by Elaine Walker
Simple stories teach valuable lessons in Laura Lavigne’s book ‘Pink Hair & Chocolate Cookies.’
Years ago a man from Chicago phoned La Vie en Rose to order a shipment of the chocolate cookies he’d liked so well when he visited Anacortes. From time to time he’d call to ask for more.
His requests seemed a bit of a nuisance to Laura Lavigne, who was pregnant and extremely busy cooking and running the bakery, even though she knew they were for a talk show host she was vaguely aware of, named Oprah.
“Did anyone send Oprah’s cookies,” she remembers saying with irritation to her co-workers. Eventually the man stopped calling, and that chapter of her life closed.
“The Oprah show called and asked for cookies, and I thought it was an inconvenience?” she asks now, shaking her head.
Who knows where that might have led, if she had seized the opportunity? Maybe she could have become one of the show’s guest cooks.
But when Lavigne tells the story, it has a happy ending — because she learned a valuable lesson from the experience.
“Lift up your eyes above what’s in front of you,” she said.
Some of those famous chocolate cookies will be on hand for sampling during a celebration of the release of Lavigne’s first book, “Pink Hair & Chocolate Cookies,” 6-8 p.m. Friday at Watermark Book Co. The $15 book is a collection of stories, mostly from her life, and the insights she gained from the experiences.
For the last few years, Lavigne has shared her little stories in Skagit Valley Food Co-op newsletters and her own e-mails. After numerous requests from people who want a compilation of her stores, she published one. She plans to look for a publisher after the initial run of 100.
“We’ll start querying once they come through,” she said.
The stories are mostly vignettes from her life.
“They’re just little simple stories. We’re all very human, fragile,” she said. “It’s inspiring and it puts us in touch with each other. Each story has a little lesson. It’s all happened for a reason.”
One of the stories is about her son Costa, how their family started collecting hearts and how he published a book about it last year.
A lot of the stories take place in Anacortes. A few are from her early days in France, such as the one about a teacher who did not believe a story she told in class about visiting Brigitte Bardot. Her family indeed knew the famous actress, but the teacher made her feel ashamed.
She calls this “someone painting you with a very dirty brush.” The lesson: Don’t give someone like that the power to define you.
“It’s a little bit of what I do with my clients on the phone. There’s a life coach riff to it,” she said. “Are you ready to slow down? Are you ready to feel more alive?”
A life coach helps others with various professional or personal issues.
“I help people be happier. That can come in all different forms,” she said. “Right now I’m doing a lot of small business coaching.”
She said it was challenging to commit her stories to paper.
“It’s a little bit brave to write about yourself. Some stories I pulled out and put back,” she said.
Those that stayed in had a universal quality.
“A lot of people don’t realize this happens to other people,” she said.
Lavigne said she has another literary project in the works, about her experiences with La Vie en Rose.
“I’m actually writing ‘Once Upon a Bakery,’” she said.
Two author events planned at Watermark
Laura Lavigne will bring chocolate cookies to a book signing for “Pink Hair & Chocolate Cookies” 6-8 p.m. Friday at Watermark Book Co.
Lopez Island author Iris Graville will sign copies of her book “Hands at Work: Portraits and Profiles of People Who Work with Their Hands” 1-3 p.m. Saturday at Watermark during the Art Walk.
Graville’s coffee-table publication features interviews and photographs of 23 Puget Sound artists, artisans, medical professionals and others who find fulfillment working with their hands. Graville wrote the text and Summer Moon Scriven took the accompanying photos. The book is $34.
Call 293-4277 for book-related inquiries.
