Friends (Birthday Month Adventure #3)

When I decided to have an adventure each week during birthday month, I hadn't realized how hard it would be to include adventures in my schedule.

I defined an adventure as something I hadn't done before, which alleviates the pressure somewhat. All I had to do was go to a library branch I hadn't visited or take the train somewhere new. But due to unforeseen adventures this week, ones I won't be blogging about (but they're good), I didn't have time for an adventure I could blog about until the last minute!

Whew! Thanks to my friends, I made it. And I had a wonderful time. Here we are outside Flintridge Proper, a restaurant/pub I hadn't visited before, where we enjoyed happy hour and each other's company.

I don't suppose a woman of my age and obvious sophistication has a BFF, but it sure is nice to have very good friends. Here are (left to right) Karen E. Klein, Desiree Zamorano, Janet Aird, Karin Bugge, me and Margaret Finnegan. Aren't they fabulous? Don't worry about me, being photographed like this is how I decide which clothes to put in the Goodwill box.

Many thanks to the nice young man who took our picture. I asked him to make us look "hot, sexy and fabulous" and I believe he managed.

Thanks for dinner, dear friends! Most of all, thanks for your friendship.

Birthday Month

Margaret Finnegan had a great idea. During February, her birthday month, she would do 50 good deeds. Not only did she think it up, she followed through, posting her results on Facebook.

I'd like to imitate Margaret but I'm not as nice as she is, so I've come up with something else for my birthday month in March. I'm going to have a minimum of one adventure each week and I'll tell you about my adventures here. I'm allowed to do this instead of good deeds because I'm older than Margaret, and by god, some adventure is in order.

For my current purposes, an adventure is something I haven't done before or somewhere I haven't been before, preferably inexpensive or free and not too far away. I've got Elizabeth Pomeroy's wonderful Lost and Found as my guide, and I'd be glad to have your suggestions, too.

I'll try to do some good deeds while I'm at it.

One Special Evening

When writers sit and talk about writing it can be so boring! Blah blah structure blah blah grammar blah blah Strunk & White blah blah blah.

But when you've got me, Margaret and Désirée you've got Ideas! Subtext! Conflict, baby!

And you don't just sit there and listen. You participate.

Come on down, over and/or up to San Marino's Crowell Public Library this coming Monday, January 13th and let's have ourselves a blast.

I don't have a photo of the library so here's one of San Marino's Lacy Park. You can tell what a nice place San Marino is. And it's just the other side of the Huntington!



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New Year, New Business

I must catch you up on what's what.

First, mark your calendar if you will and come visit with me and authors Desiree Zamorano (Modern Cons, Human Cargo and the upcoming The Amado Women) and Margaret Finnegan (The Goddess Lounge, Selling Suffrage) at the Crowell Public Library in San Marino, 7pm Monday, January 13 for "Three Local Authors, One Special Evening: When Authors Talk."

Not the usual "read for twenty minutes then take questions" evening, we'll read very short bits from our current novels then chat about such subjects as conflict, ideas and subtext. The audience will of course be invited to chime in.

Also, please reset your bookmark: PasadenaDailyPhoto.com will no longer lead you here after about January 7th. PasadenaDailyPhoto.blogspot.com is still good, as is LivingVicuriously.net.

The Camelot & Vine ebook is on sale for $3.99 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords until the end of December. It goes up to $5.99 after the first of the year, so get it now! (And remember, books make great gifts!)

Lastly, drop by December 21st for a special solstice blog hop called "Casting Light in the Darkness." A long list of authors interprets this theme. I'm working on my post to have it ready for that longest night of the year.

This Saturday

You're coming, right? We'll see you this Saturday, October 5th, at the Duarte Festival of Authors. It's free and I promise you'll enjoy it.

The festival is sponsored by Friends of the Duarte Library and held at Westminster Gardens, 1420 Santo Domingo Avenue, between Huntington Drive and Central Avenue in Duarte. Follow the signs to parking. It's easy, and I've never had to walk more than about 50 feet from my car to the gates of the park.

Margaret Finnegan and I will share table #8. She'll be selling her book, The Goddess Lounge, and I'll be selling my book, Camelot & Vine. Lessee, what do these books have in common? A strong female protagonist and a sense of humor. Everything else is up for grabs.

Oh, plus, we're going to read your Tarot cards. I don't know if Margaret knows how to do this, but I promise you I do not.

I'll be appearing on a panel! Yup. at 1:15 p.m. at the Pergola Stage, I'll be part of the group of authors discussing the topic, "What's Your Story?" I don't know if we're going to tell our stories or if this title is code for something else, but don't you worry about me. I can talk about pretty much anything, from how to make bubblegum to the best way to sing Welsh torch songs. There's nothing in the paperwork that says I have to know what I'm talking about.

Let's Hang Out This Fall

this chess set-up is no longer in the Lower Arroyo

Do you mind if I share some calendar information? I'd love to see you, so please come out.

October
Script Kitchen starts up again this fall. Instructors Tara Samuel and John Sandel (you might know him) lead you through the process of building your story into a viable film script. I highly recommend this class for any writer/storyteller. I never would have been able to write a novel without John's teaching.

October 5
The annual Friends of the Duarte Library Festival of Authors is a low-key, fun book festival in Duarte. I'll be sharing a table with Margaret Finnegan. Margaret and I are going to read your Tarot cards at the festival! I don't know how to read Tarot cards, but I have a deck so why should that stop me?

Other local authors at Duarte will include Anne Louise Bannon and Kerry Reis. Lots and lots of authors will be there, local and otherwise, and there will be panels and bookshops (like Vroman's) in the park.

October 12
When you sign up for Free Book Friday you can win free books, like my novel, Camelot & Vine. I know, I know, October 12th is a Saturday. I'm not sure how they work it but I'd suggest you sign up before then. The date is subject to change, and I'll notify you if it's not going to happen the week of the 12th.

October 18-20
Anime Fusion. What's an author doing at an anime convention? you ask. Well, besides writing Camelot & Vine I voiced a popular anime character, Ryoko the space pirate, in an anime series called "Tenchi Muyo!". "Tenchi" has become a classic, and I love going to conventions and meeting people who love the show.

November 7
Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeeshop is having a party sort of evening. I'll be there from 7:00-8:45pm signing books, meeting people and reading from Camelot & Vine. More details to come on what looks like a fun time in this gorgeous store.

There's more in the new year, with a reading at San Marino's Crowell Public Library January 13, a chat with members of Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeeshop's Brown Bags and Books reading group February 5th, and GATOcon, an anime convention in Kingsville, TX February 22nd & 23rd.

Then maybe your book group, your con, your something-or-other. You never know 'til you ask.

By the way, books make fine holiday gifts!

Happy Eostre

To the pagans of Pasadena, if you love Easter Bunnies and eggs, I recommend the goddess of the week post from Finnegan Begin Again. We always get humor at Margaret's blog, and quite often we get goddesses. Finnegan's an expert.

To those of you who'll be attending church today, I hope the services bring you joy enough to share. And don't be thinking I've never been in a church. I have, as recently as last weekend, when I took this picture inside the Community Church at Holliston. This was the location for the lecture that kicked off the Pasadena Heritage Before the Bungalow home tour.

Though I know next to nothing about the services or beliefs held at the Community Church at Holliston (Yelp reviews here), I do know it's a remarkable church because it wasn't always at Holliston. Built in 1900 and one of Pasadena's oldest churches, the building was moved piece by piece in 1923 and rebuilt at its current location.

Memory does not serve me, and neither does the web. If you know where the church was moved from, let us hear from you.

Anyway, it's a roomy sanctuary and you've gotta love those windows, not to mention the Yelp reviews. If that doesn't work for you, there's always Eostre.

Camelot Where You Are #26, Margaret

"What says Camelot more than Legos, a girl, and an imagination?"

So says Margaret of her daughter Mary's latest castle.

I agree. I built my Camelot with different materials, but the girl and the imagination were indispensable parts.

Thank you, Margaret (and Mary!).


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Thanks for playing this week, everyone! Here's the latest poop:

Be sure to vote this weekend for your favorite Camelot Where You Are entry from this week. The poll will appear at the upper left side of the blog tonight (as late as I can manage to stay up) and will remain there until midnight Sunday night.

I have two more entries for the contest so far, so while we await a full complement we'll have a regular blog week next week. Is there a bit of Camelot where you are? Take a photo and enter it! The details are here. Each weekly winner receives a free copy of my new novel, Camelot & Vine, IF AND WHEN I EVER GET THE THING PUBLISHED.

And I will! It's just taking a little longer than I'd hoped. That, my friends, simply means more winners and more free books. So send in your entry!

Musical Driveway

Its Art Weekend in Pasadena, so a musical driveway is appropriate. There's a lot going on in town, most of it free, so click the link and take advantage.

I'm in the middle of:
putting finishing touches on the audiobook of Belinda's Birthday (to be uploaded to Amazon next week);
having the inside of Camelot & Vine designed and created by the soon-to-be-famous Kate Wong;
figuring out the outside of Camelot & Vine, which I finally have in my head, and now must translate to the book cover;
editing a short story, on deadline;
proofreading every little thing;
and a bunch of other things I've decided not to bore you with.

I actually got one thing finished: I hope you'll check out (or, you know, just read) my review of Margaret Finnegan's The Goddess Lounge on Hometown Pasadena. While you're there you can tweet it, Facebook it, comment on it, or Like it with a capital L. Or, like I said, you can read it.

Before you click away, do vote for your favorite contest entry from this week's Camelot Where You Are contest (rules here). The poll is at the upper left.

The Dena is My Village

Yesterday morning I went to South Pasadena to meet with writer, blogger and successful entrepreneur Margaret Finnegan. Her luscious new book, The Goddess Lounge, is selling very well. I had a long list of questions to ask her about publishing as I move forward with my plans for Camelot & Vine.

Pictured is the old Meridian Iron Works building, which houses the South Pasadena Historical Museum. It's right by the Mission Metro Rail Station. South Pas is the closest thing to Mayberry around here. You can ride your bike to the station and take the train to downtown Los Angeles; it takes about 15 minutes. The big white square is for movies on the lawn.

Some may argue that Altadena is our closest thing to Mayberry, but Altadena is more like the Dena's version of Berkeley. In about 1976. Or Idlewild in the off-season.

South Pasadena is Margaret's turf. It's also Laurie's turf. Thank you, Laurie, for allowing me the border-crossing. Laurie would say it's my turf, too. We are sooo not territorial around here.

Margaret and I sat upstairs at Buster's (cash only), just across the street from the Iron Works. The heat has finally arrived on the west coast so we drank iced drinks. I had too much caffeine. Margaret generously answered every question on my typed list, and waited patiently while I jotted notes. (We are sooo not territorial around here.)

My biggest question was, now that I've done all this research, what's my next step?

There are about five first steps.

Hello ground, I have hit you running. Thank you, Margaret.

And thank you, Buster's, for the caffeine.

Goddesses

I could have shown you Margaret Finnegan signing books for her fans. She signed a lot of books yesterday.

I could have shown you the people. SPACE Arts Center in South Pasadena was packed.

I could have shown you Margaret reading from her book. She read brilliantly, and now everyone is begging for the audiobook.

I could have shown you the crowd either noshing, laughing, or applauding.

But this is my favorite shot: two readers, absorbed in the blurbs on the back of The Goddess Lounge. They're about to buy a couple of copies and have them signed by the author.

Margaret Finnegan's novel, The Goddess Lounge, is on sale everywhere. If you're not sure you want to make an investment, you can read Margaret's blog for a while or check out her stories on Smashwords. Once you've done that, I think you'll be as proud to know her as I am.

Guest Author Margaret Finnegan and "The Goddess Lounge"

In my novel The Goddess Lounge, an Altadena mom attends a "goddess consultation" at a notorious LA coffee house/knitting salon/menstrual palace called The Goddess Lounge, and from there on out madcap adventures ensue. On my blog, FinneganBeginAgain, readers ask me to find goddesses to help them with issues as diverse as career advancement to leaky plumbing.

You might wonder: Margaret, what's up with all the goddesses?

I'm glad you asked! I believe we live in a world that lacks historical memory.  We throw out the past like it's old Kleenex. The problem is that if you only have your own personal past to provide context for your experiences, then whenever some new tragedy strikes you can't help but gnash your teeth and wonder how you of all people became so particularly and cruelly ill fated. Your partner leaves you and you gnash.  Your career falls apart and you gnash. Your child/parent/best friend/self becomes painfully ill and you gnash, gnash, gnash.

You know what helps with the gnashing? Stories, ancient stories that remind us that loss, pain and hardship are timeless and universal. The only problem is that, in the old stories, hardship turns men into heroes and it turns women into crazy ladies or dead crazy ladies. Which is why women need better stories. Enter goddesses.

Being a goddess was no cake walk. Husbands cheated on you. Children died and betrayed you. You encountered humiliation, sadness, sorrow.  But you didn't go all cat lady and die. You muddled through. And you didn't get a boob job to please a man or feel guilty for wanting something just for yourself. You knew your invaluable worth, and you expected others to know it too. You were better than a hero. You were a goddess.

Want to be a goddess? Here's what you do: Look around, and in the places of your life where you find disrespect and ingratitude, say: "I am a goddess. I will not put up with this shit." And in the places of your life where you find hurt and pain, say: "You poor little thing, come hide under my wings. I am a goddess, and you are safe."

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Meet Margaret at a book signing and reception for The Goddess Lounge:

Saturday, July 21

Three o'clock to four-thirty in the afternoon

SPACE Arts Center

1508 Mission Street

South Pasadena, CA 91030

A portion of all proceeds will go to SPACE art scholarships.

Watch a trailer for TheGoddess Lounge (narrated by Pasadena Daily Photo's own Petrea Burchard).

Buy The Goddess Lounge.

Read Margaret's blog and request agoddess of your own.

Belinda's Birthday

I am going boldly forward into the self-publishing world! So boldly, in fact, that I'm following in Margaret Finnegan's footsteps. It's like when you walk behind someone in deep snow and place your feet in the footprints they made. Bold! Forging behind!

One of these days I swear I'll come up with ideas of my own, but right now I'm thanking Margaret for the courage, and for this sentence: "Just start with a short story." So I've started with Belinda's Birthday on Smashwords. I first published the story on Paula Johnson's The Rose City Sisters (now at its fancy new WordPress location). Belinda's Birthday was a runner-up for story of the year on that site in 2009. Perhaps you've already guessed the winner.

Finnegan's a damned marketing genius. How can I compete with that? I can't. She makes cake with cocoa frosting. I make lentils. We do what we can with what we have.

I hope you'll download Belinda's Birthday for FREE, and maybe even give me a 900-star review. (Or whatever. I don't think  Smashwords will let you give me 900 stars, but I'll take as many as they'll allow.)

This is the first step, of course, to publishing my novel, Camelot & Vine. Camelot, here we come!

Margaret Finnegan: Goddess of Inspiration

Today is release day! You can now buy a brand spankin' new copy of the brand spankin' new novel, The Goddess Lounge (paperback here), by South Pasadena's Margaret Finnegan. That is a beautiful thing, partly because I love Margaret and partly because I love The Goddess Lounge (ebook here). Also partly because Margaret inspires me.

Margaret's blog, Finnegan Begin Again, would be inspiration enough to read her novel because one always wants more of her unique writer's voice. But she's gone further by involving her readers in the processes of publication and promotion. We've been reading about goddesses, we voted on the book cover, and when it was time to make book trailers we contributed photos of ourselves being goddesses.

Margaret has created two (two!) book trailers. Here's one:


Here's the other:


I'm in the second one twice! The first photo you see is one John took of me. Plus, that's my voice, reading from Chapter Two. I'm honored to be included.

The publishing industry has changed so much in the past few years that publishing the book yourself has become the way to go, or it's certainly at least as viable as the traditional way.  I love what Margaret's doing. Her energy and innovative ideas inspire me, and I can't wait to get my copy of The Goddess Lounge.

Local Literary Lights

Before I moved here I didn't know many published authors. But in Pasadena you can practically see at night by the literary lights.

First I'll tell you about Roberta Martinez so you can immediately mark your calendar for an event at Vroman's Bookstore tomorrow evening. Roberta and her friend Patrick Conyers will present and sign their books. Roberta's book, Latinos in Pasadena, "chronicles the legacies of Mexican Americans and other Latino men and women who lived and worked in Pasadena. The Latino community has been an integral part of the San Gabriel Valley, and here is a book that gives it its rich due."

Full disclosure: I've met and enjoyed a lively email exchange with Roberta Martinez. I haven't read her book (yet), but with over 200 vintage photos it's just my thing and it's on my Christmas wish list. Roberta's got about six brains. And I know and she knows and you know that Latinos in Pasadena are people whose time has come.

I don't know Roberta's co-presenter Patrick Conyers, nor have I read his book, Pasadena 1940-2008. However he co-authored the book with Cedar Phillips, who wrote Early Pasadena. (Gotta love Arcadia Publishing for going with a good idea.) John gave me Early Pasadena for my birthday this year and I devoured it. (That's a figure of speech. I didn't actually eat it. I read it voraciously.) I'm a happy reader when you give me archival photos and accompany them with historical information.

And if you do those things with style you might just be Michele Zack, who recently published Southern California Story: Seeking the Better Life in Sierra Madre. Disclosure again: I know Michele. I haven't read her latest book (yet) but I read her previous one, Altadena: Between Wilderness and City (published by the Altadena Historical Society). I loved that one, too. Michele has a knack for digging up juicy little (or big) secrets a town might want to forget but really, really, ought to remember.

I think I could feature a local author every week and never repeat myself. Pasadena's crawling with 'em. Someday I'll even feature myself.
...

Hey, why not today? Full disclosure: here comes a plug! My story, Belinda's Birthday, is in the running to be Story of the Year at the Rose City Sisters Flash Fiction blog. The story with the most unique page views wins, so go take a look. In fact, three other local bloggers--Susan Carrier, Desiree Zamorano and Margaret Finnegan--have published wonderful stories at Rose City Sisters. All are bright literary lights with whom I'm proud to share a similar flash fiction url.

Leave a comment if you've got something to say. And thanks for supporting your local literati.