It’s that time of year again when readers, writers and booksellers (not necessarily in that order) come together to swap stories, read stories, sell stories, inflate their egos and drink untold cases of bottled water (for some reason it’s usually brutally hot) on the UCLA campus for America’s biggest festival of books. The rap on Southern California is that people here don’t read, but it turns out they do. SoCal is actually the country’s biggest book market, so the event attracts half the literary hucksters in the known universe. [I hope you're not referring to present company.-ed. Of course not.]
Anyway, the whole thing goes off this Saturday and Sunday, including many panels and speakers that you can find out about here. I’m going to be on the mystery panel on Saturday at one p. m. with two of the best thriller writers around, Kem Nunn and T. Jefferson Parker. And if that’s not exciting enough, the moderator Tod Goldberg, is a blogger.
If you come by, introduce yourself. I may need support. Last year at my panel there were some nasty cracks about my apostasy. And speaking of last year, here are some photos.
Good show, Roger. My niece is doing postgrad work at UCLA. I’ll ask her to stop by and say hello. Give Elmore Leonard a long, lingering handshake for me.
Good luck, Roger. I read the lineup for the Saturday panels and it does seem to be tilted rather leftward. But thanks so much for reminding my husband of Kem Nunn! He was a favorite author of his in the 90s and we’d sort of lost touch. Ditto for both of us on Elmore Leonard.
I’ll try to swing by. Fedora optional?
It is a long trip from the East Coast but hopefully, C Span will have it. I read the schedule and it is filled with the best. I had the opportunity to get Ron Chernow to sign his award winning “Alexander Hamilton,” and it is a treasured possession. For those of you who can attend, I recommend his lecture. He is terrific. Thanks for the heads up.
*sigh* Roger, you’re timing’s impeccable. They stopped issuing tickets at 5:30. I’ll have to try for standby…
That’s quite a lineup and some veeery interesting panels. Enjoy and, don’t worry, you can take anything they can dish out.
Apostasy? Have you abandoned literate mysteries in order to crank out bodice-rippers in the Buffy universe?
Oh, you mean political apostasy. But this event is supposed to be about books…
[/naivete]
Triticale ó Bodice-rippers in the Buffy universe? You want a link?
What the hell, any leftie who gets nekkid lezbeen teenage witches on in prime time can’t be all bad…