LAist has a Q&A today with Janelle Brown, who talks about her new novel, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, her quintessential LA reading list, and her move from San Francisco to SoCal.

Q: What is the biggest misconception about Los Angeles?
A: There’s so many old hackneyed chestnuts – “oh, the terrible traffic, the vapidity, everyone’s in the industry, all the women have fake breasts” – that it’s hard to know where to start. Truly, it all gets so boring to listen to.
But the one that gets me the most is probably the “there’s no literary scene in LA.” You hear that a lot from people on the East Coast. Come on, really? Half of my friends are writers, and there’s readings and events every night of the week here, not to mention some great literary magazines (Swink, Black Clock) and several of the best up-and-coming creative writing programs in the country.

Janelle will be reading at 7:30 tonight at Skylight Books.