Dirty Laundry

LA Festival of Books and Calabasas High

Just back from my three day whirlwind tour of Los Angeles, Calabasas, and Encino.

First things first. I must apologize to the Los Angeles Kings for coming down to L.A. and rooting for Vancouver so passionately and loudly at the Staples Center that the Canucks took my cheers to heart and won the game. There. I said it. I feel so much better. Now I can move on and start watching the second round of the playoffs.

All right, on to the good stuff:

I had a phenomenal time at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. The Kids Are Alright panel with Meg Cabot, Rosalind Wiseman, and Robin Benway was a blast. We were up there for an hour but it felt like only a few minutes. I wish we could have spent another hour answering all the great questions people were asking. And as long as I’m wishing, I wish I could have gone out to dinner with the authors on this panel afterwards because they were so fun.

And also, a BIG thank you everyone who got a book and came to talk to me afterwards. I love meeting readers and future-readers of my books!

On Monday I got a chance to visit two AP English classes at Calabasas High. The English teacher, Diane McEvoy, was super cool. The students in her class are really lucky to have her as their teacher. And she gets extra points for dressing up as T.C. Boyle, one of her favorite authors, during a “Dress As Your Favorite Author” day. She showed me a picture and it made me smile. And get this, when she sent the picture to T.C. Boyle, he wrote her back and thought it was fantastic! (By the way, saw T.C. Boyle in the lobby of my hotel. I wanted to go up to talk to him but I chickened out!)

The students in both English classes were awesome. They asked interesting questions and the class periods just flew by. I must admit that I have a tendency to blather on a bit and go off on these long and winding detours, but the kids stayed right with me the whole time, which was a credit to their will power and long attention span!!!

To top the whole weekend off, I got to visit the Barnes and Noble stores in Calabasas and Encino where they had me sign stacks of the new paperback edition of Swim the Fly. The staff at both stores were wonderfully embracive and kind to me.

Now, it’s off to finish up the packing, so I’ll leave you with a few shots from the weekend. Once again I was without fancy-cam so the photos lean toward the grainy side.

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Um, me and Meg Cabot anyone? How cool is that! (She is incredibly nice, by the way) Somewhere out there exists a picture of me, Meg, and Rosalind Wiseman, though not on my camera apparently, which I’m a little bummed about.

Can you believe how many people came to the festival just to see little old me? Okay, so they were there to see Meg, Rosalind, and Robin as well. Still, I must apologize to those who couldn’t get into the panel. Next time we will have to hold it at the Staples Center.

Here’s one where someone bumped my elbow. It kind of makes me want to take Dramamine.

My good friend Chris polishing his Cup (he won our Fantasy Hockey pool this year)

And just so I don’t get inundated with requests, here’s Chris hoisting it.

Finally, a shot of my friend Ron with his Scooter look-a-like.

Posted by Don Calame on 4.28.10 at 02:37 pm in Prattlings. (1) Comments