Fifty Shades of Lunch – E.L. James

Warning – this blog is nearly as long as the first Fifty Blog!



Two months ago, I wrote a blog called Fifty Shades, My Fifty Cents – which I’ve linked to for those who missed it. This was the most popular blog I’ve ever written, generating more insightful, thought provoking comments than ever before. I was floored. I was impressed. And I really enjoyed the conversation here. In the time since, Fifty Shades of Grey has exploded even more, if such a thing was possible. And so, when I found out that E.L. James was going to be the guest at a luncheon not just in my local area, but at the country club where my husband and I belong, it seemed … well like KISMET. Or KARMA. Pardon the pun.

At first, I thought it was a regular club luncheon, but came to find out it was a paid event hosted by a company known as Divalysscious Moms for $85 a ticket. This was the first I’d heard of Divamoms and I was surprised that it was a paid luncheon, but ever game – you know me – I purchased two tickets (not that I knew who I’d bring) and planned to go. As I’ve told you many times, the people who I’m friends with on an every day basis aren’t regular Romance readers. I don’t sit around with them discussing the books I’ve read, the characters I’m creating, or my plots. Heck, I often don’t even tell people I have a book out. If they’re on my Facebook page or Fan Page, they’ll find out. If they receive my newsletter, they’ll hear about it. If their husband plays golf with my husband, he might mention it. Whether it gets passed along or not, nobody knows. Anyway. I thought, hopefully I’ll find someone. And I did. I invited a friend who was reading Fifty Shades and said she was enjoying it. Good enough for me. We put the date on our calendar.

The closer the time came for the luncheon, the more the hoopla surrounding Fifty Shades grew. I got anxious. Why? Very hard to explain. Here I was, going to a writing event as “Karen” with “Karen’s” friends (not Carly’s). Sure, some people know I write, but it still felt awkward. Add to that, I’d been hearing things from other E.L. James book tour events – cookies with sexy toys on them, raunchy conversation … I have a hard enough time with people saying to my kids, “your mom writes THOSE books”, did I really want to go to an event where the perception would make it even harder to deal with? Well, in for a penny … I mentioned the event on Facebook and about half a dozen other friends decided to buy tickets and go. We had almost a full table. Yay! Still nervous. Still can’t explain why.

Soo … I head out to the luncheon, all in Karen mode. In other words, not a bookmark, a business card, a Carly thing to be found anywhere on my person or in my bag. Karen’s shyer than Carly. Karen likes sitting behind the computer. Carly goes to conferences and talks about writing and does TV interviews, etc. (No, this isn’t a soap opera D.I.D. thing – like Vicki/Nikki or Kate/Connie or Jess/Tess, LOL!). It’s my life. Seriously. I get there and I see someone who I know through my daughter, a young woman who works with (I think) the Diva Moms, and who I’d heard helped bring E.L. James and the Diva Moms to the club. I went over and said hi, and she asked if I’d be willing to talk to CBS (who was there to cover the event and who wanted a reader/attendee impression of the book). I don’t think she realized I was a writer, and Karen went all shy but did remember to say if I spoke, I’d like to use my pen name. Que a friend of mine who ISN’T shy, and who acted as my PR person that day – next thing I knew, everyone there knew I had a book out that week, that KARMA hit the NYT, USA Today Bestseller lists, and I was searching for nonexistent business cards to hand out to the people I spoke to (including Katie Couric’s people, who also interviewed me). As it turns out, the CBS footage must’ve ended up on the cutting room floor – and I think that might be a good thing, as I was explaining why Fifty was NOT PORN – no Romance is Porn – and why Safe Sane and Consensual in the bedroom is OK. I can only imagine what some creative editing might have made me sound like, LOL.

Yes, Yes, I’ll get to the luncheon. Very tastefully done, very classy, and yes my club and manager did a phenomenal job. Billed as a Diva Mom’s Mother’s Day Luncheon featuring E.L. James, whose The View clip had shown that same morning, they also had a stylist speak about women, mother’s and dressing and style. There was a cake (see photo) – a beautiful, white cake in the shape of stacked books with a gray tie on top, a champagne glass, and silver balls … read the book if you don’t know what the balls are for. The rest of this blog will be mortifying enough without me explaining THOSE here. LOL! Below the books were adorable mini cupcakes and below those … drumroll please … cookies with handcuffs on some and gray ties on the others.

There were goody bags courtesy of Diva Moms, filled with very mommy-lissious things, like coupons, toddler tapes, and things that were good for younger moms. I’m worrying about my daughter driving, so that wasn’t for me. But I did love the bag, which said – and again read the book if you are clueless – LATERS Divalysscious Baby, a rubber bracelet with the same (or similar saying). I wish I could have gotten my bookmarks into those goodie bags at every luncheon E.L. James did! Whew. HUGE amounts of people at each. Talk about reaching new audience! Crazy!

E.L. James came in later and spoke a bit to the audience – understand – she’s a regular person – like Karen if you will – not Carly – not yet used to media attention, to speaking in public, to answering questions off the cuff – and as a result, when the audience was offered the chance to answer questions, we were given the question to be asked – my understanding is that this was at the author’s request. I did get my question answered because the lovely Diva Moms were willing to vet the question with the author – “Is Laters Baby a British expression or did she make it up?” Answer- Laters is British – Laters BAby is hers – and I still am in love with it!

Barnes and Noble sold all three Fifty books – E.L. James signed – with some rules:

Only one book could have a “Dear X”; the others she’d sign her name only;

Pictures were allowed of her signing, but she wouldn’t pose with people having their books signed (which explains some of the pics here); I had two friends who didn’t get books, so they held mine and I have the first two books in the series signed to Carly; and the third for Janelle who is also a fan!

Now onto the good stuff – there was a small area selling related items –

~ jewelry – Laters Baby Ties – yes, necklaces with diamonds/silver in the shape of the tie from the cover of the book. Link here if you want to see. I was surprised that the website and the promo advertising for the jewelry didn’t have the book or author name on it. But very cute idea!

~ sex toys – yes, I said it. Sex toys. A very lovely company named Joy of Moi

At the end of the day, the friend that I invited to the luncheon came to me with a pretty bag and said, “This is a thank you for taking me today.” Yes, friends, she bought me a toy. (Yes, that’s what’s in the bag in the photo – I warned her she’d be on the blog). A travel size, though as she nicely reminded me, “you don’t only have to use it when you travel.”

The other day, I laughingly texted her and said, “Can I skip the handwritten thank you and call it even?” She wrote back, “Of course – you don’t have to send a thank you note for a thank you gift. AND USE IT IN THE BEST OF HEALTH. LOLOL!

AND THAT WAS MY FIFTY SHADES OF LUNCH! I had you all in mind when I took pictures, so I hope you felt like you were there!