Newspapers are their own worst enemies right now. They’re panicking all over the place and that public desperation just makes them look pathetic.
Today LAObserved brings word that the Orange County Register is outsourcing copyediting to India.
And look at the terrible way LA Times writer Patrick Goldstein introduces his new entertainment blog, also from LAO:
As you [...]
OC Weekly columnist and author Gustavo Arellano says that Southern California’s landmark Librería Martinez bookstore may be forced to close by the end of the year.
Libreria Martinez in Santa Ana is one of the nation’s largest Latino bookstores.
Barber-turned-genuis-grant-winner Rueben Martinez opened his store more than a decade ago, turning a vacant storefront [...]
Author D.J. Waldie teamed with actress Diane Keaton to create a lovely new book, California Romantica. The LAT’s Thomas Curwen describes the effort as “the culmination of a lifelong obsession for Keaton and nearly two years of study for Waldie…
“Their collaboration is a love affair — in words and in pictures — with Spanish [...]
Melony Vance, of Latitude 33 Bookshop in Laguna Beach, recaps the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association’s recent Authors Feast in LA.
The highlight of the evening was the announcement of the SCIBA Book Award winners. And the highpoint of that event was the renaming of the mystery award to The T. Jefferson Parker SCIBA Mystery [...]
The latest from LA Observed: “Los Angeles Noir, edited by Denise Hamilton, won the mystery category of the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association awards. Peony in Love by Lisa See and An Alphabetical Life by Wendy Werris were also among the winners announced Saturday night.”
Donna’s on deadline on her new Southern California travel book. Lately she’s been everywhere: from the Tehachapis to Death Valley to Malibu; riding horses, meeting ostridges, patting llamas; eating hot dogs at a Padres Game in San Diego, tasting squash blossoms at the L.A. restaurant-of-the-moment Blue Velvet. Here’s a cool spinoff story about Rankin [...]
Edward Humes shifts gears from the evolution wars to the climate-change war, as he explores plans for a new city and luxury resort north of Los Angeles, carved out of a unique and mostly untouched California wildlands.
An epic battle over property rights, conservation and global warming is unfolding now on the Tejon Ranch, [...]
The new LA Weekly has a terrific cover package on Southern California’s independent bookstores. Gendy Alimurung roams a handful of ‘gloriously idiosyncratic’ indies — Vroman’s, Skylight, Book Soup and Dutton’s, along with two relative newcomers, Family and Diesel — and introduces the idiosyncratic folks who run them.
Lotsa interesting tidbits, like this one:
Tyson Cornell is [...]
TEV reports that the delightful Village Books has a new website.
The Pacific Palisades shop’s motto: “Large enough to serve you, small enough to know you.”
LaObserved reports that yet another independent Southern California bookseller, Tia Chucha’s in Sylmar, is in trouble. “A powerfully energized and thriving bookstore/cafe/performance space/cultural center is to be replaced by high-tech laundry machines,” writes author and Tia Chuca’s co-founder Luiz J. Rodriguez. “The laundry company is apparently investing $8 million in the strip mall, something [...]
From CaliforniaAuthors editor Donna Wares, Great Escapes: Southern California is a collection of exceptional road trips with suggestions for the perfect books to take along. Highlights include first-person passages from Pico Iyer, T. Jefferson Parker, Judith Freeman, Veronique de Turenne and other great guides, plus cover images by renown photographer Rick Rickman. Learn more at Donna’s SoCal So Cool blog or buy yours here
It took a remarkable outpouring of generosity to make My California: Journeys by Great Writers a reality. This anthology of travel and adventure stories donated by 27 of California’s most talented writers benefits the beleaguered California Arts Council and writing programs for children statewide. Learn more about the project and author events at mycaliforniaproject.org or buy the book here.
Meet the authors of the California Authors Directory. Visit the directory to discover writers like Christina Meldrum, a Bay Area attorney whose book Madapple was just released this month. “In debut novelist Christina Meldrum's mesmerizing literary mystery, Madapple (Knopf), the worlds of science and faith collide," says Vanity Fair. Learn more and make the connection with Christina and other exciting California talents in our author directory.
