This year the festival was especially delightful because of the cool weather. The last 3 times I’ve been to the festival at UCLA, it was like the first really hot weekend of the year. Which equates to the first sun burn of the year. Not this year! It was overcast in the mornings and breezy in the afternoons. Perfect.
First thing Saturday, we headed to the Vagabond booth to buy our signed Ray Bradbury books. It was really funny because within like 10 minutes many other book hunters appeared as well. The Ogre, Max, J&N, Rob, and John of course, who was close by to keep an eye on things for Ray, who was signing later in the day.
Our first author of the day was one of Bill’s favorites… none other than the talented James Owen. He drew a couple cool dragons in Bill’s books. Next we joined the very long, but rapidly moving Kristin Chenoweth line to get her book “A Little Bit Wicked” signed. She seemed to be having a good time and is quite photogenic, don’t you agree? Next we hit Robert Silverberg, Katherine Dunn and of course, Cornelia Funke, author of Inkheart.
Robert Silverberg
Katherine Dunn
Cornelia Funke
After quickly chowing down on some lunch from our ice chest in the Pathfinder, we made our way over to Kate DiCamillo, author of The Tale of Despereaux and Karen Joy Fowler. Last but not least (especially indicative by the long line) was Bob Barker… yep… remember the Price is Right? Bill had him sign his Magic Castle Hall of Fame.
Kate DiCamillo
Karen Joy Fowler
Bob Barker
And that was enough for one day. Well sort of. We only live 3 miles from UCLA so we did a couple book stores stops on the way to pick up a few things for Sunday signings. Bill has worked at UCLA for almost 9 years, so we have a big advantage in that he knows the “back road exits”, so we weren’t stuck in the gridlock as Saturday Festival came to a close!
Sunday morning we hit the ground running with illustrator Michael Hague. He is amazing… draws beautiful fairies, scary monsters, teddy bears, etc in every book and poster you put in front of him. So it was well worth it to get in his line early and camp out.
Michael Hague drawing a fairy
James Ellroy
This of course was after a brief visit to the Mystery Book Store to grab crime fiction writer James Ellroy’s signature. Then we trekked up the hill to wait for Patrick Carman, author of the Land of Elyon series and more recently, the first multi-media mystery Skeleton Creek (Is Skeleton Creek real?).
Patrick Carman & Peggy
Patrick Carman & Bill
We spotted one of my friends, John DeChancie, walking just in front of us on the crowded pathways between booths. Bill and I recognized him from the back, so we sped up and Bill grabbed/squeezed John on the shoulder. John turned around to see who it was, and without warning blurted out the “f” word at the top of his lungs. Bill and I were a bit taken back (but not a lot – John is full of surprises), then John said it again, at slightly less volume but more emphatic, appearing quite rattled. Clearly, we’d missed something… John composed himself enough to explain he had just been talking about us to his friend – they had been discussing the various Wu’s in fandom, William F Wu, Frank Wu, and then John had said, and you know, William G Wu, who is married to Peggy from LASFS. It was at that moment Bill had grabbed John, which explains the outburst. It was like the hand of God coming out of the sky and gripping your shoulder. Pretty funny. Still, DeChancie is kinda jumpy, don’t ya think? 
We swung by the Hi De Ho Comics booth and caught the adorable Amber Benson for a couple minutes before camping out for writers Kevin Anderson and his wife Rebecca Moesta.
Amber Benson
Kevin and Rebecca
The shadows were lengthening and we headed to the kid’s area near the Target booths one more time to see what there was to see. Though it was getting later on Sunday, it was still hopping. Tons of families, strollers, loud music from the stage…. quite a par-tay. Bill bought a book from Dan Frischman, magician, and got our last signature for the weekend.
Yes, we were tired, but it was a good tired. We packed up the green Pathfinder and headed west toward the Sawtelle area of West LA, where we rewarded our hard work with a great dinner at the Hong Kong Cafe, one of our favorite places close to home! The cooler weather sure made a difference, even though the top of my head was a little pink and Bill’s arms got a bit too much sun. A productive, but enjoyable weekend!
Until our next adventure…
P~
