Fabulous, Flamboyant (Bold!) Day at the L.A. Times Festival of Books
Today was the day I was (maybe) going to wear the cobalt blue sequinned one-shoulder very short outrageous dress, the cobalt blue cape, and the star-shaped blue sunglasses. Today was my panel at this huge L.A. book fair to talk about my novel Cobalt Blue. But getting ready to go to the USC campus, my nerve wobbled.
I had already put on a more demure outfit when I decided to call home and say good morning to Husband Bob. I told him I wasn't giving out book-cover cards in the crowd again today — it was too hard yesterday — and I wasn't wearing that outfit; it wouldn't go over well.
Somewhat to my surprise, he said, "You took it out there to wear it." But the other writers didn't seem to be doing any promoting of themselves and in fact many introduced themselves simply by first name. He said, "They're just being cool."
I asked, "Do you think I'm being a wuss."
He said, "You're just tired." Translate: wuss.
So I put on the whole shocking get-up and spent an hour or so giving out a couple of hundred cards to strangers in the crowd. And this time it was fun. I was in costume and somehow that made me comfortable. A few people even came to me and asked for the cards.
And then the biggest step: I entered the the Authors' Green Room where writers congregated and hung out, the place where others were being low-key and non-promotional. I immediately found that wearing an ice breaker makes a big difference. Today for me, it was a terrific party. It also helped that I was hanging out with my publicist Kim Dower of Kim-from-LA and her assistant Jessica Kubinec. They introduced me to folks. Other folks introduced themselves to me. I had a wonderful time.
And then off to the panel. Friends I hadn't seen in a long time turned up. And a pretty good crowd showed up, even though we were speaking at the same time as Anna Quindlen and Jamaica Kincaid. Having a mild-to-medium case of microphone fever, I enjoyed the panel discussion with novelists Jillian Lauren, Erica Bauermeister, and Teddy Wayne, and moderator Barbara DeMarco-Barrett.
Moral of the story: a touch of cobalt blue is not enough. Dive in!
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Categories: 2013
Tags: and Teddy Wayne, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Erica Bauermeister, Jessica Kubinec, Jillian Lauren, Kim Dower, LA Times Book fair, Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Comments
See!!!! Go for it! Best wishes.
Thanks, Ted. It was fun!
Wow! That is so awesome! Yay, Bob!! And yay, you! Go, girl, go!! <3
Yeah, I’m really happy with Bob about that. Thanks, Beth.
the friend (North Carolinian) who fashioned for me the Easter Bunny outfit encouraged me to wear it to work and at the church Easter season so I also wore the costume in the local grocery store – a number of females shopping for groceries would smile broadly and then comment "MY husband would never wear something like that" – making it even more fun for this "shy" introvert. Now there are two grandchildren who also get to see the "Easter Bunny" annually. Even more it helps me when the E.B. is playing guitar and singing the Easter songs.
This sounds like a terrific tradition, Bob, a lot of fun.
I was so happy to see you in your sparkly, cobalt blue dress! I think you looked marvelous!!! I'm so glad that you called your husband and that he convinced you to ROCK the dress:)
I'm glad that you were able to meet one of the Angels, her sweet boyfriend and my husband, Mark. We really enjoyed hearing you speak on the panel and would not have missed it for Anna Quindlen or Jamaica Kincaid! I realized when we were sitting there that I had also read Jillian Lauren's memoir a couple of years ago but I didn't realize that is was her until she began reading from her memoir. Quite an interesting read! I even told my daughters and my husband about it when I was reading it because one of AD3's friend went off and did the same sort of thing this past year and I wanted to be very clear that it was NOT something that I wanted one of my girls to even consider!(although some of it did sound very cool and enticing) Jillian is definitely a brave young woman!
So sorry that I did not end up finding you again, later on, but I am so glad that we did get to say hello! I posted some of the pics that I took on my FB page. Feel free to use them for anything that you would like:) I hope my camera clicking didn't distract you too much! Aleah always hated it when I would take photos of her performances because she could always hear my camera clicking away in the crowd. I can't help myself sometimes, I am a photographer at heart;)
Hope that your trip home was uneventful and that you are catching up on some rest!
Hugs,
Deb
Wonderful to see you and your family, Debbie. You were so good to come. And I’m sorry we didn’t get to chat longer. I didn’t hear your camera clicking at all. In fact, I was looking for you in the audience but didn’t find you; needed to be paying attention and not scanning the rows too long.