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.

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.

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.

A Behind the Scenes iShot with Mark Leiren-Young

I’ve been a little nervous to talk too much about it until I knew everything was happily at the printers and we’d seen the proofs. Well, we did see them a couple of days ago and they look great and the finished calendars will be in Van City on November 30th. So we’ve just opened up pre-sale discounts for those of you that wish to buy a calendar or 2 or 3 or 5 before November 30th. Just check out our new store, Tantalizing Treats, for orders or submit them in person(with payment) with me or one of our salacious models.

Rayne Being Goofy Behind the Scenes

So for more details on this sizzling little calendar. It is a wall calendar – 12” by 12”, 2 fold of course, and the gorgeous artwork between it’s pages have been brought to live by two terribly talented photographers, Robert Shaer (@robertshaer) and Tris Hussey (@trishussey). The cover is colour, but inside we’ve gone with classic, black and white shots. Stay tuned in the next few days for a few of their promo shots from the shoot. For now you’ll have to suffice with teases that I took during the shoots on my iphone.

Behind the Scenes of Lori Hamming it up for the Camera

Now what you’ve all been waiting for …. the models in this year’s calendar ….

• Monique Trottier – @somisguided
• Richard Yearwood
• Patrick Tubajon – @iheartgudrun
• Raul Pacheco-Vega – @hummingbird604
• Ian A Martin – @atomicfez
• Rayne
• Lorraine Murphy – @raincoaster
• Mark Leiren-Young – @greenpieces
• Monica Hamburg – @monicahamburg
• Ian Ferguson
• and me – @EmmeRogers

As for their actually poses?  Well, I could tell you, but then I wouldn’t be that much of a tease, then would I!?!

Kisses,

Emme xoxo

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.