Festival of Books: Go In With A Plan

I remember the first time I attended the L.A. Times Festival of Books three years ago. It was overwhelming. UCLA is a big campus and there was something calling for my attention in every nook and cranky of it. I didn’t know where to begin and by the time I realized I wanted to attend a panel it had already taken place either earlier that day, or the day before.

Lesson learned. When attending a big event such as this, go in with a plan.

Here are some tips for navigating the festival (can be applied to other like events).

Look at the schedule ahead of time:

There are many different panels and such and their times overlap. You’ll have to make decision on what you’re interested in most. If you can only attend one day and can choose which, this is how you’ll make that choice

Procure tickets as soon as they become available:

The festival and the panels therein are free, but seats are limited so it would be wise to get tickets ahead of time. There's a dollar service fee for each ticket when you get them online, but say you attend three or four panels, that’s only $3-4 out of your pocket. Even my jobless self can afford that. And some panels do sell out so when the tickets become available a week before the even, swoop them up quickly if there’s one you really want to sit it on.

Write out your schedule for the day on one page:

Seriously. Not only to keep the events that you got tickets for in order, but more importantly to make allowances for the stuff you couldn’t get tickets for. You might not have gotten tickets for a particular panel, but you can line up to get in anyway. If there are open seats after the ticketed folks get in, you just might make it in there. But you’ll want to get there early so’s you can be in the front of the line. Also, if you want to stand in line for an author’s signing, that’s something else to configure into your day. I don’t know about you, but I cannot keep up with all of that without the aid of a pen and piece of paper.

Set a budget:

There will be all kinds vendors selling all kinds of stuff, most books and including of course, books at a discount (my weakness). Plus, you have to buy like four bags of kettle corn (my other weakness). Oh, and you might want to eat lunch while you’re there, if it’s gonna be an all day thing for you. Giving yourself a limit will force you to pace yourself and reign in your spending.

Wear comfortable shoes:

I’ve never been on USC's campus, where the festival has moved this years, and don’t know how it compares to UCLA but I think a lot of walking is still a given.

Grab a map as soon as you arrive:

Self-explanatory, right?

Check the weather:

It’s an outside event, and yes, it’s LA and the weather is usually fine this time of year, but nothing’s worse than being outside all day and wishing you’d worn pants instead of a skirt or needing a thicker jacket than the one you brought.

And most importantly, identity all locations where the kettle corn is being sold:

It’s another line you have to stand in and you might have to wait until you’re not rushing across campus for a panel to procure the warm, fresh, sweet and salty goodness.

OMG! OMG! OMG! It’s Almost Time!

It’s the biggest thing happening this weekend! I’m sure you’ve been hearing about it for weeks, months by now but you never tired of the coverage. In fact, you got more and more excited about it as you eagerly waited, wondering if the day would ever come.

That’s right.

Animorphs re-hits shelves this Sunday, May 1!

(What else would I be talking about?)

Animorphs means so much to me that I am officially declaring next week, starting Sunday, Animorphs Week! Well, officially on my blog because that’s the only place I’m authorized to declare any week an official anything.

As a precursor to Animorphs Week, I’m reposting an entry from last December:

Dear Ms. Or Mr. Appleagete (originally posted 12/20/10)

A couple of weeks ago, someone extremely awesome sent me some very exciting news. Animorphs is making a comeback! The series will be once again seen in bookstores starting May 2011. I can’t possibly express how exciting this news is for me.

Animorphs was my first love. Sure, I had books I thought I loved before Animorphs came around and I’ve since said that I loved many a book, but I’m talking true love. Such a deep love that it can’t be contained in only one post, especially since just yesterday I found a letter I wrote to K.A. Applegate when I was in the 7^th grade. (It was tucked away for safe keeping in a copy of that other childhood sweetheart of mine, Ella Enchanted). Apparently it’s the second letter I ever wrote Ms. Applegate, but this one didn’t make it out.

Of course, that’s because I was meant to share it with you thirteen years later.

September 6, 1997

Dear K.A. Applegate,

I Love Your

Books!!!!!!!!!

I just got finished reading Animporhs #11. And girl (or Boy) [Yes, I do now know that the “K” is for Katherine], you are tal-en-ted. I mean, usually [I] can read book after book, but after reading Animorphs I just have to take a break and say hmmmm… I honestly need time to recover. I can’t wait for #12 and The Andalite chronicles. I’ll be at the bookstore with a grin on my face and money in hand (hopefully) read[y] to buy the book. Yesterday, (more this morning) I read the whole book. I started at about 11:00pm and finished at about 1:00am. [I remember that night and that exact book! That was the weekend my family took our annual trip to Palm Springs.] I literally could NOT put the book down. I wrote a letter to you before, you probably get thousands and might not remember but I said stuff about I have ideas for future books and we should get together [on] starting a t.v. show or movie and my volanteering[sic] to play Cassie

because I [have] so much in common with her (even our names have somethings[sic] in common {I’m Cacy}), and I (he he) asked for an autographed picture of you and book (I’d still like to see those three things happen.) [Still waiting to hear back, K.]. I [know] right now you’re thinking, Gee, what a description, sarcastically.

Oh, I just remembered I sent three pictures, a half way finished Hork Bajir, a pretty good Taxxon and a retarded looking Andalite. And speaking of drawing, I drew those pictures for the art contest [I didn’t win– sad face]. Today my family and I ate at a chinesse[sic] food resturant [sic – geez, twelve-year-old me really needed to invest in a dictionary and/or learn to spell] and the fortune I got after dinner said,

WHEN IN DOUBT LET YOUR INSTINCTS GUIDE YOU

PEKING NOODLE CO.

I couldn’t helping thinking Animorphs [Oh, I get it. Like the animal instincts the characters had to contend with! Ha, clever twelve-year-old me!] And my dad’s been telling my sister to get a job all summer and her cookie said something about being a hard worker, so we had our he-he’s.

Maybe you can put the instinct fortune in one [of] you[r] book[s].

Marco and his dad (or Jake) can be eating chinesse[sic] food and after morphing into something then letting it take over he reads over the fortune cookie then he says, “Sometimes these things scare the cuteness outta’ me.” [I still think that totally could have been something Marco said!]

And I think that they should try acquiring, the Aliens (espielly[sic] the Visser) they can get Ax easily (if he lets them).

If they can morph into a yeerk, when Vissie[sic] Three gets out of the Andalite’s head for Kandra Rays one of them can sneak in and get into his head and run or morph into something big and V.T. is out of a Andalite host. Woohoo. [Wow! I was a violent-minded child, wasn’t I!]

The letter is obviously unfinished, which would explain why it was never sent. I can’t imagine what other awesome randomness twelve-year-old me would have had to say.

(And back to the present)

Oh yeah, and about that other thing happening like today or something. Seeing the same story on every channel and every show and every time I sign out of my yahoo account got old real quick, but sometimes even when you’re over an event’s constant coverage (Can we please stop calling it a once in a lifetime event? I’m pretty sure my parents and grandparents and lot of other people in the world were alive the last time something like this happened. Anyway, I digress…) Sometimes, even when we’re tired of hearing about the same thing for weeks on end, a little spark of awesome noses it’s way through the sea of sameness (I think I stole that last bit from a Disney Original Movie.)

Thank you, Neill Cameron, for existing.

Come back next week for the awesomeness of Animorphs, Adolescent Me: A Child Obsessed, a list of other favorite (mostly) alien stories of my younger years, and more

In Need of a Good Shelf

Aaah. To be off my feet at last.

Several months ago I put up a post titled “Overbooked: A Hedonistic Tale of Excess.” I’m currently working toward a solution for the question posed at the end: where are all the books I don’t have room for on my shelf supposed to go?

Today, I’ve spent about twelve hours on my feet painting what will be the most awesome shelves to ever hold a book. If there are more typos than usual in this post despite it’s brevity that’s because I’m exhausted. I’ve been up ‘til the wee small hours almost every night this week working on my shelves and stuff. I can almost see the finish line.

Random image!

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs (who can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned) by Ryan Kelly

Too tired to procure a relevant image. But there are a lot of pictures in the post linked above, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Although I guess I could put up the latest drawing Jose posted over at that other blog I sometimes say something at. That would kinda be more relevant, right? Sorta?

Ta-dah! There it is. Gorgeous, ain’t it? It's for a story I wrote called "Of Nothing." I can't wait to see the rest of the images that go with this.

Okay. To bed with me.

Next Time: Prepare to be amazing by my amazing eye for amazing design!