The L.A. Times Festival of Books

Alright, my second visit to L.A. for the Festival of Books. It was as wonderful and magical as the first. You've heard about the great Mystery Bookstore party and the fabulous Kingpins panel. This post will be highlights about all the rest of the weekend wonderfulness and will probably be mostly pictures.

From Wednesday's post, you know I was blessed to meet my wonderful friend Elyse, a.k.a. Pop Culture Nerd, for the first time in person.

And was joined by Michael, a.k.a. le0pard13, and Christine. We also had the privilege of meeting Elyse's friend (and now our friend too) Debby as well as Michael's family. This was our "festival crew"

We spent a hefty amount of time hanging out around the Mystery Bookstore booth because they had the BEST signing schedule imaginable:

(Gar Anthony Haywood, Reed Farrel Coleman, Eric Beetner, Duane Swierczynski)

(Robert Gregory Browne, Gregg Hurwitz, Ed Decter)

(Lisa Lutz, Andrew Gross)

And I presented Michael Connelly with a copy of the World's Favorite Detective bracket for Harry Bosch's win. When I found out that he knew about it, I was floating! O.k., yeah, that's totally geeky fan girl. I own up to it 100%!

And of course MBS has the greatest staff, so that adds to the fun! I just love them.

(Linda Brown)

(Bobby McCue)

Spent some quality time talking with Gregg Hurwitz about his upcoming release THEY'RE WATCHING. Plan on hearing plenty about that later here on the blog. Can't wait for the release in July!

Even managed to snag a hug or two from Robert Crais!

Saw my pals Steve Hockensmith and Sophie Littlefield at the Mysterious Galaxy booth while they were signing.

And this time at the festival, I didn't miss seeing fellow blogger and friend, Trish (from Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?). I introduced her to Sophie and then helped her spend money on books! So happy to finally meet Trish in person and I'm already looking forward to the next time we can see each other!

A surprise I wasn't expecting was seeing Tim Hallinan. He stopped up at the festival and introduced me to Gar Anthony Haywood! How cool is that? Tim speaks very highly of Gar's work and since I think highly of Tim's work, I'm looking forward to reading Gar.

Another great surprise was meeting Brett Battles' gorgeous family. Thank you, Brett! Had a blast listening to Reed's stories. I think he's just the cat's pajamas. And that silly Andy Gross. When I went to say good-bye to him, he thought he was going to get off with just a hand shake! What a super guy.

And the highlight that wrapped everything up was having the chance to just hang out and talk with Alafair Burke. Have a mentioned lately how fabulous I think she is? Oh right! Well, one more time won't kill you.

I probably don't need to say it was just a fantastic weekend. As I'm writing this and loading the pictures, I'm smiling all over again. Tucking the memories into my bag of cherished times. I hope that each and every one of you has the chance to experience a weekend like this at some point in your life. This community is full of warm, generous people. So, stop by and introduce yourself. You'll be pleasantly surprised. In the meantime, Happy Reading!

Technorati Tags: LATFoB, Reed Farrel Coleman, Robert Crais, Andrew Gross, Alafair Burke, Sophie Littlefield, Gregg Hurwitz, Michael Connelly