Have a very happy, healthy and successful Year of the Horse!
Click on the link below and enter the Chanel Bonfire Goodreads Giveaway!
Happy Chinese New Year Goodreads Giveaway!
I Love Target
On the shelf and in the Emerging Authors Section at Target
Ever since my first visit to Target while in Ohio visiting my in-laws I’ve been in love with its quality, selection and convenience. We jokingly pronounced it Tar-jeh back then because it was far and away the classiest big box store ever. And since, at the time, I was living in Manhattan where the closest thing was a rather crappy Lamston’s variety store on Sixth Avenue, Target seemed even more spectacular. It was created by the Dayton-Hudson department store chain in Minneapolis and imbued with their historically stylish and trend conscious DNA. Dayton’s is the store in front of which Mary Tyler Moore tosses her beret in the opening credits of the Mary Tyler Moore show. It was also where my stepmother Sarah, always very stylish and classy, worked for a time. So for all of these reasons as well as such fantastic access to new readers, I am thrilled that the beautiful Chanel Bonfire paperback can be found at Target!
Marianne Williamson
Thanks to the Ebell!
Thanks to the Ebell Club of Los Angeles for a fantastic day, discussion, reading and lunch!
I love meeting readers and sharing stories of childhoods good and bad, mothers evil and not, and obstacles overcome. It’s gratifying that my book has touched so many.
Remember if your Book Group or Club is reading Chanel, I’d be happy to set up a Skype with you during your discussion period. It’s part of my virtual book tour! I’ve done tons of them with groups large and small from Bermuda to Burbank and everywhere in between! Just email me at chanelbonfire@gmail.com to set one up!
Chanel Bonfire 2014
Beautiful Chanel Ads in Vogue, Lucky and Allure
Gorgeous ads in the Winter glossies including the VOGUE with brilliant Jessica Chastain on the cover who would, btw, be marvelous as my beautiful but damned mother!
Many thanks to the artists and writers at Gallery Books and Simon & Schuster for the ads. And don’t forget, the Chanel paperback is now available at Target in their Emerging Authors Section!
Happy New Year!
Happy 2014 to everyone!
I will be at the Wilshire Ebell Club on Monday, January 13th, talking about Chanel Bonfire and crazy moms and surviving childhood. Please come. There will be books for sale and if you already have a copy, I’d be happy to sign it or any other book you’d care to bring along. And there’s lunch in one of Los Angeles’ most beautiful historic buildings.
The club was founded in 1894 and its beautiful campus and theater on Wilshire Boulevard in Hancock Park were built in 1927. The club has hosted many luminaries included my distant cousin, Amelia Earhart. She made her last public appearance at the club before disappearing on her 1937 around-the-world flight. And it was at the Ebell’s theater that a young performer named Frances Gumm was discovered in a singing act with her sisters. She was signed to a contract by MGM and rechristened Judy Garland.
The Event begins at 11:30, lunch is at noon, and the program will start at around 12:45. I hope to see you on Monday! Follow the link for directions and information on ticket!
http://www.ebelleventtickets.com/Wendy-Lawless-Monday-January-13-2014-0153.htm
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
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.
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.
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.