Fun in the Sun

That's what I had the last weekend of April.

Of couse, the first of it was fairly obvious. It was time once again for the LA Times Festival of Books down at UCLA. I love that weekend. Saturday, I met up with Angelique and we hung out all day bouncing from mystery store booth to mystery store booth meeting our favorites and catching up with them. We found at that Jerrilyn Farmer won't have her next Madeline Bean mystery until this time next year. Major bummer, but at least we now know when to expect it. I got the latest from Laura Levine. Saw Lee Goldberg and got to talk to him some about the last Diagnosis: Murder novel and where he'll take the series if he ever gets the chance.

And we went to a panel. This one features Jerrily Farmer, Susan Kandel, and Lisa Lutz. We had a blast listening to these three authors talk about humor in mysteries.

After church Sunday, I headed back down to try to catch another author. Chris Grabenstein was out from New Jersey, and I was able to get all three of his books signed. Found out that the next in his holiday series won't be as graphic, so I will probably give it a try. Then I got the poster for Joanne Fluke's Key Lime Pie Murder. I was going to stay until close to closing, but I was bored, so I decided to leave early.

As I was getting on the freeway, I realized that it was about time for the beach ultimate frisbee in Santa Monica to start. Hadn't planned to go, and I tried to talk myself out of it for a few blocks. But then I decided to go, so I turned around and headed back. Got to play for about an hour or so. I was dying by the time it was over, but it was lots of fun. My biggest frustration was that I threw the disc half way between players most of the time. Obviously, I need to get some practice on aiming again.

So that's all for now. Tune in again for my next life update for the next twists in the soap opera that is Mark's life.