2011 LA Times Festival of Books

Have you ever been to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books? It’s been around since 1996, and I’ve attended it every year. It’s a WONDERFUL event, chock full of amazing author panels and fun book readings and even cooking demos from famous TV chefs! I wanted to alert everyone to two special events at this year’s Festival of Books…

1. LAYAPALOOZA! This is a fun group of Los Angeles-based YA novelists who will “perform” a fun variety game show featuring games and other wacky performances. Come meet the LAYAS (Los Angeles Young Adult authors) at this event. It will be at 5 PM on Saturday April 30th and 4 PM on Sunday May 1st at the YA Stage. For more information, go here: http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/program-schedule/

2. SCOTT MARTELLE, BOOK AUTHOR: Veteran journalist and book author Scott Martelle is a very good friend of mine. We used to work at The Detroit News together as reporters. His latest book is THE FEAR WITHIN (Rutgers University Press 2011), which recently received a starred review from Publishers Weekly for his account of the 1949 trial of 11 American Communists for violating the Smith Act, which outlawed advocating overthrow of the government by force.

Scott is an amazing writer and brilliant journalist. Check out his book panel, “History: Democracy and Its Discontents” with Scott and authors Thaddeus Russell and Barry Siegel and moderator Celeste Fremon on Sunday May 1st at 2 PM in Taper 101.

For more info on Scott, check out his website here: http://www.scottmartelle.com/

There are tons of other amazing book panels and an entire section for YA and children’s book authors as well. Check your LA Times for all the listings! Until my next blog… Happy Writing! WRITE LIKE YOU MEAN IT! 🙂