2009 Festival of Books Report

So, I spent my entire weekend at UCLA. Yep, it was time for the LA Times Festival of Books once again.

I met up with Angelique at 10AM (when it started). We spent the day with our usual author stalking while mystery booth hopping. Unfortunately, it seemed that not only did Book 'Em not show up, but neither did Borders of Barnes and Noble. Taht worries me a bit. Also upsetting was the fact that they didn't have the pin in the festival merchandise like normal. I've been collecting them for the past few years. Guess this year I won't.

But it was still lots of fun. Saturday we got to talk to Jerrilyn Farmer, Sue Ann Jaffarian, and Joanne Fluke while getting the new books by R.T. Jordan and Laura Levine, both before official release.

While walking up to the festival, I discovered that Kristin Chenoweth was there, so I bought her recent memoir (which I had planned to borrow from the library) and stood in line to get it autographed. Unfortunately, I didn't have more than two seconds to tell her how upset I was that Pushing Daisies had been canceled, but it was still fun.

For something different, we both we back for something different. (Yes, I did go to church first.) Sunday was more low key as we'd already seen the majority of authors we wanted to see. I did get signatures from the brothers Goldberg (Lee for the German Monk book he'd sent me last week and Tod for both of his Burn Notice tie ins.) And I got the poster and a shirt for Cream Puff Murder from Joanne.

I left around 2:45 and headed down to Santa Monica to play some beach ultimate. It was cooler and winder than I would have liked (and Saturday for that matter. Saturday, the weather was wonderful) but I had a mostly good time. It was a bit frustrating that some of the people who didn't know me were talking to me like I knew nothing about the game. Which is why I need to play lots more pick up. I know how to play the game. I just need to get my body to do what my mind knows. And believe me, it is frustrating that I am still in that position.

Anyway, left there and went to Joe's for Babylon 5 night. We got a bit of a late start, and then wound up sitting around talking afterward until almost midnight. It was close to 1 before I turned out the light. Believe me, I've been wandering around work in a haze all day. Must get more sleep soon!