The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Page
Writers On Fire Cabana Booth
Saturday, April 28, 2007
DAY 1
Hypercool Bett Williams, author of The Wrestling Party, arrives with books for the booth...
Our first superstar guest, Janet Fitch, author of Paint It Black and White Oleander -- smilin' for the camera...
Not all is smiles...our Cabana Girl, Annika O'Neal, smashes finger in car door and pulls in SIX emergency medical workers! All for 1 band-aid...Voyeuristic writer Scott Doyle watches...
Lisa Teasley, supergroovy author of Heat Signature, drops by to visit and stands exactly so a tree sprouts from her head...
L.A. literary goddess Francesca Lia Block shows us how an author prepares for a signing at a cabana booth...
Francesca with an adoring fan -- who's read everything of hers from Weetzie Bat to Nymph to Necklace of Kisses...
Me holding eggroll aloft in blazing sun -- while the cabana booth swells with lazy writers and lovers of language and languor...and alliteration...
Our Cabana Boy, Jimmy Camp, with his silver-haired punksouled moviestar looks -- lounging...in the cabana lap of luxury...better'n running a political campaign -- his usual gig...
Writer Monica Carter, giving 'tude, on a sneak break from the Skylight Books booth -- she tore it up at the 2006 Writers On Fire In France retreat -- check back to read some of her awesome work...
Fully healed Cabana Girl Annika poses with her aunt, the ravishing Sukeshi O'Neal, owner of that li'l ol' French chateau...
Justin Parker, from parkerCDE.com, took a break from creating fabulous web designs to give us jazzy biz tips and work the booth all day...good karma!
Merry flameheaded pranksters Diane Sherry-Case and Susan Bernard, playwright and bon vivant writer respectively, stopped by to cheer us on...
Saturday, April 28, 2007
DAY 1
Hypercool Bett Williams, author of The Wrestling Party, arrives with books for the booth...
Our first superstar guest, Janet Fitch, author of Paint It Black and White Oleander -- smilin' for the camera...
Not all is smiles...our Cabana Girl, Annika O'Neal, smashes finger in car door and pulls in SIX emergency medical workers! All for 1 band-aid...Voyeuristic writer Scott Doyle watches...
Lisa Teasley, supergroovy author of Heat Signature, drops by to visit and stands exactly so a tree sprouts from her head...
L.A. literary goddess Francesca Lia Block shows us how an author prepares for a signing at a cabana booth...
Francesca with an adoring fan -- who's read everything of hers from Weetzie Bat to Nymph to Necklace of Kisses...
Me holding eggroll aloft in blazing sun -- while the cabana booth swells with lazy writers and lovers of language and languor...and alliteration...
Our Cabana Boy, Jimmy Camp, with his silver-haired punksouled moviestar looks -- lounging...in the cabana lap of luxury...better'n running a political campaign -- his usual gig...
Writer Monica Carter, giving 'tude, on a sneak break from the Skylight Books booth -- she tore it up at the 2006 Writers On Fire In France retreat -- check back to read some of her awesome work...
Fully healed Cabana Girl Annika poses with her aunt, the ravishing Sukeshi O'Neal, owner of that li'l ol' French chateau...
Justin Parker, from parkerCDE.com, took a break from creating fabulous web designs to give us jazzy biz tips and work the booth all day...good karma!
Merry flameheaded pranksters Diane Sherry-Case and Susan Bernard, playwright and bon vivant writer respectively, stopped by to cheer us on...
Sunday, April 29, 2007
DAY 2
Sam Dunn, author most recently of Faith In Carlos Gomez: A Memoir of Salsa, Sex and Salvation -- dances her way into the Writers On Fire booth signing chair.
Activity at the booth -- Sam signing her books, including PEN Awards finalist Failing Paris, a brilliant and distilled first novel -- in the left foreground, Nneka Obidike, amazing superCabanagirl -- she worked tirelessly all day -- at the tender age of 22 Nneka's already self-published 8 books...look out!
Yeah...our second Sunday special guest author -- you won't be seeing this Queens-born guy dancing into his chair any time soon. Not his style. But you buy his book -- the critically acclaimed And The Word Was -- and you might get a free philosophical argument.
Ethereal and earthy artist -- currently in a rock'em sock'em art fight with Damien Hirst -- who it seems ripped off her butterfly wings-as-stained glass deal -- don't mess with Lori Precious, I say! Not only is she radically fab, but her husband's genius writer Steve Erickson. He's just out of frame. That's how he is...always out of reach, but tantalizing...
This is Miles, their son...need I say more?
Actor and writer Christina Haag can't resist the call of the cabana booth -- neither can her sidekick, ultra-manager to the stars and certified glamourpuss Paulette Bartlett...
Michael Datcher is on fire! Michael Datcher is on fire! Michael Datcher is on fire! This man can burn up the page, and the stage -- author of Oprah pick Raising Fences: A Black Man's Story fireballs through the booth...
Hard-at-work Cabana boy and actor Chad Ceccola is impervious to mad-dash Datcher...or anything else...
Here's that philosophical argument! More like stand-off. Bruce Bauman, cabeza-to-cabeza with Lou Mathews, godlike writing mentor, Porsche mechanic, gourmet chef and scribe of breaktout novel L.A. Breakdown...while the brillliant mind that is journalist Anthony Miller, looks on...mesmerized...
The booth is packed!
It's like a tented literary salon! A pseudo-opium den! A stimulating melange, an arts ferment! A vibe we pack up and make moveable with the Writers On Fire retreats...
Then the standout superCabanagirl Nneka shoots me a fierce look and I realize -- time to break it all down...'til next year...or the West Hollywood Book Fair...or perhaps to reconvene, magically, in some enchanted canyon, beach or ancient valley...
DAY 2
Sam Dunn, author most recently of Faith In Carlos Gomez: A Memoir of Salsa, Sex and Salvation -- dances her way into the Writers On Fire booth signing chair.
Activity at the booth -- Sam signing her books, including PEN Awards finalist Failing Paris, a brilliant and distilled first novel -- in the left foreground, Nneka Obidike, amazing superCabanagirl -- she worked tirelessly all day -- at the tender age of 22 Nneka's already self-published 8 books...look out!
Yeah...our second Sunday special guest author -- you won't be seeing this Queens-born guy dancing into his chair any time soon. Not his style. But you buy his book -- the critically acclaimed And The Word Was -- and you might get a free philosophical argument.
Ethereal and earthy artist -- currently in a rock'em sock'em art fight with Damien Hirst -- who it seems ripped off her butterfly wings-as-stained glass deal -- don't mess with Lori Precious, I say! Not only is she radically fab, but her husband's genius writer Steve Erickson. He's just out of frame. That's how he is...always out of reach, but tantalizing...
This is Miles, their son...need I say more?
Actor and writer Christina Haag can't resist the call of the cabana booth -- neither can her sidekick, ultra-manager to the stars and certified glamourpuss Paulette Bartlett...
Michael Datcher is on fire! Michael Datcher is on fire! Michael Datcher is on fire! This man can burn up the page, and the stage -- author of Oprah pick Raising Fences: A Black Man's Story fireballs through the booth...
Hard-at-work Cabana boy and actor Chad Ceccola is impervious to mad-dash Datcher...or anything else...
Here's that philosophical argument! More like stand-off. Bruce Bauman, cabeza-to-cabeza with Lou Mathews, godlike writing mentor, Porsche mechanic, gourmet chef and scribe of breaktout novel L.A. Breakdown...while the brillliant mind that is journalist Anthony Miller, looks on...mesmerized...
The booth is packed!
It's like a tented literary salon! A pseudo-opium den! A stimulating melange, an arts ferment! A vibe we pack up and make moveable with the Writers On Fire retreats...
Then the standout superCabanagirl Nneka shoots me a fierce look and I realize -- time to break it all down...'til next year...or the West Hollywood Book Fair...or perhaps to reconvene, magically, in some enchanted canyon, beach or ancient valley...
Literary Lounging
World champ loungers captured at the booth!
DAYS 1 & 2
Here's amazing author Dylan Landis, showing us how it's done, with style and elegance -- just like in her writing -- which has won countless contests, and enjoyed wide publication from Tin House to Bomb...
Watch Dylan maintain the lounge, but still manage to sign her searing story "Rose" in the antho Women On The Edge.
Bruce Bauman, author of the smash debut And The Word Was and Black Clock co-editor, shows us death-by-pen...
Writer/director Catherine Hardwicke, of "Thirteen" and "Lords of Dogtown" fame, brings it back in balance. A perfect demonstration of couples lounging with her easygoing beau Jamie.
Writer on fire Judith Freeman cools herself in the hottest booth this side of Malcolmlowryland. Her hotly anticipated book The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved, comes out in November from Pantheon.
Hope Edelman in the house! Even author of Motherless Daughters, and Motherless Mothers -- global bestseller -- canyon neighbor -- supermom and superscribe -- drops in and reclines with us...
A trio of slackers -- Dwayne Moser, artist/writer/senior editor at Black Clock, author Mary Otis who's so tickled about her debut short story collection Yes, Yes, Cherries she's chewing on a card! Jill Gully has the cabana vibe down with a glass of...what's that red-tinted liquid! Could it be...vino?!
Corey Roskin, Mister West Hollywood Book Fair -- doing a sophisticated rockette move -- Christine Berry, creator of the Smart Gals'
Speakeasy salon -- at the ready with sun parasol-as-bat...
Author Jess Darnay and plaid-clad David Francis, author of the stunning debut novel The Great Inland Sea, looking mighty doubtful
about entering the lounge...
These guys staked the lounge spill-out chairs: Chad the lowkey Cabana Boy, Annika, and Chad's lovely mom, Catherine Ceccola, who
designed the fab Writers On Fire booth that had the whole Fest buzzing. Incredible painter Suzan Woodruff in the background...
This pair wins the prize. Fabulous writer and life coach Marcia King, who came to the last France retreat, has nailed the art of lounging with her photographer man, Noel Schwab.
World champ loungers captured at the booth!
DAYS 1 & 2
Here's amazing author Dylan Landis, showing us how it's done, with style and elegance -- just like in her writing -- which has won countless contests, and enjoyed wide publication from Tin House to Bomb...
Watch Dylan maintain the lounge, but still manage to sign her searing story "Rose" in the antho Women On The Edge.
Bruce Bauman, author of the smash debut And The Word Was and Black Clock co-editor, shows us death-by-pen...
Writer/director Catherine Hardwicke, of "Thirteen" and "Lords of Dogtown" fame, brings it back in balance. A perfect demonstration of couples lounging with her easygoing beau Jamie.
Writer on fire Judith Freeman cools herself in the hottest booth this side of Malcolmlowryland. Her hotly anticipated book The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved, comes out in November from Pantheon.
Hope Edelman in the house! Even author of Motherless Daughters, and Motherless Mothers -- global bestseller -- canyon neighbor -- supermom and superscribe -- drops in and reclines with us...
A trio of slackers -- Dwayne Moser, artist/writer/senior editor at Black Clock, author Mary Otis who's so tickled about her debut short story collection Yes, Yes, Cherries she's chewing on a card! Jill Gully has the cabana vibe down with a glass of...what's that red-tinted liquid! Could it be...vino?!
Corey Roskin, Mister West Hollywood Book Fair -- doing a sophisticated rockette move -- Christine Berry, creator of the Smart Gals'
Speakeasy salon -- at the ready with sun parasol-as-bat...
Author Jess Darnay and plaid-clad David Francis, author of the stunning debut novel The Great Inland Sea, looking mighty doubtful
about entering the lounge...
These guys staked the lounge spill-out chairs: Chad the lowkey Cabana Boy, Annika, and Chad's lovely mom, Catherine Ceccola, who
designed the fab Writers On Fire booth that had the whole Fest buzzing. Incredible painter Suzan Woodruff in the background...
This pair wins the prize. Fabulous writer and life coach Marcia King, who came to the last France retreat, has nailed the art of lounging with her photographer man, Noel Schwab.