Hi, future attendees of Ozarks Romance Authors' annual conference, which will be held in Springfield, Missouri, on July 23, 2011. (Sorry! I got the year wrong in the video.)
I wanted to show you something interesting. We're going to have a little quiz later.
Click to watch the short video at the top of this page and you will drive around with me (Jill, 2010-2011 president of Ozarks Romance Authors) in a parking lot on the southwest corner of East Battlefield and South Glenstone in Springfield, Missouri.
You'll see several buildings in the same, large parking lot.
There is a small building with a Game Stop store in the north end and an AT&T Wireless store in the south side. Behind this Game Stop building is the only Barnes & Noble store in Springfield.
Here is the quiz: What could the Game Stop building possibly have in common with this Barnes & Noble, which is where we're going to have the booksigning for our speakers the evening before our annual fiction writers' conference?
The booksigning will be here at Barnes & Noble, within walking distance of The Clarion Hotel, which is where our conference is taking place. The booksigning will be Friday, July 22, which is the night before our conference, from 4:00 - 6:00, here in this large, lovely Barnes & Noble store.
Are you curious about what this Barnes & Noble might have in common with the little Game Stop building?
I'll give you two hints. The clues about what they have in common are Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Yes, Brangelina.
Does that make you even more curious?
By the way, be sure to plan on attending our:
* Booksigning Friday, July 22, here at Barnes & Noble, 3055 S. Glenstone
* Annual Writers' Conference just down the road at The Clarion Hotel, 3333 S. Glenstone
in Springfield, Missouri.
Now, if you are curious about what this Barnes & Noble store (where our booksigning will take place) has in common with the Game Stop building, Brad Pitt, and Angelina Jolie, here are the details!
Ready?
1. GAME STOP BUILDING -- BRAD
Colonel Day's Levi's Emporium, which is where Brad Pitt worked as a sales clerk between the time that he graduated from Springfield's Kickapoo High School and went to seek his fame and fortune in Hollywood, used to be the only tenant in the Game Stop/AT&T building.
At that time, Brad looked like this:
I couldn't find any photos of the old Colonel Day's store, but the building has not changed much. Currently, the building looks like this:
Back then, it had an odd stucco finish with deep grooves to match the exterior of the Venture store on the west side of the parking lot. These were the only two buildings on the parking lot at that time, but the lot now also has Barnes & Noble, Office Depot, and Olive Garden.
The Venture store has been gone for many years and is now a K-Mart store.
This is the K-Mart Brad and some of the kids reportedly shopped at during their December 2010 trip to Springfield.
2. GAME STOP BUILDING -- ANGELINA
Take a closer look at the windows in the Game Stop building. Who do you see there, along with Super Mario?
Yup, that's an image of Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, long before she and Brad became Brangelina. The Game Stop building has several large images of Angelina hanging in its windows.
Gee, I wonder if that was the topic of conversation on the Jolie-Pitt private jet. "Darling, did you see the large posters of me in the windows where you used to work? Shall I have the longitude and latitude added to the tattoo on my bicep?"
3. BARNES & NOBLE / STARBUCKS
This is the Barnes & Noble store that became famous in December 2010 when, while in town to visit Brad's family, Angelina stopped at the Starbucks inside of the bookstore and bought coffee. News of the sighting of Angelina, Zahara, and Shiloh made its way onto the Internet, including:
People magazine
JustJared.com
It was also during this visit that Brad and Angelina posed for photos at St. John's Hospital (where I was born) to dedicate the new Jane Pitt Pediatric Cancer Center, named in honor of Brad's mom, Jane Pitt. To see the story in People magazine, click HERE.
There you have it! Thanks for playing, and we'll see you at our fiction writers' conference in Springfield, Missouri, on July 23! Click HERE for more details about the great speakers and topics we have scheduled for the day.
P.S. Stop by Barnes & Noble in Springfield to have coffee, just like Angelina! Enjoy it, along with some conversation, during our booksigning on July 22. We can't promise you'll see Brangelina but, based on last year's event, we think you'll have a lot of fun.