and meet bestselling mystery and suspense authors at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook, CT.

There will be Martinis, Hors D'oeuvres, Books and More!  

Here are the authors who will be in attendance!



Tess Gerritsen: Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D. While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. Call After Midnight, a romantic thriller, was followed by eight more romantic suspense novels. She also wrote a screenplay, Adrift, which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.


John Searles: John was born and raised in New England, the son of a truck-driver father and stay-at-home mom. When he was a teen, his parents announced that they were going to start sending him trucking with his dad in order to “make a man out of him.” Since there was only so long he could stare out the window or listen to the crackle of other truckers’ voices on the CB, John began devouring books on those trips – most were by Stephen King and John Irving, since those were the mass market titles available at truck stops, along with his father’s trucker erotica, which John would sneak out from their hiding place beneath the mattress in the back. Those books, and all the miles on the road, might not have made a man out of him in the way his parents intended, but they did make him a reader and writer.

Lisa Unger: New York Times and internationally bestselling author Lisa Unger‘s accolades include selections as an International Thriller Writers “Best Novel” finalist, a Silver Medal winner in the Florida Book Awards, a Prix Polar International Award finalist, and a Target “Emerging Author.” Her writing has been hailed as “stellar” (USA Today), “sophisticated” (New York Daily News) and “meaningful” (Washington Post) with “gripping narrative and evocative, muscular prose” (Associated Press). Her novels have been named Indie Next, Walmart Book Club, Today, Good Morning America, Harper’s Bazaar, Washington Life, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Publishers Weekly Best Book, International Book of the Month, and Amazon Top Ten Thriller picks. More than 1.7 million copies of her books have been sold in twenty-six languages. She lives in Florida.



Alafair Burke: Alafair Burke is the author of two power house series that have earned her a reputation for creating strong, believable, and eminently likable female characters, such as NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and Portland Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid. Alafair’s novels grow out of her experience as a prosecutor in America’s police precincts and criminal courtrooms, and have been featured by The Today Show, People Magazine, The New York Times, MSNBC, The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Chicago Sun-Times. According to Entertainment Weekly, Alafair “is a terrific web spinner” who “knows when and how to drop clues to keep readers at her mercy.”


David Handler: a recovering journalist who was born and raised in Los Angeles and wrote two highly acclaimed novels about growing up there, Kiddo and Boss, before resorting to a life of crime fiction. He is the Edgar Award-winning author of the Stewart Hoag and Berger & Mitry mysteries. He has also won an American Mystery Award and been a finalist for the Anthony, Dilys and Derringer Awards. Runaway Man, his first novel to feature the feisty 137-pound New York City private eye Benji Golden, debuted last fall. He is currently at work on a sequel. His tenth Berger & Mitry novel, The Coal Black Asphalt Tomb, was published in March by Minotaur. Mr. Handler, who has written extensively for television and film on both coasts, presently lives in a 200-year-old carriage house in Old Lyme, Connecticut.


Hank Phillippi Ryan: Our moderator for the evening, Hank Phillippi Ryan, is the on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s NBC affiliate. She’s won 32 EMMYs, 12 Edward R. Murrow awards and dozens of other honors for her ground-breaking journalism. A bestselling author of seven mystery novels, Ryan has won multiple prestigious awards for her crime fiction: the Agatha, Anthony, Daphne, Macavity, and for The Other Woman, the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. National reviews have called her a “master at crafting suspenseful mysteries” and “a superb and gifted storyteller.” Her newest thriller, The Wrong Girl, has the extraordinary honor of winning the 2013 Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel, and the 2014 Daphne Award for Mainstream Mystery/Suspense! A six-week Boston Globe bestseller, it is also an Anthony nominee, a Patriot Ledger bestseller, and was dubbed “Another winner” in a Booklist starred review and “Stellar” by Library Journal. She’s a founding teacher at Mystery Writers of America University and 2013 president of national Sisters in Crime. Watch for her next novel, Truth Be Told, on October 7, 2014.


And it's all for a good cause!

Our charity partner for this year’s Big Book Getaway event at The Kate is REACH OUT AND READ CT.  Reach Out and Read prepares America’s youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together. When you purchase your ticket to our September 27th event on our website, BE SURE TO ENTER THE PROMOTIONAL CODE "READ" , and REACH OUT AND READ CT will receive $10 from that ticket purchase.


Visit the The Big Book Club for details and ticket purchase: http://www.thebigbookclub.org/katharine-hepburne-cultural-center-meet-bestselling-novelists/

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Big Book Club Luncheon with Jane Green and Dorie Greenspan at the Bee and Thistle Inn

Join the wonderful folks from the Big Book Club for a lunch and learn at the Bee and Thistle Inn in Old Lyme CT! Sponsored by The Day - Connecticut.


Meet two amazing authors, cookbook author Dorie Greenspan, and inspirational writer Jane Green.

When: Saturday, August 23 from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.

Where: The Bee and Thistle Inn, 100 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT 06371

Information: $45 ticket price includes lunch and dessert at the beautiful Bee and Thistle Inn. Books will be available for sale by Bank Square Books of Mystic, CT.

Tickets available HERE

Welcome and book signing by award-winning cookbook author, Dorie Greenspan

Dorie is the author of Baking: From My Home to Yours,  Paris Sweets: Great Desserts From the City's Best Pastry Shops, and Around My French Table, and MORE!

Keynote Speaker: Jane Green

Jane Green is the author of fifteen bestselling novels which are mature stories of real women dealing with obstacles that forever change our lives, from the blissful to the tragic, and all told with her trademark wit, wisdom, and compassion. Her newest is no exception. Tempting Fate is her riveting, heartrending, and ultimately hopeful new novel, praised by Kirkus as “a Scarlet Letter for the 21st Century.”

Jane wrote Family Pictures while sitting by the fireplace at the Bee & Thistle Inn. “I booked myself into the Bee & Thistle for a self-imposed writing retreat,” Green says. “They were actually closed, but the owners opened it up for me, and I spent every day sitting in a large wing chair by the fire writing. It was peaceful, beautiful, and the perfect environment to allow me to lose myself in my characters for five days. I actually managed to finish my book in that wing chair, and hugely look forward to doing it again soon.”

Don't miss this wonderful event on Saturday, August 23, 2014 at the Bee and Thistle Inn, and experience the special place where Jane found her inspiration for Family Pictures.
 
 
For more information visit the Big Book Club at http://www.thebigbookclub.org/lunch-jane-green-bee-thistle-inn/

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The Big Book Club Getaway 2014 at the Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino


The Big Book Club Getaway - returns to the Mohegan Sun!

Read my recap of last year's event HERE


Choose from over 20 exciting presentations 

by more than 70 bestselling authors!


Friday Events (check the event schedule HERE)


Pillow Talk ~ Bestselling Romance and Erotica Authors
  • Featuring: Eloisa James, Laura Kaye, Cathy Maxwell, and L. Marie Adeline
Literary Libations at the Lansdowne Pub
  • Featuring: Tim Federle and Tom Acitelli

Saturday Events (check the event schedule HERE)


A Hero’s Tale – Military Memoirs and Biographies
  • Featuring: Artis Henderson, Jason “Jay” Redman, and Captain Glenn Sulmasy
Novel Ideas – Male Authors in Journalism and Fiction
  • Featuring: Norb Vonnegut, Pete Hamill, and David Handler
Writers at Work
  • Featuring: Christopher Castellani, Adam Sexton, Stuart Parnes, and Julia Pistell
Magical Fiction – Spirits, Mystery and Wonderment
  • Featuring: Sarah Addison Allen, Karen White, and Suzanne Palmieri (Hayes)
The Way We Were – Historical Fiction
  • Featuring: Charlotte Rogan, Stephanie Lehmann, Donna Russo Morin and Heather Webb
International Thrillers
  • Featuring: J.E. Fishman, Kitty Pilgrim, and Nick Hahn
Steamy Stories – Bestselling Romance and Erotica Authors
  • Featuring: Eloisa James, Laura Kaye, Cathy Maxwell, and L. Marie Adeline
A Conversation with William Mann ~ Hollywood Biographer
  • Featuring: William Mann
The World’s Strongest Librarian – Josh Hanagarne
  • Featuring: Josh Hanagarne
Now Boarding – Travel and Culture
  • Featuring: Nina Sovich, Susan Conley and Eloisa James
Whodunnit? Mystery and Suspense
  • Featuring: Jennifer McMahon, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Rosemary Harris and Hank Phillipi Ryan
Toil and Trouble – Witches and the Occult
  • Featuring: Brunonia Barry, Marybeth Reilly McGreen, Maggi Smith Dalton, and Paul Caranci
Reflections in the Light – Christian Writers
  • Featuring: Tessa Afshar, Allia Zobel Nolan, Carol Barnier and Lucinda Secrest McDowell
A Peek Behind The Curtains – Broadway Revealed
  • Featuring: Susan L. Schulman, Jennifer Ashley Tepper and Peter Filichia
Kiss and Tell – Harlequin Romance authors
  • Featuring: Kristan Higgins, Shannon Stacey, Natalie Charles and Kristine Rolofson
Telling My Truth – Memoir and the Self
  • Featuring: Karen Dietrich, Mellini Kantayya and Diane Smith
Finding Our Way in The World
  • Featuring: Qais Akbar Omar, Carlos Eire, Brando Skyhorse, and Christopher Castellani
Delicious Writing – Books with Food
  • Featuring: Giulia Melucci and Suzan Colón
On Water and Relationships – River Journeys
  • Featuring: David “Bugsy” Morine, Joseph Monninger, Dr. Cindy Lovell, and Wick Griswold
Ellora’s Cave ~ Erotica
  • Featuring: Avril Ashton, Karen Stivali, Tara Nina, and Diana Hunter
Touring Connecticut ~ Tales and Travels
  • Featuring: Diane Smith, Eric Lehman and Garrison Leykam


Addicted? Harvard Doctors Speak Out
  • Featuring: Dr. Robert L. Doyle, Joseph Shrand, MD, and Dr. Sylvester “Skip” Sviokla, III, M.D.
New England in Fiction
  • Featuring: Joseph Monninger, Nan Parson Rossiter, and Jane Green

Register and purchase your tickets HERE 

Sunday, September 15, 2013

The Big Book Club Presents "Frighteningly Delicious" - A Fall Halloween Program




On October 27, 2013 the team that launched The Big Book Club Getaway at Mohegan Sun earlier this year is pleased to announce a brand new event  at The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (“The Kate”). 

This fall Halloween program will be "Frightfully Delicious" and includes a psychic medium and gourmet treats. 

Doors open at 10am and the event will conclude at 3pm




The fabulous line-up of authors that will be presenting that day includes:


Roberta Isleib aka Lucy Burdette,
author of the Key West Food Critic murder mysteries, An Appetite for Murder, Death in Four Courses, and Topped Chef


Suzanne Palmieri aka Suzy Hayes,
author of The Witch of Little 
Italy and I’ll Be Seeing You; 


Brunonia Barry,
author of The New York Times and internationally bestselling novel,
The Lace Reader and The Map of True Places,


B.A. Shapiro,
New York Times bestselling and #1 Indie pick author of 
The Art Forger.  


 
Local authors, Paul Ferrante (Last Ghost at Gettysburg), Sydney Sherman (You are Not Alone), Eileen Kaplan (Laughter is the Breast Medicine), and Tedd Levy (Remarkable Women of Old Saybrook) will also meet guests and sign their books.

During lunchtime, an art activity will be offered by The Drunken Palette to benefit the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation. http://terribrodeurbreastcancerfoundation.org.  

A portion of the proceeds from all book sales will also go to 
Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation.

Psychic Medium Angelina Diana will speak about spirit communications and perform random readings throughout the audience.

Tickets are $55 each and include a gourmet boxed lunch and dessert sponsored by Bliss Gourmet of Westbrook.  

Cash bar and themed cocktails available.  


Books will be available for sale by R.J.Julia Booksellers.  


Other sponsors include The Day, the Bee and Thistle Inn, Middlesex Hospital, and Barnum Financial Group.  





Questions?

CONTACT:  Colleen Doyle LaFrancois at (860) 460-0875 or Susan McCann at (860) 767-1707




300 Main Street
Old Saybrook, CT 06475
860-510-0473
October 27, 2013
Event Schedule: 10:00am - 3:00pm

Click HERE for schedule details



The Big Book Club is a creation of LaFrancois Marketing Consultants and Essex Books. 

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Aggie's Restaurant, Essex Books, & Gather in Ivoryton

Hooray! My missing notebook, misplaced at Leeza Gibbons' table, was found (!!!) by none other than Sue McCann, owner of Essex Books, and co-founder of the Big Book Club Getaway event at the Mohegan Sun.

Sue graciously offered to snail-mail it to me, but the Cowboy and I were in serious need of a road trip, so we decided to take the short trip to scenic Ivoryton CT to retrieve it. We thought we'd stop and have a little breakfast, and then meander around her little shop Essex Books and the store Gather which houses her little book nook.
Ivortyton is a little borough that is part of the town of Essex.  At one time this tiny village was known for piano manufacturing, hence the name "Ivoryton" based on the "ivory" keys used in making of pianos. Most Connecticut-ians are familiar with this charming little area because of the popularity of the Essex Steam Train and the Ivoryton Playhouse.

We headed out early so we could have breakfast and found a great little cafe called Aggie's Restaurant right across from the Ivoryton Playhouse. This is one of those cute places that is always popular with the locals! I wondered why her sign had an elephant with tusks as a logo! Now I know! Elephant = tusks = ivory = piano keys!
Was it good? - Oh yes, see how the cowboy eventually wiped his plate clean!
The nice folks at Aggie's then gave us directions to Essex Books at Gather. Literally steps away, so we left our car at the Ivoryton Playhouse and walked over.

TREASURE TROVE ALERT! *** TREASURE TROVE ALERT!

As soon as I peeked in the door I looked at the cowboy and said...

              oh, you're in trouble honey - I'm going to have fun in this place! 

It's a virtual treasure trove of items, from antiques to jewelry to furniture to clothes and BOOKS!  Best of all, we were happily greeted at the door by two of the cutest little pups!  They were the wriggling, happy, tail-wagging kind, that wouldn't sit still and pose for pictures! Just look at the cowboy ambling away with that cute little yellow lab!

I know what you're thinking, and I agree. Two cute little book ends!
Gather is pet friendly for friendly pets!
And there tucked in the corner in the cutest little nook, was Sue and Essex Books!

This great little book nook is the kind of place I could get lost in for hours.  Packed in a cozy corner of the store are books, books, and more books!  For the little ones there is a cute little gingham covered table just waiting for a fun game of checkers and some colored markers and paper for letting your imagination run wild! The Cowboy was THRILLED that he found a great little book on golf and I was pleased to see the beautiful display of Leeza Gibbons' book, Take 2
There's a little sign as you cross Sue's threshold that says "enter as strangers - leave as friends".  That is oh so very true.  As we chatted for a few minutes I felt right at home and learned all about her love for books (a background in education) and why she relocated to Gather (a flooding problem at the original location in Essex).

Her story of purchasing Essex Books four years ago is a real heart-warmer!  It was a place that she frequented for years with her mom...and one day, while visiting with her own daughter, she saw it was for sale!  Well, her daughter didn't skip a beat, and said, mom, you've just got to buy this place!  

And the rest, my friends, is history!  Out of the mouths of babes and into the book business! Right time, right place! They are certainly "a small independent bookstore with a big-hearted approach." You simply must make it a point to stop by and visit!

Gather, the host home of Essex Books, is another gem! Deanna Pinette, owner of Gather, is wonderful, warm, and witty! And best of all, her store is just like her!

There are all sorts of wonderful treasures! A french country dining set, arched full size mirror, baubles and bangles, Marilyn-esque dress!
Antique sconces, desk clocks, furniture & clothes, and a silver coffee urn are just some of the items available.
We also learned the history of the location of Gather! It was once the village of Ivoryton's general store, Rose's General Store.
Deanna later found that the home where she lives, was the former home of the Rose's family back in the 1880s!

Serendipity?  - There are no coincidences!

We had such a wonderful time visiting Ivoryton and I'm so glad I have my notebook back!  We'll definitely return to all these places when the warm weather returns and we can walk around and visit a little bit more!

And did I return empty-handed with just my notebook?  OF COURSE NOT!  I discovered a beautiful vintage double-breasted cashmere Escada by Margaretha Ley never-worn-tags-still-on blazer for a mere $50.00!

I figure this beauty retailed originally for at least $600.00.  Ka-Ching!

You bet I'll be back!

A visit to Ivoryton Connecticut is definitely worth the trip!  Stop at some of the places we did - or find some more and tell us all about them!

Here's the addresses and numbers of the great places we visited today!

Aggie's Village Restaurant, 107 Main Street, Ivoryton, Connecticut (860) 581-4555
you can "like" them on facebook by clicking on their name

Essex Books at Gather, 104 Main Street, Ivoryton, Connecticut (914) 310-5824
you can "like" them on facebook by clicking on their name

Gather of Ivoryton, 104 Main Street, Ivoryton, Connecticut (860) 767-7816
you can "like" them on facebook by clicking on their name

For additional pictures of our visit click HERE and "like/fan" the Home Place facebook page

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Have you ever been to Ivoryton?

Do you have any favorite shops you visit?

I'd love to hear about them in the comments below!

Saturday, January 19, 2013

The Big Book Club Getaway is coming to CT

On Friday, February 1, 2013, and Saturday, February 2nd, 2013,  the Big Book Club Getaway is coming to the Mohegan Sun Conference Center in Connecticut.
Source: Big Book Club Getaway

Kristen Cusato, former WTNH co-anchor, and current regional director of the Southwest CT Alzheimer Association is the emcee for the opening night events.

Source: Big Book Club Getaway

You won't believe the list of authors, presenters, and exhibitors that will be there!

Here's just a sampling...

Amy Newmark, Publisher of Chicken Soup For The Soul
Brad Meltzer, Host of TV's Decoded
Kristin van Ogtrop, Managing Editor of Real Simple magazine.

AND MANY MORE!

Click HERE for a full list of authors and presenters

PLUS

Leeza Gibbons, TV talk-show host will be the closing keynote speaker!
Source: Big Book Club Getaway


For an agenda of Big Book Club Getaway events click:  HERE

To register for this event click: HERE

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Are any of your favorite authors / hosts listed for the Big Book Club Getaway?

What are you reading now?


Hope I see you at the Big Book Club Getaway!

UPDATE: Read my recap of this event: HERE
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