Songs, Books and Exotic LA

The photo in the header is from last year's Festival of Books. This year we had to curtail our enjoyment to only one day because my older daughter and husband were performing in Aladdin each night last week through Saturday. (Daily rehearsals, four hour stretches, four months of preparation - as Genie proclaimed, it was indeed "a BIG musical!")

But not even the exhaustion of a grueling performance schedule and the after show party until past midnight Saturday could keep me away from my beloved Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA. So Sunday morning found us slogging down the 10 freeway, gasping in delight as always as the skyline of Los Angeles greeted us with greys and pinks and slate blues like a bouquet of buildings gathered together by giant hands.

At the festival, I met Jane Smiley (Jane Smiley!!! Pulitzer Prize Winner! Academy of American Arts and Letters Indoctrinee!) and had her sign her latest book. We chatted with Susan Straight (again) whose work I adore because she writes about Riverside (near us) and she is a working, writing, divorced mom who somehow not only holds it all together, but also keeps winning an impressively mounting list of awards for her work. Jane Smiley chatted with my daughters; Susan Straight commented on how much they've grown. Because we go every single year.

Best of all was sitting in a panel of women writers talking about Voice in fiction, and watching J and B soaking it all in. They don't even know how much I am opening a world of possibility for them.

I had an incredible moment when the moderator asked how many people in the room were writers and I put up my hand. Confidently. Without hesitation. Because I am now, published and everything.

It surprised me that there were only a few of us scattered around the room. I thought that 50% or more of attendees would consider themselves writers. But to see that they were there as readers only, because they loved books and writing, and also to see that I am doing something that many, many people are not, and for me it is as natural as thought... well, that was a moment that showed me just how far my life has come.

It was the Fifteenth year of the Festival, and we have attended 14 of those fifteen. I've met many of my favorite writers and had umpteen books signed. And now, I feel like I belong on both sides of that panel table.