Weekend

Traffic in downtown Pasadena is going to be seriously busy this weekend, because of Make Music Pasadena and the Grand Fondo Gira d'Italia bike ride.

Most of Make Music will be west of El Molino or so. Bikes, however, will be everywhere, so keep your eyes open and be careful!

I'm not much for crowds, so I'll probably head into the San Gabriels for a hike. But I think big events are great for Pasadena. And if you can get yourself over to Vroman's at 4pm on Saturday you can enjoy the launch of The Texas Twist by John Vorhaus. John and I both have stories in Literary Pasadena: The Fiction Edition.

I might even show up myself. I mean, hey, they have snacks.

Bookmarks: Ludlum I'm Not

I approach the drop.

I steal a glimpse over my shoulder to make sure I'm not being followed by anyone except my camera crew.

"Little...free...liberry...dot..............org! This is the place."

I write an encoded note so my contact will know this is the right book. Or maybe I sign it.

You know, this Little Free Library's got a pretty good collection.

(all photos by John Sandel)

No need to be sneaky. Leave a book, take a book. It's free. This LFL is at 1614 Las Lunas Street, Pasadena.

*************************

As the end of my daily posting looms I'm excited to have free time, but I don't want too much. I'd love to visit your book club and talk about Camelot & Vine, for example. Or if you're involved with anime cons, invite me! I'd love to come.

I keep a calendar on the main page of my website, so if I'm not here you can always check there.
Next up: tomorrow, Sunday April 28th, 2pm at Barnes and Noble in Old Town Pasadena, a group signing of Literary Pasadena: The Fiction Edition.
The following Sunday, May 5th, I'll be signing and selling books to benefit the Bloom Again Foundation at Lunafest, at Descanso Gardens. It starts at 12:30pm. Click the link to buy your tickets in advance.
Then Litfest! May 11, all day, at Central Park in Pasadena. Look for the Boz Books booth.

More on my website. I hope to see you at one or all of these events.

Left Coast Literary

I love this photo of Pamela Tartaglio. I took it yesterday at the Los Angeles Times Festival of books. I don't usually think of myself as much of a portrait photographer. It helps when you have a good model.

Pam is the 2013 Past President of Women Writing the West, and the current Chair of Women Writing the West’s WILLA Literary Awards. She's writing a novel set in 1894 in Cripple Creek, Colorado, sometimes called the world’s greatest gold camp. She also blogs at Past and Present With Pamela, and she's a docent at the Pasadena Museum of History where, ahem, Camelot & Vine is stocked in the gift store.

To get to the Festival, Margaret Finnegan (you should click that link) and I took the Metro Gold Line to Union station, where we actually found the free bus that took us to the USC Campus. Our goal was to have fun, find new and different books, meet authors, and (thrills!) sign more copies of Literary Pasadena: The Fiction Edition, at the Prospect Park Books booth.

The big six publishers: Simon & Schuster, Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Penguin Group were not at the Festival, unless you want to count the fact that Penguin owns Author Solutions and Author Solutions had about 20 booths. I kid you not. Google them to find out why this could be, maybe, not great. I don't know why the big six didn't come. Maybe the west coast is not their thing.

You can get your signed copies of Literary Pasadena today at the Festival any time, and/or meet some of the authors between 12pm and 1pm. There are a lot of authors in this book! Probably someone you know. The Prospect Park booth (#63) isn't big enough for all of us, so I got my shot Saturday and I won't be there today because I am pooped!

Bookmarks: Literaries Who Launch

photo by John Sandel

I went to a book launch party Thursday night and didn't think to take pictures because I was excited to be one of the book's authors. Thanks to John, we have this panorama of everyone's backs.

The book we celebrated is Literary Pasadena: The Fiction Edition, published by Prospect Park Books. It's a collection of short stories and excerpts, produced as a companion to LitFest Pasadena, coming to Central Park May 11th.

I hope you'll read it. Everyone in this picture has a piece in it. I don't know who took this photo, but here are everyone's fronts. The shot was sent to us all by the book's editor, Patricia O'Sullivan, who looks happy. She's just in front of me and to my right. (I'm the only one wearing a yellow top. It's spring, right? I can wear yellow.)

I knew some of these people already, met more last night, and hope to meet still more at upcoming events for the book.*

Publisher Colleen Dunn Bates of Prospect Park Books wrote a post about the party here, and there are more pictures. I also wrote a post, comparing taking photos in and about Pasadena to writing stories here.

For me, this party was a milestone of sorts. I've had my works published before, and I've been paid to write before. But I've never had a book launch party where I was involved as a writer. Still hoping to have a launch party for Camelot & Vine. Not sure how I'm going to do it.

* This coming Thursday, 4/18, at 7pm will be the Vroman's launch. This will be a panel, not a group signing.
* There will be signings of Literary Pasadena at noon both Saturday 4/20 and Sunday 4/21 at the Prospect Park Books booth at the LA Times Festival of Books. I'm in the Saturday signing.
* Sunday, 4/28 at 2pm, there will be a group signing at Barnes & Noble in Old Town.
* Then of course there's Litfest May 11th in Central Park, where Prospect Park will of course have a booth, and so will Boz Books!
* On Thursday, June 13th at 7pm, I'll be participating in a panel about "writing Pasadena," at the Pasadena Museum of History.

Bookmarks: Literary Pasadena

Amid all the editing and proofreading I've been doing lately (I've practically memorized Camelot & Vine), a pleasant task came my way the other day. I was asked to proofread my contribution to a new book that's coming out in April called Literary Pasadena: The Fiction Edition.

You're going to want to get a copy of this book. It contains short stories by many of Pasadena's best authors, plus excerpts from upcoming works, and more. I'm honored to be a part of it.

Funny thing about my novel, Camelot & Vine. I've been working on it for so long I'm embarrassed to say. It's a good book, I think. I won't know 'til you read it, but it's mine, I love it, and it's a fun story.  If it were War & Peace I might be willing to tell you how long it took me to write it. I have slaved over the proofreading, tweaking where I dare, and sometimes wishing I could rewrite the whole damn thing.

Not so with my little short story in Literary Pasadena. I wrote it. I like it. Done.

Why is that? What's the difference?

The picture: parrots. They invaded our neighborhood last week. Enlarge the photo and see, they are all along the phone wires, all the way down the street. When I took this they were in every treetop, on every wire, flying everywhere. The noise they make is deafening.

I chose this picture because to me, the parrots are uniquely Pasadena. Literary Pasadena: The Fiction Edition, will be uniquely Pasadena, too.

TM2READ

When I was a kid at 4H camp, the counselors used to sing a song at lunch in the lodge: "Announcements, announcements, announcements! A terrible way to die, a terrible way to die..." Then it just repeated itself. It was kind of terrible. But I'm grown up now so I like to think I announce better things than trash pick-up at the tether ball court.

A blood drive for Children's Hospital Los Angeles is taking place conveniently here in Pasadena from 7:30am to 1:30pm today. You can find the CHLA Blood Mobile at the Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E. Green Street, right behind the Paseo. CHLA needs 1,000 units of blood every month. Take lunch early and be a hero!

And,

A short story of mine, called Portraits, will be published in April of 2013 in a collection called Literary Pasadena: The Fiction Edition. I'm honored to be part of this Prospect Park Books collection, along with local star authors like Michelle Huneven, Victoria Patterson and Jervey Tervalon. Michelle will contribute the introduction, Victoria was a guest author here on PDP, and I met Jervey once at a party! I'm in excellent company.

And!

My very short story, Belinda's Birthday, is now an audiobook (voiced by me), available on Amazon for 89 cents. Because it's an MP3 download it's listed under Music. You can click on my little ad at the upper left or just click the link right here. I'll be interested in your honest feedback and, if you're so inclined, your Amazon reviews.

We have two entries awaiting your judgement in the Camelot Where You Are photo contest. I'm holding onto them until I get a couple more, for competition's sake. It's your turn! (Details are here).

Have a great weekend!