Steve Kemper, author of A Labyrinth of Kingdoms and Bridget Hoida, author of So L.A. talk about their books and about writing.

 Download audio.

 (Broadcast date: July 25, 2012)

Memoirist Dinah Lenney was recently a guest author at the Pen on Fire Writers Salon here in Corona del Mar. She also just did a TED x USC talk. Here it is. I love TED. And I love Dinah.

Have you visited Litstack? Here’s a cool review of Robert Olen Butler’s writing book, From Where You Dream. Robert was on the show a couple of times talking about this book and talking about his newest novel.  Play particular attention to what the reviewer has to say about writing using the senses. As he says Chekhov says, don’t talk about how the moon was shining; show it glinting on a piece of glass.

This Sunday, July 22, my students from the Literary Posse and Writers Block Party and I will be reading from works in progress at Laguna Beach Books on Pacific Coast Hwy. in Laguna Beach. Join us at 4 p.m. for good words, good food, and good company, in one of the best indie bookstores anywhere, and it’s free. Hope to see you then!

 Also, this just in from Sonia Marsh: Write a 1,000 word or less “My Gutsy Story” to be featured on my blog and each month the winner gets to pick a prize from our list of sponsors. The story is about something that either changed you, or made your life take a different direction. Click here for more information.

Jess Walter’s new novel, Beautiful Ruins, has been out for a few weeks and doing great. Does he get no bad reviews? One writer present, Pat Kersey, commented that he never saw an author with such positive reviews. Here are a few photos from last night. Thanks to C.J.Bahnsen for most of the photos, and Travis Barrett for a few others. If you were present, please share what you remember about last night. If you want to hear the radio interviews I did with Jess, go to Writersonwriting.blogspot.com, enter “Walter” in the search box and both should come up.