Kathi Kamen Goldmark

Websites : www.dqydj.com, www.chroniclebooks.com, www.fireinthebelly.com
Residence : San Francisco Bay Area

Biographical information
Perhaps best known in the publishing world for founding and performing with the Rock Bottom Remainders (all-author garage band that includes Amy Tan, Scott Turow, Stephen King, Matt Groening, James McBride, Dave Barry, and other bestselling authors), Kathi Kamen Goldmark is co-author of Mid-Life Confidential (Viking/Signet, 1994) by and about the Rock Bottom Remainders, and The Great Rock & Roll Joke Book (St. Martin's Press, 1997) with Dave Marsh. Her first novel, And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, was published by Chronicle Books in September 2002.

As president and janitor of "Don't Quit Your Day Job" Records, Kathi has written and produced dozens of original songs, one of which was included in Stephen King's miniseries "The Stand." She performs regularly with her country-rock band Train Wreck. She started "Don't Quit Your Day Job" Records in 1995 with the recording of her friend Jessica Mitford's incomparable version of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."

"Don't Quit Your Day Job" Records' 1998 release, STRANGER THAN FICTION! includes music performed by forty writers willing to sing their favorite songs for a good cause - the PEN Writers Special Fund. Two spoken word releases feature Amy Tan and Maya Angelou. A children's CD, POTTY ANIMAL, features eight funny songs about potty training, appealing to a market that will never dry up.

A former teacher with a Master of Arts degree in Drama and Education, Kathi has worked as a family planning educator (producing The Rock Project, a national radio campaign in which music stars recorded public service announcements urging teenagers to "think about having a child before you make a baby"), media consultant to the government of Mexico, paid professional hippie, retail clerk, book publicist, media escort, and very bad waitress.

She likes to think she is ready for anything.

Discussion topics

• Where Do Writers Get Their Ideas? No one knows, but I have a pretty good idea where they leave them-in their media escorts' Hondas. This is a funny, 10-30 minute talk about my transition from authors' publicity tour escort to fiction writer, and finding fictional inspiration wherever you can. Includes a musical rendition of the famous "Slut Song" from my first novel, and an opportunity for the audience to sing along and even contribute original lyrics.
• How Does a Nice Jewish Girl from New York…? …Get to hang out in sleazy honky-tonk bars, and live to tell her mother about it? Why, by being in the band, of course! What happens when you're twelve, and trying to listen to the Shirelles on the transistor radio under your pillow at night, and instead WWVA comes riding in on the midnight airwaves from Wheeling, West Virginia? A more autobiographical talk that touches on my lifelong love of music, but concentrates on the goofy fun of the Rock Bottom Remainders, and the experience of producing the Stranger than Fiction! CD, among others.
• Publishing Demystified: So many people dream of becoming authors, but have no idea how the publishing business works, or how to get started. I've worked in the marketing, publicity, and editorial realms, both freelance and in-house-then became a fiction writer in a mid-life career turnaround. All of this gives me a unique perspective and knowledge of the industry.
• Fun with Potty Training! As producer and co-author of the CD Potty Animal: Funny Songs about Potty Training I can provide the musical accompaniment and "fun factor" if teamed up with an actual child development expert.

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