Los Angeles Festival of Books

On Sunday, I went to the annual Festival of Books held at UCLA. My family and I make it an annual excursion and always buy copious amounts of books. This year was one of the best years, in my opinion. We arrived before anything opened so we could get a good parking spot. It's usually really sunny and really hot. Every year I get sunburnt, but this year I remembered to bring a hat and wear sunscreen. Plus, there was a nice breeze all day, so it wasn't as insufferably hot as years past.

I only saw one panel, but it was a great one. It was called Fiction, Bloody Fiction, and featured Seth Grahame-Smith (author of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter), Christopher Farnsworth (author of the upcoming novel Blood Oath which looks awesome!), and Micheal Shea (author of The Extra), moderated by Tod Goldberg. These four authors are so funny all together. Seth Grahame-Smith was the undisputed star, provoking the most questions and the longest signing lines. His new novel, Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, looks amazing! I've heard so many good things about it from history and horror buffs alike. His next novel will be getting away from the mash-up genre, but there's no specifics on what it is yet. Christopher Farnsworth's debut novelalso looks very good. It doesn't come out until May, so he didn't stay for the signing. I was hoping his book would be on sale at the festival, but no luck. Blood Oath is about a vampire secret agent working for the president. It's going to be a series and he has been contracted to write 10 books! Michael Shea was probably the most well read and seasoned of the panel. He has written a great many books. The Extra, is a dystopian novel about humans being pitted against giant spider robots for money and the amusement of millions of viewers.

After the panel, I got my copies of How to Survive a Horror Movie and The Extra signed. My sister ran over to a different area to get my copy of American Psycho signed, since Bret Easton Ellis was there. His panel was at the same time as the one I went to, but it turned out ok since my sister got in line for me early. I didn't get to meet him myself since the line was super long, but I still have my signed book. I bought a grand total of 8 books. (yay!) It's been a while since I have bought any books, so I went a little crazy. I got a signed copy of The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman. The proceeds went to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which fights against censorship and for first amendment rights of comic book professionals. Then I bought Feed by Mira Grant, Hourglass by Claudia Gray, Zombie Tales 3 and 4, The Extra by Michael Shea,Rosemary and Rue by Seanan Mcguire, and Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter.

One of my favorite parts of the festival was the literary characters walking around. It's a great way to engage children in reading when they can meet the people they read about in books. This is the hungry, hungry caterpillar. Isn't it the cutest? I had loads of fun, but I don't have any pictures because I forgot my camera. :(