Celebrating “Celebration of Reading” With Allie Beth & Pierce Allman & Sandra Brown

 

Allie Beth & Pierce Allman are co-chairs for the 15th annual Celebration of Reading Dallas/Fort Worth, coming up on October 24.

Last Tuesday, they hosted a cocktail party in a stunning Tatum Brown Custom Homes palace for $8,750,000 at 4218 Arcady Avenue (Allie Beth and Chad Barrett are the listing agents) that will just melt your socks off. In fact, special guest author Sandra Brown was mesmerized by the house. You can see why…

The October event is hosted by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. It takes place at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center with a VIP author’s reception. Best selling guest authors include C.J.Box, our own Robert Edsel (did I tell you he moved to Museum Tower?), Debbie Macomber, and Sharon Robinson. Doro Bush Koch is Honorary Chair.

The Celebration of Reading will also feature guest appearances by members of the Bush family and New York Times best-selling authors. The event features a private, intimate luncheon and VIP reception with guest authors, and the always-entertaining reading program followed by dinner. Throughout the Celebration, engaging authors read from their most recent works, the goal being to inspire and be an advocate for literacy in your community.

Funds raised from the annual Celebration of Reading help support family literacy programs of the Barbara Bush Foundation, including Teen Trendsetters™, an anchor program of the organization that pairs teen mentors with first, second or third grade students who are six months or more behind in reading. The Foundation currently offers 23 family literacy programs serving more than 800 students and families in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Sandra Brown was the perfect guest author to “tease” the event — the Waco-born native Texan has penned more than 70 novels. You did know, I’m sure, that Sandra once worked for WFAA-TV here as a reporter for what was then WFAA’s version of PM Magazine. She has penned more than 50 New York Times bestsellers.

Her novel French Silk was even made into a movie for television starring Susan Lucci, Shari Belafonte, and Lee Horsley.

She also contributed to Court TV’s series Murder By The Book, about the murder of Betty Gore in Wylie, Texas, on June 13, 1980. Her latest book is called Friction.

I had a chance to ask Sandra about her feelings towards social media, and the demise of print, and she shook her head.

“I’m obviously a book lover, butwe certainly keep up with our social media postings, I mean you have to!” she told me.

“Really, it’s a lot of work!”

I also asked her about writer’s block, does she ever get it?

Absolutely, she said, everyone does. You just have to push and work through it.

70 books, what an inspiration!