CaliforniaAuthors - News and notes from America’s largest book market
July 25, 2008

Stories in Southern California:

Media meltdown (continued)

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 [...]

Posted by Donna Wares, June 25th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Newspapers, Sad, Southern California

Another neighborhood gem in dire straits

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 [...]

Posted by Donna Wares, May 15th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Booksellers, Sad, Southern California

Donna’s Great Escapes for 2008

My story in today’s LA Times recounts how writing a travel book on great SoCal getaways jolted me out of my own weekend travel rut. You can read it here. And check out these handy Google maps to help find your way to five of my favorite quick escapes here.
My book is called Great Escapes: [...]

Posted by Donna Wares, January 6th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Author's life, New Release 2008, Southern California, Travel books

Casa California

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 [...]

Posted by Donna Wares, November 27th, 2007 | Permalink
File under: Architecture, Events and festivals, Los Angeles, New Release 2007, Reviews, Southern California

Book biz

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 [...]

Posted by Donna Wares, October 31st, 2007 | Permalink
File under: Booksellers, Events and festivals, Funny, Prizes and awards, Southern California

SCBA Awards

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.”

Posted by Donna Wares, October 22nd, 2007 | Permalink
File under: Booksellers, Prizes and awards, Southern California

SoCal So Cool

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 [...]

Posted by Kate Cohen, September 30th, 2007 | Permalink
File under: New Release 2008, Southern California, Travel books

Showdown at Tejon

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, [...]

Posted by Donna Wares, July 18th, 2007 | Permalink
File under: Green, Southern California

Must-read

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 [...]

Posted by Donna Wares, May 17th, 2007 | Permalink
File under: Booksellers, Good advice, Newspapers, Southern California

Destinations

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.”

Posted by Donna Wares, April 18th, 2007 | Permalink
File under: Bookmark it, Booksellers, Southern California

Double blow

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 [...]

Posted by Donna Wares, January 10th, 2007 | Permalink
File under: Booksellers, Southern California