It’s that time of year again!  The L.A. Times Festival of Books on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) is on the last weekend of April every year!  I’m staying at a secret hideaway in Hollywood Hills – here’s the view from my room.  I rolled in rather late Friday night.  Thankfully, there’s a hip little diner nearby that serves my favorite ‘travel munchy’ – sweet potato fries.  I know, it’s not good to eat that kind of stuff late at night and I’ll probably have bad dreams – but it’s worth it – once in while!

If you’re attending the festival, you’ll probably arrive in the late morninng or early afternoon.  There’s so much to see that you shouldn’t expect to do it all – there’s just way too much going on!
Don’t forget that this is the biggest book festival in the U.S. and one of the biggest in the world!  Most publishers, retailers, authors, etc. have prepared for months to be in the festival and we arrive early in the morning.  I don’t like waking up early!
I’m a writer!  I stay up late!
Here I am at my booth in the Children’s Area, where you can find me ‘hanging out’ each year.
Lots of people stop by to say hi and I’m busy signing books pretty much the whole time!
If you like the little town – it’s from my book Lemon Drop Rain (p. 161 / King Meany Meets His Match).  My newest book Over the Top has only been out a few months now – so, this is the first time I’ve been to a festival with it!

Here I am clowning around with friend Leigh Rubin.  You probably know him from his popular daily cartoon RUBES in your newspaper.  You can find his booth just a few ‘doors’ down from me on the end.  We’re both so busy that there’s not really much time to chat, but we make up for it with dinner after the dust settles on Sunday night.  You can check out Leigh’s RUBES cartoon site at www.rubescartoons.com