Monthly Archives: December 2013

Chanel Bonfire Now At Target!

I am very very grateful and flattered to be chosen by Target for their Emerging Authors Program and super excited that Chanel will be available in over 1,700! Target stores nationwide starting today!  

And if you don’t have a Target near you, you can order it from them online!
http://www.target.com/c/emerging-authors-ways-to-shop-entertainment/-/N-55waf#?lnk=lnav_emergelnav_what’s new_3&intc=1051587|null 

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Chanel Bonfire Paperback, Target, Target Emerging Authors Program, Wendy Lawless

Merry Christmas from Chanel Bonfire

Merry Christmas from Chanel Bonfire

As any reader of Chanel will know, Christmas was not always the most wonderful of times for me and and my sister Robbie.  It is not so great for many kids for many reasons.  But, seeing the holiday through my own children’s eyes has given me a chance to experience what can be and should be a truly wonderful family time of year.  For everyone, beneath what can frequently be a superficial veneer of holiday cheer, Christmas can be a time of hope.  And I hope that all of you have a very merry season and Happy New Year.

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Robin Lawless, Wendy Lawless

Martell’s Restaurant

RIP
Martell’s Restaurant
1469 3rd Avenue
New York City of My Youth

I can not even find a photo of Martell’s Restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan — the blue-and-white striped awning, the tile floors, blue-and-white checked tablecloths, big burgers and fat fries.  Martell’s was a bridge from the old joints of New York City with their pyramids of hard boiled eggs on the bar, sawdust on the floor and the faint and not-so-faint smell of beer and piss mixed with the grease from a thousand burgers and the new places that hit town in the 70s and began the shift into the world of TGIFridays.

When we didn’t go out for fancy food or to Schrafft’s  with our nanny, we went to Martell’s — our version of McDonald’s (with wine for Mother).  When I returned to New York many years later, I’d go back to Martell’s on occasion for a big bourbon and a plate of French fries — once with my step-sister (Oliver’s daughter) when our worlds and our lives re-collided.
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Georgann Rea, Manhattan Restaurants, Martell's Restaurant, Upper East Side, Wendy Lawless, Yorkville

Ouarzazate, Morocco

Ouarzazate, Morocco nicknamed “The Door of the Desert”

With the Atlas Mountains to the north and the desert to the south, the ancient city of Ouarzazate, inhabited and chiefly built by Berbers, was an important stop for traders from central Africa and the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of the continent.  It sits on a plateau about 3,800 feet above sea level.

It was to Ouarzazte that Mother and Oliver traveled when scouting the location for the jetsetters resort he hoped to build.  The French had converted the trading post into a garrison town but starting in the early sixties with “Lawrence of Arabia”, Hollywood was turning it into a movie location.  

He never built his resort but Oliver was right about the area.  It is now a major tourist destination for Moroccans and Europeans and the area is filled with luxury resorts and condo towns.  It is also home to Atlas Studios one of the largest movie studios in the world where everything from “Lawrence” to “Gladiator” to “Game of Thrones” has been shot.
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  ???????, Atlas Mountains, Atlas Studios, Berbers, Game of Thrones, Georgann Rea, Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia, Morocco, Oliver Rea, Ouarzazate

National Women’s Studies Association

NWA

A big thank you to the National Women’s Studies Association for featuring Chanel Bonfire at their 2013 Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio!  I only wish I could have been there.  The NWA  is a terrific organization bringing together scholars, activists and students from all over. 

Here’s a link to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WomensStudies?directed_target_id=0
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, National Women's Studies Association, NWA, Wendy Lawless

Georgann Rea and Sylvia Browne

Sylvia Browne

Mother’s best friend and partner in crime from St. Teresa’s Academy in Kansas City, MO, died two weeks ago at seventy-seven. Sylvia claimed a psychic inheritance from her grandmother and began giving readings professionally in the 1970s.  In the next three decades she became one of the most famous psychics in the world appearing frequently on Larry King and hosting her own cable television show.  She earned millions of dollars a year giving readings and making predictions.  Her reputation was tarnished in the early 2000s by several mistaken claims about the victims of kidnappings and New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley winning the White House.  It was to Sylvia (then Sylvia Celeste Shoemaker) that Mother (then Georgann McAdams) confessed that she would marry my father James Lawless.  I wonder if Sylvia saw what was coming?
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Georgann McAdams, Georgann Rea, Kansas City, psychics, St. Teresa's Academy, Sylvia Browne, Sylvia Browne psychic