LA Times Festival of Books

Every year a Festival of Books is held in Los Angeles...most of the time, at the University of Southern California. There are lovely panels with authors from all genres and types of written works, tons of booths, and entertainment...most of it for free. It's a fantastic opportunity to interact with others who enjoy the written word, and there were booths hosted by the various elements of the USC School of Medicine branches where one could have eye exams, dental evaluations, blood pressure and blood glucose checks. The only drawback was it was HOT! Sadly, I do not tolerate the heat well, and I am suffering from some weird rash that is exacerbated by prolonged exposure, so I am paying the piper for my enjoyment this week.

I had the opportunity to attend the panel on "Science Fiction & Fantasy From All Angles" hosted by the delightful Maryelizabeth Yturralde from the fabulous Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore (which, alas, only has the San Diego branch nowadays). The panelists were: Becky Chambers, Ellen Klages, Sarah Kuhn, and Seanan McGuire. The pre-panel discussion was hilarious, especially once Seanan started with her observation of how useful the straw purse of one of the audience members would be for carrying snakes, and segued into a description of inadvertently smuggling umpteen toads who hitchhiked a ride in her underwear. The moderator asked such insightful questions while giving a brief glimpse of each author's current work, and it was fascinating to learn the thought and creativity that each person instills in her stories.

There were signings at multiple locations, including the RWA booth as well as The Ripped Bodice and Mysterious Galaxy, and I was delighted to realize that Dreamspinner had a booth...and I had the wonderful opportunity to meet both Andrew Grey and the fascinating Tara Lain! What fun!
Update: See Rhys Ford's blogpost on the terrible travails that Dreamspinner has just gone through, PLUS an amazing discount!


The pictures aren't great, since I wasn't using the flash...

 

           

    

         

       

        

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and fangirl moments!

Well, unusual for Southern California, we have cloudy overcast skies today (better than yesterday, when it was alternating rain and drizzles) but it isn't dimming my enthusiasm (yet, lol).  I had looked at the authors attending a few weeks ago, and was going to be lazy and not go (as opposed to being too cheap to drive to Las Vegas and interact with some of my favorite romance authors!), but then I saw that Sylvia Day was being featured on one of the panels...and while researching that, I discovered that one of my favorite fantasy authors, the VERY prolific Mercedes Lackey was also going to be speaking!

Wow!  She and the late Anne McCaffrey are two of my very favorite fantasy authors, and I have always waffled between whether I would want my very own Bronze Dragon or to be linked to a Companion.  These two women helped my imagination soar while exposing me to a wealth of different social issues while entertaining me.  I was delighted to see that Mercedes Lackey's 'The Last Herald Mage' trilogy has been re-released as a single volume, and am looking forward to re-reading it for review.  That was probably my first m/m story, and stayed with me for a very long time, just because of the drama portrayed so strikingly.

So...today is my day to get ridiculously tongue-tied, I have retrieved one of my copies of "Arrows of the Queen" (yes, I wanted to be one of the Queen's Own), as well as one of the 'Serrated Edge' novels and I was reminded of all of the great characters Ms. Lackey introduced me to (the hertasi, Shin a' in, hawkbrothers, those in the Elemental magic series, and so many more)...which is one of the reason there is not much room on my bookshelves, lol, and I look forward to at least getting a picture of this fantastic and fascinating author!

And to add icing on top, the wonderful Brenda Novak received an award, and she should be signing as well!






                                




The perpetually busy Brenda Novak has a new book coming out in the Whiskey Creek series...


                      


And then there's the sizzling erotic tales by Sylvia Day for ADULTS only!

         


Yep, this should be a great day!