Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

RED BANK: EDGY, SEXY LIT FOR VIXENS

literary-vixens-11-500x366-4041335‘Literary Vixens’ Jacqueline Tobacco (left) and Melissa Bartolone flank author Suzanne Palmieri during her reading at Red Bank’s Lambs and Wolves salon earlier this month. (Photos by Alexis Orlacchio. Click to enlarge)

By ALEXIS ORLACCHIO

literary-vixens-2-220x164-3462323Author Suzanne Palmieri believes in magic.

Not the “pull a rabbit out of a hat” kind of magic. The kind, she told an audience on a recent Friday night in Red Bank, that happened when she learned, while trying to budget her daughter’s college tuition. that an Italian company had bought the foreign rights to her book, ‘The Witch of Little Italy.’ The kind that happens when a fan, who happens to live five minutes away, turns into a close friend.

“I’ve made a lot of friends like that,” she said. “I didn’t know when I wrote the book that it would tap into something bigger.”

Hoping to create that kind of magic for other writers of edgy, sexy fiction is Literary Vixens, a publishing concern that began when friends Jacqueline Tobacco of Middletown and Melissa Bartolone of Red Bank reunited through social media over their love of books.

With Lauren DeVito, Literary Vixens promote, as their tagline says, “smart books for passionate readers.” What started out as a book blog is transforming into a publishing agency, and the ladies hope to hand pick a few marketable authors to work with.

“We knew we wanted [the name] to be a combination of smart and daring,” said Tobacco. “‘Vixen’ means we’re a little bit more edgy in our reading, a little bit more sophisticated.”

Tobacco said neither of the vixens are big fans of traditional romance novels, and wanted to reach a different audience. “When ‘Fifty Shades [of Grey]‘ took off, people started reading who have never read before,” she said. “People would come to me and Melissa and say, ‘What should I read next?’”

The women started a book blog, and later launched Lady Jane’s Salon NJ, the satellite to Lady Jane’s Salon NYC, a romance fiction-reading series.

“If you feel like you’re open to exploring your world through a book, that’s where we come from,” said Tobacco.

Literary Vixens’ debut event, held September 18 at Red Bank’s Lambs & Wolves Salon, featured Palmieri.

“We’ve seen her read at Lady Jane’s in New York and she’s a great reader,” said Bartolone. “She’s very animated and very dynamic.”

Palmieri read from ‘The Witch of Little Italy,’ which follows 22-year-old Eleanor Amore, a senior at Yale in an abusive relationship who discovers she is pregnant and begins her journey home to the Bronx, where her great aunts live.

The pint-sized author, adorned in a pink flow-y party dress and sparkly shoes, described herself as a mix between Courtney Love and Galinda the Good Witch.

“I love anything that’s a little odd. I like the fact that life is odd,” she said, referring to herself as a “lost witch,” a term that has intrigued the author since she was young.

“What I found is that every one of us feels a little bit lost,” she said. “The term ‘witch’ is something that I grew up being fascinated with, the idea of being connected to things: feeling the ghost of your ancestors around you, knowing that things happen for a reason, reading fortunes and things like that, and using all of those things to search and find yourself.”

The author ended the night with tarot card readings. “I like to find the extraordinary things that live in ordinary things everyday; what’s in a sauce; what’s in a flower bed, what’s going on in someone’s mind is so fascinating to me.”

Palmieri said she was honored to be the first artist featured in the Vixen’s series. “For their venue, I think it works really well to have this book, because these wonderful women of literary vixens were very connected to the book before they even knew me,” she said.

Literary Vixens plans to host Emily Leibert, author of ‘You Knew Me When,’ in November.

“Every author is pretty open and looking for readers who are willing to give them feedback,” said Tobacco.

Salon owner Glen Goldbaum uses his space to host events from art shows to musical performances. “I created the space to host different things other than hair,” he said. “I thought, ‘Why does this have to be just a hair salon?’” Goldbaum features a guest every three months. He’ll be hosting a show of artwork by Knowledge Bennett beginning October 5.

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
Partyline
THEY’RE BACK!
Ospreys returned to the skies over Red Bank this week for the first time since they migrated to warmer climes in late fall. With temperature ...
SPRING IS SPRUNG
RED BANK: Spring 2024 arrives on the Greater Red Bank Green with the vernal equinox at 11:06 p.m. Tuesday.
RED BANK’S FINEST – AND NEWEST
Red Bank Police Officer Eliot Ramos was sworn in as the force’s newest patrolman Thursday, and if you’re doing a double take thinkin ...
EASTER EGG MAYHEM AT THE PARK
An errant whistle spurred an unexpectedly early start to the Spring Egg Hunt on Sunday, which had been scheduled to begin at eggsactly 11am ...
PRESEASON DOCKWORK
RED BANK: With winter winding down, marina gets ready for boating season with some dockwork on our beautiful Navesink River.
CORNED BEEF AND DISCO FRIES?
It’s Friday, and smart Lent-observing Leprechauns know the pot of gold at the end of Red Bank’s rainbow is actually the deliciou ...
SURFBOARD DITCHED
It’s a violation of etiquette in surfing to ditch your board.  (it could hit another surfer and hurt them). But someone appears to ha ...
ELSIE, TAKE ME WITH YOU!
Soaked by pouring rain with the temperature hovering in the low 40’s, this sign in the window of Elsie’s Subs on Monmouth Street ...
WALK THIS WAY
PARTYLINE: Before-and-afters of a sidewalk cleanup on West Street.
SOGGY NOTION
RED BANK: Breezeway sculpture captured the mood downtown as heavy rains fell Saturday morning.
HOME DELIVERY
RED BANK: After a subdivision, an instant house rises on a new Catherine Street lot.
COMMUNITY PROFILES
For Black History Month, Red Bank's Community Engagement and Equity Advisory Committee has been running a series of local profiles on Facebo ...
HEARTY FAREWELL FOR HARDY
RED BANK: Council to honor DPU supervisor Rich Hardy, who retired recently after almost 39 years of keeping things running.
HOMEBOUND? READ ON…
RED BANK: Can't get to the public library? It's now offering free delivery and pickups for homebound borough residents.
TAMING A BEAST OF A WEEK
RED BANK: After the second snowfall of the week, a borough family finds the perfect use for it – a Godzilla snow sculpture.
RED BANK: LIBRARY CLOSED, BUT THE HILL’S OPEN
RED BANK: Though the library was closed by a snowstorm, kids got to enjoy the riverfront property's steep slope Tuesday.
LIGHT(HOUSE) MAKEOVER
This year, getting ready for spring means a midwinter makeover for Strollo's Lighthouse in Red Bank.
TODAY: LOCAL PUPPY COMPETES ON ANIMAL PLANET’S “PUPPY BOWL”
Red Bank’s very own rescue puppy, Biscuit, is set to compete in Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl this Sunday, February 11, at 2 PM. Th ...
WHAT? NO redbankgreen NEWSLETTER?
Apologies to redbankgreen newsletter subscribers: the daily email hasn’t gone out for two days because of technical issues.
RED BANK: TIRED OF SKEETERS?
RED BANK: Tired of mosquito bites every summer? Monmouth County has a free program to help eliminate skeeter breeding grounds.