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NPR commentator and autism expert Christina Adams has turned an essay about her son's recovery that she wrote last year for the L.A. Times Magazine into a memoir. Publishers Lunch reports that A Real Boy: An Autism Recovery Journey sold to Berkley, for trade paperback publication in 2005. Also from Publishers Lunch this week:
• Francesca Lia Block, the best-selling Los Angeles author of the Weetzie Bat series, sold two new young adult books to Joanna Cotler Books/Harper.• Jen Sincero optioned Don't Sleep With Your Drummer, about a 28-year-old Los Angeles copywriter who quits her day job to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a rock star, to HBO.
• Rob Kendt, former editor-in-chief of Back Stage West, sold How They Cast It: An Insider's Look at Film & TV Casting to Lone Eagle Publishing.
CaliforniaAuthors.com, meanwhile, announces a collaboration with Angel City Press on My California: Journeys by Great Writers, an anthology of 27 travel and adventure essays. The writers include Pico Iyer, Michael Chabon, T. Jefferson Parker, Aimee Liu, Dana Gioia, D.J. Waldie and journalists Edward Humes, David Kipen, Deanne Stillman, Patt Morrison, Mark Arax and Dan Weintraub.
Fly-fish the pristine waters of the Owens River. Step up to the microphone in a California honky-tonk. Surf the biggest waves California has ever seen. Mingle with ducks in an urban oasis. Roller skate through LA’s Union Station. My California (June 2004) is a personal journal, a collection of narrative travel and adventure essays by some of California’s most prominent authors.
The authors and editors all donated their work. Sales will benefit the California Arts Council. David Hockney and the J. Paul Getty Museum contributed the use of "Pearblossom Hwy (11-18th April 1986 — second version)" on the cover.
The April calendar also notes the resumption of the Zócalo lecture series at the Central Library on Thursday night. The speaker is Michael Barone.