Monthly Archives: November 2013

Shop Local!

nov30-13

Today is small business Saturday all over the U.S.  If you’re thinking about Christmas, contemplating Kwanza, stumped for those last nights of Hanukah, or just searching for a birthday, thank you or welcoming gift, go out in your neighborhood, look for inspiration and shop local.  Shopping local supports people who live and work in your community.  This is a good practice year ’round and world ’round.  So if you’re one of Chanel’s readers in the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Russia, China, Australia, Japan, Brazil or anywhere you can participate as well!

If your local bookstore is Vroman’s in Pasadena, California, I’ll be volunteering there today from 3 to 5PM –recommending books.  Come on down!

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Indie Bookstores, Small Business Saturday, Vroman's, Wendy Lawless

Authors Work Indies!

Some of your favorite authors will be working at their local independent bookstores all over the country this Saturday, November 30th, to celebrate Small Business Saturday.

I’ll be working and recommending some of my favorite books at my local store Vroman’s in Pasadena along with other Los Angeles area authors including: Michelle Huneven, Quinn Cummings and Hector Tobar.  Come on out and get your holiday shopping done.  A complete list of authors at Vroman’s can be found by clicking on my Vroman’s link button in the sidebar.  Or…

Follow the link to see who’s going to be working at your local Indie Store:
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Chanel Bonfire Paperback, Hector Tobar, Indie Bookstores, IndieBound, Michelle Huneven, Quinn Cummings, Small Business Saturday, Vroman's, Wendy Lawless

We Have Winners!

We have 5 winners out of 780 entries in the Chanel Bonfire Paperback Goodreads Giveaway!

Congratulations to: Alicia of Riverside, CA; Dorya of Brooklyn, NY; Mary Beth of Mishicot, WI; Kristen of Greenville, TN; and Candace of Stephenville, TX!

I’m heading over to the P.O. today to mail your books to you.  Which reminds me of one of my favorite short stories: “Why I Live at the P.O.” by Eudora Welty.  If you haven’t read it, get yourself a copy of her collected stories from the library or bookstore.  She’s absolutely one of our greatest writers.  Her P.O. was in Jackson, Mississippi, btw…

Anyway, I hope you like Chanel Bonfire and will share it with your friends and relatives.  Makes a great holiday present!  

Thanks for playing.  And to everyone, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Wendy
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Brooklyn, Chanel Bonfire Paperback, goodreads giveaway, Greenville TN, Mishicot WI, Stephenville TX, Wendy Lawless

First Record Album — Roxy Music

My First Album

Of all the glam bands in all the world, in platform shoes or high heels, Roxy music was and is my all-time favorite.  This album, “For Your Pleasure”, released by Island Records in 1973, was the band’s second and the last featuring Brian Eno.  The woman on the cover was lead singer and songwriter Brian Ferry’s girlfriend at the time, transsexual singer and model Amanda Lear.  Judi Dench’s voice can be heard at the end of the title track saying, “You don’t ask.  You don’t ask why.”

I bought the album with my own money at the WH Smith in Sloane Square and played it until the grooves wore out.  That copy is lost now–a casualty of a peripatetic childhood and young adulthood.  I may very well have left it in a taxi stuffed into one of the Bloomingdales bags I used to move apartments at a moment’s notice in New York in the early 80s.  More of that in the sequel to Chanel which will be coming your way sometime next year from Gallery Books.

Don’t forget, there’s one week left in my Goodreads Paperback Giveaway.  Enter Today!

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Amanda Lear, Brian Eno, Brian Ferry, Chanel Bonfire, First Album, For Your Pleasure, Gallery Books, glam rock, Island Records, Judi Dench, Roxy Music, transsexuals, Wendy Lawless, WH Smith

First Chinese Restaurant — Mr. Chow

151 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7PA

Mr. Chow was the first Chinese restaurant I ever went to.  And the first occasion was my 16th birthday party.  It was lunch for about a  dozen of my friends and my sister Robbie and it was truly wonderful–glamorous and fun.  I can’t remember the food but I do remember that my friend Matt Backer gave me the Rolling Stones live album “Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out” and began my life-long love affair with the Stones.

Mr. Chow was opened in Knightsbridge in London in 1968 (outposts in Beverly Hills and New York City followed in the next decade) by Michael Chow the son of Peking Opera Grand Master Zhou Xinfang. It quickly became a place to be seen and to see and introduced many to a Chinese cuisine which may not have been the most authentic was was certainly the most glamorous at that time.  There are now even more Mr. Chow restaurants in Malibu, South Beach and Tribecca to name a few.  And while Beverly Hills’ is my closest, the true Mr. Chow will always be the one in London about which Alan Richman of GQ wrote, “It is an establishment that can not be defined by customary standards but must be appreciated for its sheer fabulousness.”  Mais oui.

Matt Backer’s love of rock-n-roll persists, he is a successful guitarist and songwriter who works frequently with Julian Lennon.  And in a very small world coincidence, Michael Chow’s daughter China acted in my husband’s first movie, Head Over Heels.

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Alan Rickman, China Chow, chinese food, chinese restaurants, Get Yer Ya Ya's Out, Julian Lennon, Matt Backer, Michael Chow, Mr. Chow, Robin Lawless, Swinging London, The Rolling Stones, Wendy Lawless

First Evening Bag

nov19-13
My first evening bag.
I bought this bag at the legendary Biba on Kensington High Street to go with my first long dress from Laura Ashley.  I was fourteen and the occasion was a party for an ambassador’s son at Quaglino’s, a legendary restaurant in London.  The restaurant was opened in 1929 by Giovani Quaglino and quickly became a favorite haunt of royals and wealth socialites.  It was in fact so popular with the Windsors that a special section was cordoned off so there would always be a royal table available.  It was the first public restaurant in which a reigning monarch dined (Elizabeth II in the 1950s).  By the time of our party, it was a haunt for the rich and famous from all over the world.
The restaurant was made over in the 90s by Conran and is still a place to be seen.  The dress is gone but my memories like my Biba evening bag are still with me.
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  70s London, Biba, Chanel Bonfire, Conran, Elizabeth II, evening bag, Giovani Quaglino, Kensington High Street, Laura Ashley, Qualino's, Wendy Lawless

THANK YOU GIVEAWAY!

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED FOR CHANEL IN THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS 2013!  WE MADE IT TWO ROUNDS AND I WAS HONORED TO BE WRITTEN IN TO THE MEMOIR CATEGORY AS WELL AS THE DEBUT AUTHOR CATEGORY TO WHICH I’D BEEN ORIGINALLY NOMINATED!

To celebrate, I’m giving away 5 Free Paperback Copies of the book so beautifully made by Gallery Books!  Enter before November 25th to win!

http://www.chanelbonfire.blogspot.com/2013/11/2nd-round-of-goodreads-choice-awards.html

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Chanel Bonfire Paperback, goodreads giveaway, Wendy Lawless

Friends of the Huntington Beach Library!

Huntington Beach Library, Huntington Beach, CA

Many thanks to the Friends of the Huntington Beach Library for hosting me for a reading, discussion and signing!  It was a wonderful event and opportunity to meet many wonderful people and friends of books.

The library was designed by architect Richard Neutra and built by his son Dion after his death and opened in 1972.  It has waterfalls inside that empty into a pool on the ground floor so wherever you are, you hear the sound of water.  Lovely!

And speaking of lovely, I want to thank everyone again for voting for Chanel in the preliminary round of the Goodreads Choice Awards!  Don’t forget to vote in Round 2!  Chanel is in the Debut Author and Memoir Categories!

Here’s the link:
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Friends of the Huntington Beach Library, Goodreads Choice Awards, Huntington Beach CA, Huntington Beach Library, Wendy Lawless