When San Francisco author Josie Brown (left) started promoting her first novel, True Hollywood Lies, she convinced her publisher, Avon, to round up three more of its chick lit writers and send them all on a four-city tour at venues she'd already lined up through her contacts in the Hard Rock Café chain. That went so well she decided to keep visiting other cities at her own expense, inviting nearby authors—including several from publishers other than Avon—to join in. Despite the steady downpour last Friday afternoon, a crowd steadily gathered at the Park Avenue eatery Sugarcane to meet Brown and her new friends as they wound up the East Coast leg of the tour. Chicagoan Jennifer O'Connell spread the word among her alumni network, while Kayla Perrin, who came down from Toronto, and local author Stephanie Lessing each had a cluster of friends squeeze their way into the back of the restaurant. Many of those attending were publishing insiders with various connections to the authors—editors, publicists, agents—making the evening as much a party as a promotional affair. Nevertheless, a table tucked into a far corner did draw several visitors who broke away from the cocktail chatter to examine (and occasionally buy) paperbacks by each of the four guests of honor. (The authors had also appeared earlier that day at the Rockefeller Plaza Waldenbooks; the rain may have kept some people away, they suggested, but it also brought in some office workers reluctant to leave the building.)

Although Perrin and Lessing were wrapping up their involvement, O'Connell plans to stick with Brown for a hometown gig in Chicago and down to Memphis and Atlanta. After that, Brown hooks up with Texans Julie Kenner and Shane Bolks for a four-day sweep of Hard Rocks in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas.