Meet Zaza the Cat

She's done well. She enjoys a good strip of sunshine. The sound of the can opener is music to her ears. Her life began as a street cat. Now, at age 17 she lives with a loving family.

You can now become a woOberry fan on Facebook. Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/woOberry/330401181499?ref=ts

Coming Soon, The Mt. Airy Children's Literary Festival at Big Blue Marble Bookstore in Philadelphia, PA

Come down to the Big Blue Marble Bookstore in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, April 9th-11th. Melissa will present Poppy's Pants on April 10th at 10:00 a.m. Call Big Blue Marble at 215-844-1870 for more information.

Dr. Dave

Do you remember dAve? The guy who wore those great pants with the black and white damask print? The one who enjoys gardening and has a particular affection for sunflowers? Well, you can call him Dr. Dave now, because that is what he is. Dave went to medical school to fulfill his dream of becoming a Pediatrician and is currently a Resident at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, TN. Dave is one of several dolls I made for Le Bonheur when they asked for a troop of woOberry models to photograph and adorn the walls of the new hospital. The grand opening is slated for June. I plan to post sneak peaks of the photos in the coming months.

The Pulpwood Queen Shares pOppy's Pants

Kathy L. Patrick, founder of the Pulpwood Queens Book Club, Author, beauty salon/bookstore owner and proud owner of Poppy and Penelope dolls recently read pOppy's Pants at Cypress Assisted Living in her her home town, Jefferson, TX. In addition to pOppy's Pants, she read from South of Broad, and her own book,The Pulpwood Queen's Tiara Wearing, BookSharing Guide to Life. Click here to see what she had to say about her visit.

Amelia Island Book Festival - February 12th-13th

The Amelia Island book festival is coming soon, and I will be there to participate in several events. See the list below:

Friday February 12th:

9:00-11:30 Visit to the Amelia Island Montessori School

2:15-3:00 The ABC's of Writing and Publishing for Children and Young Adults, A panel discussion with three other children's book authors.

Saturday February 13th:

3:00 Booksigning in the courtyard with my friend Janis Owens and stepmom, Cassandra King

7:00 p.m. A Night With Poppy- at the Old First Baptist Church

I will be with my dad who is the inspiration for pOppy of pOppy's Pants, and the larger than life author of many novels, my favorite being The Great Santini.

Le Bonheur Children's Hospital

I just returned from Memphis, TN where a very rare ice storm foiled several of my planned events. My grandmother braved the weather and drove one and a half hours to my booksigning at Davis-Kidd Booksellers on Thursday, the 28th. On the 29th, in the thick of the storm, I was honored to be invited by Le Bonheur Children's Hospital to do a writing and drawing workshop. With a large cast of woOberry dolls in tow, the kids, and some parents picked out dolls they identified with, played with them and wrote memory poems. The dolls were later photographed. I will incorporate their writing and drawings in the final images to be installed on the hospital walls.

A Television Appearance

If you were in the Memphis area on the morning of January 30th, you might have seen me on on Live @ 9 on Channel 3. The two very gracious hosts, Marybeth and Alex gave me an opportunity to tell the woOberry doll story with the Poppy doll and an original Mama doll as audio visual aids. This was while the city was becoming covered in ice. I met a lot of great people in Memphis and had a wonderful time even while most of the city was vacant and the trees bent over from the weight of ice.

A Special thank you to Dianne Papasan for making all the plans necessary to bring me down to Memphis. Read about the visit on Le Bonheur's Child Life Services blog .

Here we come Memphis!

I am packing up for a trip to Memphis, TN and will be so busy, there won't be time to visit Sun Records, where you can hear Elvis and Johnny Cash's first recordings or the Peabody Hotel where live ducks grace the lobby fountain. Instead, I will bring a suitcase full of woOberry dolls to Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. The dolls will serve as inspiration for stories as I run a workshop and all around play time with a group of kids at the hospital. After the workshop, photographer Michelle East, has generously donated her time and studio to photograph the dolls using the stories the children write as inspiration. After the photographs are printed, they will adorn the halls of Le Bonheur.

And That's not all! Those in the Memphis Area can come to an informal discussion and book signing at Davis-Kidd Booksellers on January 28th from 6:00-7:00p.m.

I will also give a lecture at the Memphis Botanic Garden about my work with an emphasis on how I made Poppy's Pants on Friday, January 29th at 7:00 p.m.

Finally, on Saturday the 30th from 10:00-12:00 in the morning I will run a bookmaking workshop that will include writing and illustrating for children ages 6-12 at the Memphis Botanic Garden. Davis-Kidd Booksellers will have Poppy's Pants available for sale at all of the events and will donate a portion of the sales to Le Bonheur Children's Hospital.

Hello, Arkansas!

If you live near Blytheville, come to story hour and hear me read Poppy's Pants from 3:30-4:30 on Saturday January 30 at That Bookstore in Blytheville

Hurray for the Pulpwood Queens!

It's hard to describe the annual Pulpwood Queens Girlfriend Weekend in the historic western town of Jefferson, TX. There are many chances to play dress up including a Barbie Birthday Party and the annual Hair Ball, whose theme this year was the Wizard of OZ. There are many Authors, who come to sit on panels and discuss their books with Kathy Patrick, Author of The Pulpwood Queen's Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life and Robert Leleux, Author of Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy. The best part of Girlfriend Weekend is that it is a gathering of people (mostly women) who absolutely love books. It's nice to be in such company when you are an author.

I was honored to bring my Dad, Pat Conroy with me. He is the inspiration for Poppy and was nice enough to wear his khaki pants. We had great fun as a Father/Daughter panel and signed Poppy's Pants together. Dad even doodled his own version of the pants next to his signature. It didn't take long to sell out of copies.

Pictured at left is Kathy L. Patrick, founder of the Pulpwood Queens with me. Kathy is dressed as the Tippy Hedren Barbie, hence the birds. I was going for Little Barbie on the Prairie.

In addition to the events of Girlfriend Weekend, I visited Jefferson Elementary School, where I spoke to 320+ students and faculty. We had a wonderful time. Several students gave me drawings afterwards, which you can take a look at by clicking the drawing below.

A big thank you to the Pulpwood Queens Book Club which happens to be the largest book club in the country. When it came time to vote on which children's book was the best from 2009, they chose Poppy's Pants! I already had plans to attend their annual Girlfriend Weekend celebration this January, now I will have a bigger smile on my face.

I will be in Memphis, TN at the end of January to help raise money for Le Bonheur Children's hospital and the Memphis Botanic Garden. Click on the events link above for more information.

Atlanta!

Poppy, Penelope and even angry Penelope (it's always good to have a devil's advocate around) recently went to Georgia to do some visiting. They saw family and visited students at The Paideia School in Atlanta and Boston Elementary School in Woodstock. Then they went to the Mercer University Author's Luncheon and visited two bookstores to read Poppy's Pants, FoxTale's Book Shoppe and The Little Shop of Stories. All that socializing made angry Penelope happy.

The Miami Book Fair!

I Read Poppy's Pants at the Miami Book Fair to a great group of kids. They had a lot of good questions, and wondered why I brought pOppy and pEnelope and not mAma. I'm glad they appreciate mAmas.

The next event will be a reading at The Little Treehouse in Philadelphia, PA and then on to Georgia. Click on the events link above for more information.

COME TO THE MIAMI BOOK FAIR!

If you will be in the Miami, FL area in mid-November, come to the MIAMI INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR and see Melissa present her book, Poppy's Pants on November 14th & 15th. You will find her at the CHILDREN'S ALLEY STAGE both days at 3:45 p.m.

THE MERCER UNIVERSITY AUTHORS LUNCHEON

Melissa will be part of an impressive group of Authors at the 20th Annual Mercer University Authors Luncheon to benefit the Mercer University Press on December 12th. Click here for more information

COME TO FOXTALE BOOK SHOPPE!

Foxtale Book Shoppe in Woodstock, GA will host a Christmas reception featuring Melissa who will read from Poppy's Pants. Come at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 12th. Click here for more information.