Literary Orange by Leo Ventura

OC PUBLIC LIBRARIES PRESENTS

LITERARY ORANGE A CELEBRATION OF AUTHORS, READERS AND LIBRARIES APRIL 6TH 2013 IRVINE MARRIOTT

Welcome from OC Public Libraries We would like to welcome those of you who are joining us for the first time to Literary Orange 2012, and welcome back our returning guests who have fallen in love with the literary dialogue that surrounds the day. We hope you find this program, Orange Countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier literary event, enriching and one you will return to year after year. Since the first Literary Orange in 2007, our goal has been to provide a quality literary event with vibrant authors who share their work, their inspirations, and their insights. This year, we are thrilled to feature highly acclaimed authors Paula McLain and Lisa See as our keynote speakers, along with a diverse line up of engaging genre panels that are sure to stimulate and enlighten us all. We would like to thank all of our 2012 participants, our sponsors who have contributed to making this event possible, and the enthusiastic volunteers who have put this program together.

Helen Fried County Librarian

LITERARY ORANGE IS ORANGE COUNTY’S PREMIER LITERARY EVENT, BRINGING AUTHORS, READERS AND LIBRARIES TOGETHER FOR A CELEBRATION OF LITERATURE.

Literary Orange 2013 Sponsors

Session A Panels

Keynote Speakers

Literary Orange 2013 Committee Chairs

Literary Orange Event Schedule

Session B Panels

Children: The Illustrated Story

Literary Fiction: Southland Stories

HORROR: DEAD & LOVING IT

Inspirational Fiction: Hope And Faith

Writing/Agents: The Business Of Writing

MEMOIR: TRIUMPH OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT

MYSTERY: SWEET & SINISTER

POETRY: A VISUAL LANGUAGE

Notes: LITERARY ORANGE 2013

ROMANCE: LOVE BETWEEN THE PAGES

YOUNG ADULTS: THE AWESOME AGE

FOOD: EAT YOUR WORDS WRITERS ON FOOD & CULTURE

Sherry Toth, Program Coordinator Cynthia Corderman, Regional Manager Cathy DeLeon, Artwork Jon Gilliom, Book Sales Matthew Patsel, Publicity Roxanne Burg, Proofreader Ericka Reeb, Registration Jane Deeley, Sponsorships Susan Pina, Volunteers Kim Banks, Venue

LITERARY ORANGE 2013 SPONSORS

Presenting Authors Circle

$5,000

First Edition

$2,500

Classic

$1,000

Best Seller

$500

Manuscript

$250

Official Bookseller Media Sponsor Hotel Sponsor Gift in Kind Sponsor

$10,000+

Event book sales Event publicity Complimentary Rooms for Authors Event Item or Service The Art Institute of California, Orange County

LITERARY ORANGE EVENT SCHEDULE

8:00 am – 9:00 am

Registration & Continental Breakfast

9:00 am – 10:00 am

Welcome & Keynote Address: Tatjana Soli

10:00 am – 10:30 am

Keynote Book Signing

10:30 am – 11:30 pm

Panels: Session A

11:30 am – 12:00 pm

Book Signing: Session A Authors

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Lunch

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Panels: Session B

2:00 pm – 2:30 pm

Book Signing: Session B Authors

2:30 pm – 3:30 pm

Keynote Address: J. A. Jance

3:30 pm – 4:00 pm

Keynote Book Signing

SESSION A PANELS Inspirational Fiction: Moderator: Children: Moderator: Writing/Agents: Moderator: Literary Fiction: Moderator: Memoir: Moderator: Horror: Moderator:

Hope and Faith Margaret Brownley, Janice Cantore, Susan Meissner, Jill Patterson The Illustrated Story Rosemary Wells, Marissa Moss, Sarah Stimson The Business of Writing Paul Levine, Jennifer Azantian, Maria Hall Brown Southland Stories Gayle Brandeis, Diane Lefer, Aris Janigan, Hector Tobar, Andrew Tonkovich Triumph of the Human Spirit Duff Brenna, Lucy Lang Day, Paula Priamos, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Dead & Loving It Lisa Morton, Benjamin Ethridge, Nancy Holder, Michael Bricker

SESSION B PANELS Romance: Moderator: Mystery: Moderator: Young Adults: Moderators: Poetry: Moderator: Food: Eat Your Words: Moderator:

Love Between the Pages Jill Sorenson, Jillian Stone, Anna Randol, Wendy Crutcher Sweet & Sinister Harley Jane Kozak, Mary Daheim, Cecilia Velastegui, Marrie Stone The Awesome Age Cecil Castellucci, Josephine Angelini, Jessi Kirby, Sarah Maas, Allison Tran & Michelle Ann Dunphy A Visual Language Anna Leahy, Lorene Delany-Ullman, Amy Newlove Schroder Mary Menzel Writers on Food & Culture Gustavo Arrellano, Adam Roberts, Debra Samuels, Russ Parsons

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

TATJANA SOLI Tatjana Soli was born in Salzburg, Austria and lived in southern Italy before moving to the U.S. Her New York Times best-selling debut novel, The Lotus Eaters (St. Martin’s, 2010,) is the gripping tale of a female photojournalist who is covering the Vietnam War. It was partially inspired by Soli’s time spent living at Fort Ord military base in Monterey, California. The Lotus Eaters won the 2011 James Tait Black Prize, one of the oldest prizes in the U.K. It was also a New York Times Notable Book, an American Library Association Notable Book, and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award among other honors. Her second book, The Forgetting Tree, tells the story of a California citrus ranching family and was a 2012 New York Times Editors’ Choice. Her short stories have appeared in Zyzzyva, Boulevard, Five Chapters, The Normal School, and The Sun. Her stories have been listed twice in “100 Distinguished Stories” in Best American Short Stories. She lives with her husband in Orange County, California.

J. A. JANCE J. A. Jance is the author of over forty best selling books, millions of which are still in print. Her series include those featuring J.P. Beaumont, a retired Seattle policeman; Joanna Brady, Sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona; and Ali Reynolds, former broadcaster and now police academy graduate. Jance’s professional writing career began with the publication of the first Detective Beaumont book, Until Proven Guilty (Avon, 1985). However, her desire to become a writer actually began in the second grade after reading The Wizard of Oz. Unfortunately, both her first husband and a creative writing professor discouraged those efforts. According to the professor, “girls ought to be teachers or nurses,” not writers. Jance set aside her writing until the 1980s when she found herself a divorced, single parent without child support, working full-time selling life insurance. Jance holds degrees in English and secondary education. She also has a master’s of education in library science, and worked as both an English teacher and a K-12 school librarian. She grew up in Brisbee, Arizona, and she and her husband now divide their time between Seattle and Tucson.

PANEL SESSION A

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM

INSPIRATIONAL FICTION: HOPE AND FAITH

MARGARET BROWNLEY Thrills, mystery, suspense, romance: Brownley penned it all. Nothing wrong with this, except that she was writing for the church newsletter. When her item on the church picnic read like a Grisham novel, her former pastor took her aside and said, “Maybe God’s calling you to write fiction.” So that’s what Margaret did. Now a New York Times bestselling author, she is a Romance Writers of America RITA finalist with more than 25 published novels.

www.janicecantore.com Janice Cantore is retired from the Long Beach Police Department after 22 years of service, with sixteen in uniform and six as a non-career officer. Janice worked a variety of assignments including patrol, administration, training, and juvenile investigations. During the course of her career in uniform, Janice found that faith was indispensable to every aspect of her job.

www.margaretbrownley.com Her first non-fiction book, Grieving God’s Way: The Path to Lasting Hope and Healing (Thomas Nelson, 2012), won critical acclaim. Dawn Comes Early (Thomas Nelson, Brides of Last Chance Ranch series, book one) was published in 2012. Waiting for Morning (2013) will be followed by Gunpowder Tea. She’s now working on a new series. Not bad for someone who flunked 8th grade English. Just don’t ask her to diagram a sentence.

JANICE CANTORE Once retired, she began writing novels. Accused (Tyndale House, 2012) is the first installment in her new suspense offering, The Pacific Coast Justice Series. Abducted (Tyndale House, 2012) is the second and most-recently released installment. Cantore writes suspense novels designed to keep you engrossed and leave you inspired. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology from UC Irvine and one in physical education from CSULB. She is also a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Sisters in Crime.

SUSAN MEISSNER

www.susanmeissner.com

Susan Meissner is the author of over one dozen novels, a speaker, and a writing workshop leader. She has a background in community journalism, having edited a weekly newspaper in Minnesota. Her novels include The Shape of Mercy (WaterBrook), named by Publishers’ Weekly as one of the 100 Best Novels of 2008; The Girl in the Glass (WaterBrook, 2012); and A Sound Among the Trees (WaterBrook, 2011).

Susan majored in education at Point Loma College and lived abroad for a time when her husband was on active duty in the Air Force. They have four children, all young adults. When she is not writing novels, Susan writes small group curriculum for her San Diego church where her husband serves as an associate pastor.

JILL PATTERSON, MODERATOR Jill has been in the library field for over thirty years and has worked in the private sector as well as in public, special, and school libraries. She has been a judge for the OC Chapter of the Romance Writers of America Book Buyer’s Best contest and for the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Carol Awards.

She was the 2011 committee chair for the California Library Association’s John and Patricia Beatty Award for children’s literature. She has spoken annually at San Diego’s ComicCon on the subject of graphic novels in libraries. She is an unapologetic fan of genre fiction of all kinds and is a member of two book discussion groups that ensure she reads widely in all areas.

PANEL SESSION A

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM

CHILDREN: THE ILLUSTRATED STORY

ROSEMARY WELLS Rosemary Wells is the author-illustrator of more than 120 highly-acclaimed books, mostly for young readers. Her popular characters, Max and Ruby the bunny siblings, now star in their own television show on Nick, Jr. Wells grew up in a creative family. Her mother was a ballet dancer, and her father was an actor-playwright. “We had a houseful of wonderful books,” Wells recalls. “Reading stories aloud was as much a part of my childhood as the air I breathed.”

She began drawing at age two; at nineteen, she attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her best-selling titles include Bunny Cakes (Dial, 1997), Noisy Nora (Dial, 1973), and Read to Your Bunny (Scholastic, 1997). However, Rosemary considers Voyage to the Bunny Planet (Viking, 2008) her personal favorite. Rosemary Wells is a reading evangelist and travels all over the country as an advocate for literacy and pre-school education. She makes her home in upstate New York.

MARISSA MOSS

www.marissamoss.com Marissa Moss grew up telling stories and drawing pictures to go with them. She sent her first picture book to publishers when she was nine, but mysteriously enough, never heard back from them. She didn’t try again until she was a grown-up, and then it took five years of submitting stories, getting them rejected, revising them, and sending them out again until she got her first book published.

www.rosemarywells.com

Now she has written and illustrated over fifty books, many of them from her best-known series, Amelia’s Notebook. When she wrote the first book fifteen years ago, the format of a handwritten notebook with art on every page was so novel, editors didn’t know what to make of it. Now the diary format is a common one. Mira’s Diary: Lost in Paris (Jabberwocky, 2012) is another new kind of hybrid book: a mix of history, art, and time travel in the Amelia boundary-breaking vein.

SARAH STIMSON, MODERATOR Sarah Stimson has been employed as a children’s librarian with OC Public Libraries for the last six years at the Irvine University Park Branch. Previously, she held positions at the AIDS Administration Library in Baltimore and as a school librarian in Northern California. Sarah studied for a year in Lyon, France at the Université de Lyon II and graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in French literature.

She interned at the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler Art Gallery Archives and received her master’s degree in library science from the University of Maryland. In her free time, Sarah reads books from many different genres. But as a dedicated art enthusiast who has studied fine art and ceramics, there is also a special place in her heart for the art of book illustration.

PANEL SESSION A

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM

WRITING/AGENTS: THE BUSINESS OF WRITING

PAUL S. LEVINE

www.paulslevine.com

Paul S. Levine wears two hats: lawyer and literary agent. Levine has practiced entertainment law for over 30 years representing writers, producers, actors, directors, musicians, artists, photographers, galleries, publishers, developers, production companies and theatre companies. His clients come from the fields of motion pictures, television, interactive multimedia, live stage, music, the visual arts, publishing, and advertising. In 1998, Levine opened the Paul S. Levine Literary

Agency, specializing in the representation of book authors and the sale of motion picture and television rights in- and to- books. Since starting his agency, Mr. Levine has sold over 100 adult, young adult, and children’s fiction and non-fiction books to at least 50 different publishers and has had many books developed as movies-for-television and feature films. Levine holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Montreal and an M.B.A. from York University in Toronto. He attended law school at USC and currently represents more than 100 clients.

JENNIFER AZANTIAN Jennifer Azantian manages incoming submissions for the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency and assists Sandra Dijkstra and Elise Capron. She studied clinical and developmental child psychology at UCSD and graduated cum laude in 2010. After graduation, she spent a wonderful summer interning at the Dijkstra agency before joining full-time in fall of 2011. Azantian is a published author of several short stories and brings to the agency a passion for literature born of a writer’s heart.

She loves all flavors of the fantastic. She believes that it is against the backdrop of fantasy and science fiction that basic human truths can be best examined, magnified, and delighted in. Azantian has begun to acquire projects and welcomes all submissions that match her interests. She represents young adult science fiction and fantasy (including all of their subgenres) only. Up-to-date submission guidelines are posted at www.dijkstraagency.com

MARIA HALL BROWN, MODERATOR Maria Hall-Brown joined PBS SoCal in July, 1997. She is the Executive Producer for Arts and Culture programming at PBS SoCal and currently produces “LAaRT”. She also works as a producer/reporter for “Real Orange,” PBS SoCal’s nightly news and public affairs program, and she serves as the producer/host of “Bookmark,” an acclaimed author interview series. Maria has won two Los Angeles Area Emmys and five Golden Mike Awards. She produced several documentaries for PBS SoCal, including “Bulgarian Rhapsody,”

a program about The Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra’s tour of Bulgaria, and “Be Brave: Samantha’s Story,” a look at Erin Runnion’s crusade to protect children after her five-year old daughter was kidnapped and murdered. Maria believes that public television is a powerful tool for good, and she is delighted to have been involved with a wide range of community organizations. A long-time resident of Orange County, Maria received her degree from UC Irvine. She proudly received a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005.

PANEL SESSION A

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM

LITERARY FICTION: SOUTHLAND STORIES

GAYLE BRANDEIS

www.gaylebrandeis.com

Gayle Brandeis is the author of Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (HarperOne, 2002), and the novels Self Storage (Ballantine, 2008), Delta Girls (Ballantine, 2010), and The Book of Dead Birds (HarperCollins, 2004) which won Barbara Kingsolver’s Bellwether Prize for Fiction of Social Engagement. Her first novel for young people, My Life with the Lincolns (Henry Holt, 2010),

DIANE LEFER

www.dianelefer.weebly.com/ Diane Lefer is an author, playwright, and activist whose recent books include the mystery novel, Nobody Wakes Up Pretty (Rainstorm Press, 2012); the short-story collection, California Transit (Sarabande, 2007), which won the Mary McCarthy Prize; and The Blessing Next to the Wound (Lantern Books, 2010), a non-fiction work co-authored with Colombian exile Hector Aristizábal. Amnesty International recommended this book as a selection for Banned Books Week.

won a Silver Nautilus Book Award. Brandeis recently released The Book of Live Wires, sequel to The Book of Dead Birds, in ebook format. Brandeis teaches in the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at Antioch University and lives in Riverside, California, where she is Mom to two adult kids and a toddler. She recently began a two-year appointment as the new Inlandia Literary Laureate.

Nightwind, a play created in collaboration with Aristizábal, has been performed all over the world, including performances for human rights organizations in Afghanistan and Colombia. Diane has led arts-and-games-based writing workshops to boost literacy skills and to promote social justice in the United States and in South America. Many years ago, she wrote for Violent World, a short-lived magazine edited by a former CIA officer. She is now a peaceful person and contributing writer of advocacy journalism to LA Progressive, New Clear Vision, and Numéro Cinq.

ARIS JANIGIAN Aris Janigian is the author of three novels, Bloodvine (Heyday, 2005), Riverbig (Heyday, 2008), and This Angelic Land (West of West, 2012). He is also co-author along with April Greiman of Something from Nothing (Rotovision, 2002), a book on the philosophy of graphic design. Janigian holds Ph.D. in psychology, and from 1993 to 2005 he was Senior Professor of Humanities at Southern

California Institute of Architecture. He has published in genres as diverse as poetry, social psychology, and design criticism. He was a contributing writer to West, the Los Angeles Times’ Sunday magazine, a finalist for the William Saroyan Fiction Prize, and the recipient of the Anahid Literary Award from Columbia University. He is a contributing writer for thenervousbreakdown.com and lives in Los Angeles.

HECTOR TOBAR

www.hectortobar.com

Héctor Tobar is a Los Angeles-born writer and the author of three books. His most recent novel, The Barbarian Nurseries (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011), won the 2012 California Book Award for Fiction and was a New York Times Notable Book. He is also the author of the novel The Tattooed Soldier (Delphinium, 1998) and the non-fiction book Translation Nation: Defining a New American

Identity in the Spanish-Speaking United States (Riverhead, 2006). Tobar is a veteran journalist; he was part of the team at The Los Angeles Times that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Los Angeles riots, and he has also worked as a foreign and national correspondent and columnist for The Los Angeles Times. He holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from UC Irvine.

ANDREW TONKOVICH, MODERATOR Andrew Tonkovich edits the acclaimed West Coast literary journal, Santa Monica Review. He also hosts a literary arts program on Wednesday evenings, “Bibliocracy Radio,” broadcasting on KPFK 90.7 FM in Southern California. Andrew’s short stories, essays, and reviews have appeared most recently in

The Rattling Wall, faultline, Ecotone, the Los Angeles Review of Books and OC Weekly. Tonkovich teaches writing to undergraduate students at UC Irvine and is on the staff of the summer writing workshops at the Community of Writers in Squaw Valley. He received his M.F.A in creative writing from UC Irvine.

PANEL SESSION A

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM

MEMOIR: TRIUMPH OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT

DUFF BRENNA

www.duffbrenna.com

Duff Brenna is the author of nine books, including The Book of Mamie, which won the AWP Award for Best Novel; The Holy Book of the Beard, named “an underground classic” by The New York Times; Too Cool, a New York Times noteworthy book; and The Altar of the Body, given the Favorite Book of the Year Award from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Brenna also received a San Diego Writers Association Award for Best Novel 2002.

www.lucillelangday.com Lucille Lang Day, author of Married at Fourteen: A True Story (Heyday, 2012), has published creative nonfiction in The Hudson Review, Istanbul Literary Review, Passages North, River Oak Review, Willow Review, and many other journals. She is also the author of a children’s book, Chain Letter, and eight poetry collections and chapbooks, including The Curvature of Blue, Infinities, and The Book of Answers.

He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts award, Milwaukee Magazine’s Best Short Story of the Year Award, and a Pushcart Prize Honorable Mention. Brenna’s work has been translated into six languages. His collection of short stories, Minnesota Memoirs, was released by Serving House Books in February 2012, and his memoir, Murdering the Mom, was published by Wordcraft of Oregon in June 2012.

LUCILLE LANG DAY Her first poetry collection, Self-Portrait with Hand Microscope, received the Joseph Henry Jackson Award. Lucy received her M.A. in English and M.F.A. in creative writing at San Francisco State University, her M.A. in zoology and Ph.D. in science and mathematics education at UC Berkeley. The founder and director of the small press Scarlet Tanager Books, Lucy served for seventeen years as the director of the Hall of Health, an interactive museum in Berkeley.

PAULA PRIAMOS

www.paulapriamos.com

Paula Priamos’s writing has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and the Washington Post Magazine. An excerpt of her memoir appeared in ZYZZYVA. She contributed to the anthology Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer (Random House, 2008). Priamos teaches English and Creative Writing at CSU San Bernardino.

Her book, The Shyster’s Daughter: A Memoir (Etruscan Press, 2012), is a story of love, crime, and the unbreakable bond between father and daughter. Priamos’s father, a high-profile Greek defense attorney, died under mysterious circumstances. When she began to investigate, she discovered a side to him that wreaked havoc with her family’s cherished image of him as a hard-working, honest man. Her findings eventually led to a stunning revelation on how we choose to remember family.

BARBARA DEMARCO-BARRETT, MODERATOR Barbara DeMarco-Barrett’s first book, Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within (Harcourt, 2004, 8th printing), was on The Los Angeles Times best-seller list and was honored with a 2005 American Society of Journalists and Authors Outstanding Book Award. Her short story, “Crazy for You,” was published in Orange County Noir in April 2010. Orange Coast Magazine, Westways, The Los Angeles Times, The Writer, Writer’s Digest, Poets & Writers, Sunset, and other journals have printed her essays and articles.

Barbara has worked as an auto parts runner, baker, waitress, crisis intervention counselor, semiconductor inspector, and more. She teaches “Jumpstart Your Writing” online for the Gotham Writers Workshop. She also co-hosts “Writers on Writing,” which broadcasts from UC Irvine and streams online. Barbara received a Distinguished Instructor Award in 2001 at UC Irvine Extension. Orange Coast Magazine’s Best of Orange County (2008) gave her Literary Magnet #1. She is the founder of the Pen on Fire Speakers/Writers Salon.

PANEL SESSION A

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM

HORROR: DEAD & LOVING IT

LISA MORTON

www.lisamorton.com

Lisa Morton has been writing professionally for over 20 years and is a novelist, screenwriter, Halloween expert, and author of more than 50 published short stories, mostly in the horror genre. Her stories have appeared in Blood Lite III: Aftertaste (Pocket Books, 2012), Danse Macabre (Edge Publishing, 2012), and The Mammoth Book of Zombie Apocalypse II: Fightback (Running Press, 2012).

http://www.facebook.com/benjamin.kane.ethridge Benjamin Kane Ethridge is the Bram Stoker Award winning author of the novel Black & Orange (Bad Moon Books, 2010) and Bottled Abyss (Redrum Horror, 2012). For his master’s thesis he wrote, “Causes of Unease: The Rhetoric of Horror in Fiction and Film” (available in an ivory tower near you).

Morton is a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, and she is listed in the American Library Association’s Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror (2nd edition, 2012) as one of horror’s top “Ladies of the Night”. Her most recent books include Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween (Reaktion, 2012) and the graphic novel Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times (McFarland, 2012). She currently serves as Vice President of the Horror Writers Association and lives in North Hollywood, California.

BENJAMIN ETHRIDGE Ethridge lives in Southern California with his wife and two creatures who possess stunning resemblances to human children. When he isn’t writing, reading or gaming, Benjamin is defending California’s waterways and sewers from pollution.

NANCY HOLDER

www.nancyholder.com

Nancy Holder is a founding member of the Horror Writers Association and a former trustee. She received five Bram Stoker Awards for horror fiction, and was also nominated as an editor. She is the New York Times best-selling author of the Wicked, Crusade, and Wolf Springs Chronicles dark fantasy series. She authored tie-in projects for “universes” including Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, Teen Wolf, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy, Zorro, and Kolchak the Night Stalker.

www.sff.net/people/m.bricker

MICHAEL SCOTT BRICKER, MODERATOR

Michael Scott Bricker has sold science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories to several anthologies, including Blood Muse, Whitley Strieber’s Aliens, After Shocks, Timelines, and War of the Worlds: Frontlines. His first professional sale was to Young Blood, a horror anthology featuring authors who were under thirty at the time of publication. Mike is also an active member of the Horror Writers Association.

She has new pieces in Two and Twenty Dark Tales: Dark Retellings of Mother Goose Rhymes; V Wars; and Zombie Apocalypse: Fightback! She also writes and edits comic books and pulp fiction for Moonstone. Holder is one of three partners in GothicScapes™, a new urban fantasy publisher. She is a faculty member at the University of Southern Maine in the Stonecoast M.F.A. in Creative Writing program, and she has lectured extensively on the horror genre.

Mike graduated from UC Irvine with a degree in English and also attended the Clarion Science Fiction Writers’ Workshop. He has worked around books for most of his adult life, having been employed by numerous bookstores and libraries. For the past twelve years, he has worked for OC Public Libraries in Irvine.

PANEL SESSION B

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

ROMANCE: LOVE BETWEEN THE PAGES

JILL SORENSON

http://www.jillsorenson.com

Jill Sorenson writes gripping stories with the perfect blend of action, emotion and romance. Cosmopolitan featured her titles, Crash into Me (Bantam, 2009) and Set the Dark on Fire (Bantam, 2009), in its “Red-Hot Read” column. Sorenson is RITA-nominated and a reviewer favorite. Publishers Weekly called her characters “flawed, real, and appealing.”

http://jillianstone.com In 2010, Jillian Stone won the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award for her manuscript which was published by Pocket Books in 2012 as An Affair with Mr. Kennedy. She went from having no agent or publisher to signing with Richard Curtis and then being offered a contract by Pocket Books for The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard series.

Jill has a degree in literature and a teaching credential from CSU San Marcos. When she picked up her first romance novel, it was love at first sight. She started writing in 2005. Sorenson is inspired by the beauty and diversity of the San Diego area, where she lives with her husband and two daughters.

JILLIAN STONE That same summer, she was offered another three-book contract for The Seduction of Phaeton Black (Kensington Brava, 2012). Needless to say, she has been busy writing books for the past two years! Jillian lives in Southern California and is currently working on two new romantic adventures in The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard series.

ANNA RANDOL

www.AnnaRandol.com

(Riverhead, 2006). Tobar is a veteran journalist; he was part of the team at The Los Angeles Times that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Los Angeles riots, and he has also worked as a foreign and national correspondent and columnist for The Los Angeles Times. He holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from UC Irvine.

WENDY CRUTCHER, MODERATOR Wendy Crutcher’s first professional library job involved purchasing adult fiction for a rural Michigan library system. It was a job she fell into after earning a B.A. in history and a master’s degree in library science from SUNY Buffalo, and one she wasn’t entirely prepared for. The biggest hole in her popular fiction knowledge was romance, so she started reading, and quickly got hooked. A materials evaluator for the OC Public Libraries system, Wendy is responsible for selecting and helping to maintain the adult fiction collections at thirty-three branches.

She’s also the acting senior librarian at the Garden Grove Regional Branch. In 2011, the Romance Writers of America honored her with their annual Librarian of the Year award. Wendy’s writing can be found at a variety of venues including ”Heroes & Heartbreakers” (http://www.heroesandheartbreakers.com), “Criminal Element” (http://www.criminalelement. com), “RT Book Reviews” (http://www. rtbookreviews.com) and in the forthcoming Greenwood/ABC-CLIO publication, Encyclopedia of Romance Fiction.

PANEL SESSION B

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

MYSTERY: SWEET & SINISTER

CECILIA VELÁSTEGUI

www.ceciliavelastegui.com

Cecilia Velástegui is a winning fiction author in the International Latino Book Awards for her psychological thrillers Traces of Bliss (Libros, 2012) and Gathering the Indigo Maidens (Libros, 2011). In partnership with the Association of American Publishers, Las Comadres chose Traces of Bliss as a 2012 National Latino Book Club selection. Her highly-anticipated thriller, Missing in Machu Picchu, will be released in 2013. Cecilia was born in the Andes Mountains in Quito, Ecuador, where she spent her childhood.

She was raised in California and France and has traveled to over fifty countries. She received her graduate degree from USC and speaks four languages. Cecilia serves on the boards of several cultural and educational institutions. Cecilia donates the proceeds of her novels to the fight against human trafficking. Her community partners in this effort have been Nordstrom South Coast Plaza, Donna Karan Collection New York, and L’Occitane en Provence.

DARYL WOOD GERBER

www.averyaames.com Using the pen name Avery Aames, Daryl Wood Gerber writes the best-selling Cheese Shop Mystery series featuring Charlotte Bessette. Charlotte is a cheese shop owner in the fictional town of Providence, Ohio, who cares about family above all else. The first book in the series, The Long Quiche Goodbye (Berkley), won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel.

Gerber also writes the Cookbook Nook Mystery series which will debut in July 2013. The protagonist, Jenna Hart, is a cookbook store owner on the California coast who is also an avid reader and an admitted foodie. The first title in this new series is Final Sentence (Penguin). Daryl has also written short stories and screenplays and has appeared on “Murder, She Wrote,” in addition to commercials and other TV shows.

ROCHELLE STAAB Rochelle Staab, a former award-winning Top 40 radio programmer and music industry advertising and marketing executive, combines her fascination with the supernatural and a love for mystery in her bestselling Mind for Murder mystery series featuring L.A. psychologist Liz Cooper and occult expert Nick Garfield. According to Library Journal, “Staab sets her fairly sophisticated blend of the

www.jessikirby.com occult in a flashy West Coast locale for great escape reading.” Rochelle’s 2011 debut, Who Do Voodoo?, garnered Agatha, Anthony, and Eureka! Best First Mystery nominations. Last year’s follow-up, Bruja Bruhaha, earned a Left Coast Crime Watson nomination. Hex on the Ex, the third Mind for Murder mystery, will be released on May 7, 2013.

CECILIA VELÁSTEGUI Cecilia Velástegui is a winning fiction author in the International Latino Book Awards for her psychological thrillers Traces of Bliss (Libros, 2012) and Gathering the Indigo Maidens (Libros, 2011). In partnership with the Association of American Publishers, Las Comadres chose Traces of Bliss as a 2012 National Latino Book Club selection. Her highly-anticipated thriller, Missing in Machu Picchu, will be released in 2013. Cecilia was born in the Andes Mountains in Quito, Ecuador, where she spent her childhood.

www.ceciliavelastegui.com She was raised in California and France and has traveled to over fifty countries. She received her graduate degree from USC and speaks four languages. Cecilia serves on the boards of several cultural and educational institutions. Cecilia donates the proceeds of her novels to the fight against human trafficking. Her community partners in this effort have been Nordstrom South Coast Plaza, Donna Karan Collection New York, and L’Occitane en Provence.

MARRIE STONE, MODERATOR Marrie Stone previously co-hosted, and now guest hosts, “Writers on Writing,” a weekly radio show that broadcasts from UC Irvine (88.9FM) Wednesday mornings at 9:00 a.m. The program is dedicated to the craft and business of writing, and features live interviews with authors, poets, agents, and publishers. Marrie has interviewed well over one hundred novelists, journalists, biographers, and poets,

including Wally Lamb, Tobias Wolff, T.C. Boyle, Geraldine Brooks, and Andrea Barrett. Archives of past shows can be found at http://writersonwriting.blogspot.com/. Her own fiction and essays have appeared in the Writers’ Journal, River Oak Review, the Laguna Beach Independent, and various online blogs. A former corporate attorney, Marrie lives in Laguna Beach with her husband and daughter.

PANEL SESSION B

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

YOUNG ADULTS: THE AWESOME AGE

CECIL CASTELLUCCI

http://castellucci.wordpress.com/

Cecil Castellucci is the author of several young adult novels, including Boy Proof, The Queen of Cool (Candlewick 2005, 2006) and First Day on Earth (Scholastic, 2011). Her first graphic novel, The Plain Janes, launched the DC Comics Minx imprint and won Cecil the 2007 Joe Shuster Award for best Canadian comic book writer. The sequel, Janes in Love, was nominated for the 2008 Shuster Award. Castellucci’s books have been on the American

Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults, Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers, and Great Graphic Novels for Teens lists. They have also been listed on New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age and on the Amelia Bloomer list. In addition, Cecil writes plays, makes movies, does performance pieces, and still occasionally rocks out. Born in New York City to French-Canadian parents, she has dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship.

JOSEPHINE ANGELINI

www.josephineangelini.com Josephine Angelini is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in theater, with a focus on the classics. Originally from the small town of Ashland, Massachusetts, she now lives in Los Angeles with her screenwriter husband and three shelter cats. Angelini based her debut

novel, Starcrossed (HarperTeen, 2011), on the legend of Paris and Helen of Troy. Starcrossed and its follow up, Dreamless (HarperTeen, 2012), are international bestsellers. Goddess, the final book in the trilogy, is scheduled for publication in spring 2013.

JESSI KIRBY By night, Jessi Kirby is a young adult author, but by day a middle school librarian. Her novels include Golden (Simon and Schuster, 2013), In Honor (Simon and Schuster, 2012), as well as her debut, Moonglass (Simon and Schuster, 2011), which is set in Crystal Cove.

www.jessikirby.com Moonglass was named an ABA New Voices Pick for 2011. Jessi lives in Orange County with her husband and two children. Among her favorite things are the beach, running, contemporary YA literature, strong coffee, and dark chocolate.

SARAH J. MAAS Sarah J. Maas is the author of Throne of Glass, a YA epic fantasy that was published by Bloomsbury in fall 2012. Its four prequel e-novellas were released earlier in the year. Sarah was born and raised in New York City, but after graduating from Hamilton College in 2008, she moved to Southern California.

www.ceciliavelastegui.com She’s always been just a tad obsessed with fairytales and folklore, though she’d MUCH rather be the one slaying the dragon instead of the damsel in distress. Over the years, she’s written several other novels, most of them fairy-tale retellings. When she’s not busy writing, she can be found geeking out over things like Han Solo, gaudy nail polish, and ballet. The sequel to Throne of Glass will be published in fall 2013.

ALLISON TRAN & MICHELLE ANN DUNPHY, MODERATORS Allison Tran and Michelle Ann Dunphy are the co-hosts of “Authors are ROCKSTARS!” a podcast dedicated to YA literature. Featuring author interviews, book discussions, and coverage of literary events, Michelle and Allison bring to their audience the personal side of authors. Listeners feel like they’re part of the conversation. Allison is a teen services librarian with a passion for connecting young readers to books they’ll love.

Actively involved in the library community on a national level, she serves on committees for the Young Adult Library Services Association of the American Library Association and writes reviews for School Library Journal. Michelle is originally from the Midwest, but her career as a voiceover artist has led her to Southern California. You can hear her on commercials, video games, animation, and audiobooks

PANEL SESSION B

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

POETRY: A VISUAL LANGUAGE

ANNA LEAHY

www.amleahy.com

Anna Leahy’s Constituents of Matter won the Wick Poetry Prize, and her poetry appears in literary journals and anthologies, most recently A Face to Meet the Faces, City of the Big Shoulders, and Becoming. Anna Leahy co-writes the blog Lofty Ambitions (http://loftyambitions.wordpress.com), and her nonfiction appears in The Pinch, The Southern Review, and other venues.

www.lorenedelanyullman.com Lorene Delany-Ullman’s book of prose poems, Camouflage for the Neighborhood, (Firewheel Editions, 2012) was the winner of the 2011 Sentence Award. In addition, she has most recently published creative nonfiction and poetry in AGNI 74, Cimarron Review, Zócalo Public Square, Naugatuck River Review, and Chaparral. Her poems have been included in anthologies such as Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease (Kent State University Press, 2009) and Alternatives to Surrender (Plain View Press, 2007).

She edited the book Power and Identity in the Creative Writing Classroom and publishes articles about creative writing pedagogy and the profession. She teaches in the M.F.A. and B.F.A. programs at Chapman University, where she directs Tabula Poetica, including its annual reading series and the forthcoming literary journal TAB: The Journal of Poetry & Poetics.

LORENE DELANY-ULLMAN She is currently collaborating with artist Jody Servon on Saved, an ongoing photographic and poetic exploration of the human experience of life, death, and memory. Saved recently appeared at the Sumter County Gallery of Art in Sumter, South Carolina. As one of the founders of the Casa Romantica Reading Series in San Clemente, California, Delany-Ullman organized and hosted monthly poetry and fiction readings from 2004-2010. She teaches composition at the University of California, Irvine.

AMY SCHROEDER Amy Newlove Schroeder’s first book, The Sleep Hotel, received the Field Prize and was published by Oberlin College Press in 2010. A founding editor of the literary journal POOL, Amy now teaches writing at USC. Her poems and essays have appeared in American Poetry

Review, Boston Review, Witness, Field, Colorado Review, and Ploughshares. Amy earned her Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from USC and also studied at UC Berkeley and Washington University in St. Louis. She spent a year living and teaching in Istanbul, Turkey, and currently resides in Los Angeles.

LOUISE MATHIAS Louise Mathias was born in Bedford, England. She grew up in Suffolk and, later, Los Angeles. She is the author of two full-length poetry collections: The Traps (Four Way Books, 2013) and Lark Apprentice (New Issues Press, 2004) which won the 2003 New Issues Poetry Prize.

Her chapbook, Above All Else, the Trembling Resembles a Forest, won the Burnside Review Chapbook Competition and was published by Burnside Review in 2010. Her poems have appeared in TriQuarterly, Octopus, Barrow Street, Massachusetts Review, and many other journals. Louise was educated at USC and lives in Joshua Tree, California.

MARY MENZEL, MODERATOR Mary Menzel is the Director of the California Center for the Book, a reading promotion agency affiliated with the California State Library and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Mary is an avid reader of everything from horror stories to cookbooks, and she teaches reader’s advisory -- the art of matching readers with fiction and nonfiction that they’ll enjoy -- at UCLA.

Mary earned a B.A. in creative writing -- poetry from Stanford University, and she has a master’s of library and information science from UCLA. Before enrolling at UCLA to pursue her library degree, Mary volunteered in an elementary school in Los Angeles. A native of northern California, she has also resided in New York City and London.

PANEL SESSION B

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

FOOD: EAT YOUR WORDS – WRITERS ON FOOD & CULTURE

GUSTAVO ARELLANO Gustavo Arellano is the editor of OC Weekly; author of Orange County: A Personal History, and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America; and a lecturer in the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department at CSU Fullerton. He writes the nationally-syndicated column “¡Ask a Mexican!” in which he answers any and all questions about America’s spiciest and largest minority. This award-winning column appears in 39 U.S. newspapers and was published in book form by Scribner in May 2007.

www.amateurgourmet.com Adam Roberts created his award-winning food blog, “The Amateur Gourmet,” in January 2004 while he was a third-year law student at Emory University. After a day of law school classes, he found the programs on Food Network “soothing,” and decided to blog about his experiences as he learned to cook.

www.gustavoarellano.net Arellano has been featured in several national and international newspapers and also on TV shows including The Today Show, The Colbert Report, and Hannity. Honors and awards include the Los Angeles Press Club’s 2007 President’s Award, an Impacto Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and the 2008 Spirit Award from the California Latino Legislative Caucus. Arellano is a lifelong resident of Orange County and is the proud son of two Mexican immigrants, one of whom was illegal.

ADAM ROBERTS Since then, he’s published two books (The Amateur Gourmet from Bantam Dell, 2007, and Secrets of the Best Chefs, Artisan, 2012), and he has hosted several shows for Food Network online (“The FN Dish,” “The Amateur Gourmet Show,” “The Taste Test”). He currently writes for Food & Wine Magazine, the epicurious.com “epi-log,” “The Huffington Post,” and “Serious Eats”. He divides his time between Los Angeles and New York City.

DEBRA SAMUELS Debra Samuels, cookbook author, food and travel writer, and cooking teacher, has worked with children and families for over twenty-five years. She is a regular contributor to The Boston Globe, and she co-authored The Korean Table (Tuttle Publishing, 2008) with Taekyung Chung. My Japanese Table: A Lifetime of Cooking with Friends and Family, was published by Tuttle in 2011. Samuels has taught the Japanese about American cuisine, Americans how to roll sushi, and teachers how to put together a Japanese obento lunch.

www.cookingatdebras.com She worked at Boston Children’s Museum developing the popular “Kids Are Cooking” program and also had a successful catering business, “Eats Meets West.” Debra has lived in Japan and Italy, studying Italian, Indian, Korean, and Japanese cuisine. She has done countless cooking demonstrations and classes on food culture in the Boston area as well as for the Japan embassy’s Information and Culture Center in Washington, D.C., the United States embassy in Tokyo, and for its American Cultural Centers in Japan.

RUSS PARSONS, MODERATOR Russ Parsons is the food editor and columnist of the Los Angeles Times. He has been writing about food for nearly thirty years. Almost twenty-five of those have been spent at The Los Angeles Times, where he has been both managing editor and deputy editor. Parsons is the author of the cookbooks How to Read a French Fry (Houghton Mifflin, 2001) and How to Pick a Peach (Houghton Mifflin, 2007). In 2008, he was inducted into the James Beard

Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage. Parsons has won many food journalism awards, including those from the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the Association of Food Journalists, the James Beard Foundation, and the University of Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards. How to Read a French Fry was a finalist for two Julia Child cookbook awards. How to Pick a Peach was named one of the best 100 books of the year by both Publisher’s Weekly and Amazon.

NOTES

VENUE MAP NEWPORT BEACH

MARINA DEL REY

LOS ANGELES

IRVINE

RANCHO LAS PALMAS SANTA BARBARA

SALON C

SALON F

BERKLEY

SANTA CLARA

SALON B2

SALON G1

ANAHEIM

SALON B1

SALON D

SALON E

SALON G2 SALON H

SALON A

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219 211

208 204

206

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