Author Event: Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Tuesday night I was lucky enough to get to hear Vanessa Diffenbaugh, author of The Language of Flowers, speak at an event sponsored by Rainy Day Books. It was great – she is so sweet. That’s her family in the picture on the screen behind her.

Here are some of the highlights of her talk:

On September 20th a companion flower dictionary is being released. It’s called A Victorian Flower Dictionary: The Language of Flowers Companion by Mandy Kirkby and Vanessa Diffenbaugh.

The movie rights of The Language of Flowers have just been sold to Fox. I hope they start production soon – I think it would make a great movie!

Vanessa (a foster parent herself) has started a non-profit called the Camellia Network to help foster kids. The meaning of a Camellia flower is “my destiny is in your hands”. Basically she is looking for book clubs, church groups, etc to sponsor kids who have aged out of the foster system and are starting college. It’s like a shower registry where the kids register for things they will need – dishes, a computer, etc. and then your group can choose what they would like to provide the child off of his/her registry. Check out the website for more information. It sounds like a great project; so many kids end up homeless or incarcerated after aging out of the system because they have no support system in place.

Vanessa will have an article in the November issue of Good Housekeeping magazine about her foster son’s graduation.

At the end of the event, everyone got a little rose bush to take home:

It was a very fun evening – a big thank you to Vanessa for coming to Kansas City and to Rainy Day Books for bringing her in!