Photographer: Robert Shaer

Here is the lengthy list:

• Best Richmond Restaurant
• 2nd Best Restaurant to Have Sex In
• 3rd Best Restaurant to Flirt In
• 3rd Best Soups

And I can attest to many of the above awards they’ve won, as I’ve certainly done my share of flirting there and their Indian Candy Chowder is THE BEST soup to has ever crossed my plumb and succulent lips.  I am just a little choked that despite having pranced around Gudrun in nothing but my skivvies, I can not be one of the #? to claim having had sex on the long table or bar. A bit of a green monster with envy at that one, I must say.

Photographer: Robert Shaer

Speaking of flirting and jealousy, I am most aghast that Gudrun is hosting the perfect event to deal with my spring fever and current blasé with the sacred institution of internet dating. You guessed it!  They are hosting a singles night this Thursday, April 15th. So why my chagrin?  Well, it is for the 40 – 60 crowd and I am only a mere 35 year old.  I date men in their 40s (and 30s and 20s) – does that make me eligible to come?

Other details for others wishing to attend:

• Tics are $20 and that gets you a drink and some tasty snacks.
• Event kicks off at 7 pm.
• Tics must be purchased in advance so that they can balance the male to female ratio.
• To get a tic, contact June at (604) 805-9136 or j_miller@shaw.ca

Oh and don’t forget to vote for Gudrun in the Best of Richmond!

Kisses,

Emme xoxo

Come visit and cheer on the Pride of the Philippines (and Poland and the USA) at the 2010 Winter Games, JR Celski!

Let’s go JR, let’s go! JR, JR, JR!

Kisses Emme xoxo

PS Sweet and soft kisses for Steven’s brilliance on the camera and for putting up with me in stress mode.

There is one such bookstore tucked away in Hamilton’s Westdale Village (by McMaster Unviersity).  Bryan Prince is the name of this little piece of heaven.  What makes this bookstore so extra special that I am writing about it now?  Well, usually when as an author you sell a book to a bookstore, they take 40 – 50% of the sale of the book and the author gets 50 – 60%, much of which goes to printing costs and other expenses, so as you can imagine, the author sees very little at the end of the day for the months or sometimes years they spent writing.  Well, Bryan Prince has a policy of only taking 20%, whilst the author sees 80% to cover their printing costs and time.  Why do they do this in an age where indie bookstores are struggling to survive? To encourage local authors, who have their own struggles, to find the time and money to write. You can’t imagine how pleasantly surprised this made me when they bought our Reading is Sexy Calendar just days before Christmas. So if you are in the Hamilton/Dundas area, make a point of stopping in this little slice of heaven, at Bryan Prince Bookseller (1060 King Street West, Hamilton, ON), buy a book or calendar and support a local author.

I would be remiss here if I didn’t highlight a few other indie bookstores, who have beautiful spaces and have been incredible to me this past month:

• Ben McNally Books (366 Bay St, Toronto, ON) – who hosted our Toronto Calendar Kissing over the Christmas rush.
• Duthie Books (2239 West 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC) – who were the first bookstore to pick up the Reading is Sexy Calendar and who, as it was for a good cause, offered us a great deal on calendar sales.
• The People’s Co-op Bookstore (1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC) – who similarly offered us a great deal on Reading is Sexy Calendar sales.
• Biz Books (302 West Cordova St, Vancouver, BC) – who is carrying the Reading is Sexy Calendar.
• Blackberry Books (Unit 3 – 1666 Johnston St., Net Loft Building, Granville Island, Vancouver, BC) – who is carrying the Reading is Sexy Calendar and who gave me some great marketing advice on calendars for future years.

I’d be remiss here if I didn’t mention our two non-bookstore retailers of the calendar:

• O’Hares Beer & Wine Store (5031 Steveston Hwy, Richmond, BC)
• Gundrun Wine & Cheese Bistro (150 – 3500 Moncton St, Steveston, BC)

An enormous thank you to all!

Well fear not!  I am here to save the day (with my cape, tights and all)! Yes, thats right!  I have strategically placed calendars all through out town, so that you are not that person thats left having to explain that, “No, sorry. I couldn’t get IT. They were all sold out. I know I really should have looked sooner.”

Photographer: John Biehler

So the strategically placed Reading is Sexy Calendars and that all round good feeling of knowing that you’ve supported dyslexia and promoted reading this holiday season in Van City, can be found at:

• Duthie Books (2239 West Fourth Avenue, Vancouver – Kitsalano)
• Blackberry Books (#3 – 1666 Johnston St, Net Loft Building, Vancouver – Granville Island)
• The People’s Co-op Bookstore (1391 Commercial Dr, Vancouver – Commercial Drive)
• Biz Books (302 West Cordova St, Vancouver – Gastown)
• O’Hare’s Beer & Wine Store (5031 Steveston Hwy, Richmond – Steveston)
• Gudrun (#150 – 3500 Moncton St, Richmond – Steveston)

And if all else fails, try @robertshaer as he has a few.

Kisses,

Emme xoxo

In other words, a most special thank you to all of you that helped promote, were a part of or sent well wishes for the Reading is Sexy Launch Party and Literary Celebration at Gudrun this past Thursday evening.  What a delightful group of the sexiest of cats!  And such a perfect atmosphere in Gudrun!  An enormous thank you to Patrick and the gang at Gudrun – Alison, Josh and Upton.

And again, thank you! Thank you for helping to promote literacy and supporting The International Association of Dyslexia!

Here are some of my pics from the night:

And some much better shot pics of John Biehler’s:

Thanks John!

A few highlights from the night included:

• seeing the men of the calendar (Patrick, Raul and Mark) pucker up for literacy
• teaching an incredibly bashful Mark Leiren-Young to put on lipstick (you’d think a man that had written a book entitled, Never Shoot A Stampede Queen, would have already learned how)
• readings from Mark, Rayne and Raul
• Mooty winning for the funniest responses in our little contest (go read them, they had me chuckling)
• the auctioning off Rob’s Pics of Patrick
• and of course, a whole lot of calendar kissing

Kisses,

Emme xoxo

PS Stay tuned for a Calendar Kissing near you!  Next one is this Thursday Dec 10th at 5 pm (likely at a Gastown pub) as Monica and Monique pucker up for charity.

Photo by Robert Shaer

A lover of the important things in this world ….cheese & wine ….

Oh and our host for tonight’s literary celebration.

And yes, I expect everybody to dance like this.

So to read between the lines, we are promoting literacy and raising funds for The International Dyslexia Association, and hosting a little party to celebrate that and the launch of 2010 Reading is Sexy Calendar.

Party Details

Cost: Free

Local: Gudrun Wine & Cheese Bistro (150-3500 Moncton Street, Steveston, BC)

Date: Thursday December 3, 2009

Time: 7 pm until late

Festivities:

• general revelry and enjoying of Gudrun Goodies (I will buy a few plates for the room, but bring some money with you to enjoy more Gudrun Goodies and some of the yummy wines and beers)
• readings from a few of our authors (Ian Ferguson, Mark Leiren-Young, Richard Yearwood, Lorraine Murphy, Rayne … to name a few … I may even read something from my yet to be finished novel)
• calendar signings by the ‘models’ on hand (really, just because I think this would be bloody hilarious…. I’m thinking of signing in lipstick)
• auctioning of some of Robert Shaer’s photos from the shoot for charity
• …and I plan on dancing ….even if nobody else joins me

Why Gudrun? Because Patrick is in the calendar, I adore him and it’s my secret writing hideaway.

One Added Perk: If you so choose (although certainly not required), you can do a bit of your Holiday Shopping at the event as we will have the 2010 Reading is Sexy Calenders (with $4 of sales from each calendar sold at the event going to The International Association of Dyslexia) and books and CDs of some of our authors on hand.

Hope to see you there!

Kisses,

Emme xoxo

PS So I can give Patrick an idea of numbers, can you please RSVP on facebook or in the comments below. Thank you, all you sexy things!

Can’t help grinning from ear to ear every time I watch this as the mouses dance moves remind me of Patrick.

Was excited to be attending the Canadian Country Music Awards (CCMA) Throwdown After Party at the Shark Club and catching some stompin’ good Canadian talent, like Terri Clark and One More Girl, so for once I got there nice early (no mean feet for me, let me tell you). Well, given that this was a ticketed, invitation only party, you can imagine my surprise when I discovered a line up in front of the Shark Club.  No worries, just figured they were running late on setting up.

Ticket Holders Wait in Line at Van City's Shark Club

How wrong I was. Discovered they were letting people in that showed up at the door and were on ‘the list’. No biggie if those people were the entertainment that was showing up to set up. Well, pretty quickly realized that wasn’t the case when they started to ever so slowly let in a few people from our line and huge hoards of people that sidled up to the door.

So what was the story?  A local country station, 93.7 JRfm,  had given out tickets to lucky winners to attend the CCMA Throwdown, and The Shark Club had taken it upon themselves to make the prize winners wait in the line up on the street, whilst they let those affiliated with the CCMA in. When I finally figured that out, it was because the bouncer told me that ‘we’, in the line, were the ‘nobodies’ and those he was letting in were the ‘somebodies’. WOW!!! Curious to know who he was?  The people I was standing in the line with were the true Country Music fans. Many of them were my parents age. Many of them were professionals.  So, I’m sorry, who was he!?!

Musicians are nothing without their fans.  Its their fans that make them stars.  Its their fans that allow them to live their dream.  This is one thing that I love about Country Musicians, is that most of them realize this and pay their fans due respect.  The Shark Club did not pay these fans due respect.  I realized at this point that we would have been on ‘the list’, but there was no way now that I was going to leave the true fans behind in the line.  Shame on you Shark Club.

I regularly attend Television Festivals and I can assure you, if you have a ticket, you don’t wait in line.  Everyone is treated with the same level of respect, no matter if you are a broadcast big wig or writer just starting out.  And I may not be a rocket scientist, but it would seem to me that if you have given out a set number of tickets to an event, then you shouldn’t be over capacity by letting people with tickets in.  Shame on you Shark Club.

Furthermore I’m generally disgusted by any club that leaves people waiting on the street whilst inside things are practically empty.  This just makes you look pretentious and like a bunch of dumb asses.  These are not the sort of establishments that I care to frequent or that I’d recommend to others.  The festival pub at the Banff Television Festival has always been the St James Gate, because they treat everyone the same and with respect.  The only time they make people wait on the street is if they are over capacity and then everybody waits, no matter whom you think you are.  Shame on you Shark Club.

If you want to learn to create raved after establishments, take a page out of the books of two true gentlemen and two of Vancouver’s finest restauranteers – Sean Sherwood (formerly of Fiction and Century House) and Patrick Tubajon (of Gudrun and formerly the Alibi Room).

Photo by Erica Hargreave

What make these two gentlemen truly great in Van City’s restaurant scene is that they treat their guests as though they are welcoming them home.  They know their guest and make them feel loved.  Sean in fact once told me that he thought of his restaurant as his living room, where he was fortunate enough to have so many friends to share it with.

Shark Club get over yourself and learn to behave like gentlemen.  Your parents would not be proud by the behavior I witnessed last night.  Shame on you Shark Club.