The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books returns to UCLA Saturday, apparently without Ray Bradbury and with a new $30 pass that let visitors secure advance tickets to panels. (Panels otherwise carry a $1 fee through Ticketmaster.) Bradbury, a popular fixture at the festival from I think the first year, ranted at his panel last year that he wouldn't be back unless the Times restored its killed Book Review seciton. I guess he meant it — can't find him on the schedule. I'll be signing "Wilshire Boulevard" and "San Fernando Valley" on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Angel City Press booth. LA Observed authors will be all over the place, including on a bunch of panels:
- Saturday 10:30 a.m. -- Jenny Price takes part in the panel "Water: The Past, Present, and Future of our Most Precious Resource."
- Saturday 12:30 p.m. -- Veronique de Turenne moderates "Fiction: Lives Intertwined" and Cari Beauchamp will be on "Biography: 20th Century Lives."
- Saturday 1 p.m. -- Denise Hamilton, the novelist and editor of "L.A. Noir," is interviewed in the L.A. Times Pavilion by Lori Kozlowski.
- Saturday 3 p.m. -- Hamilton takes part in the panel "Mystery: Dark Tales from the Golden State."
- Sunday 10:30 a.m. -- Hamilton (!) in conversation with authors John Green & David Levithan, and Bill Boyarsky on the panel "History: Los Angeles in the Limelight."
- Sunday 1:30 p.m. -- Erika Schickel moderates "Fiction: Lives in Transition," and David Davis moderates "Beyond Baseball: The Sport of Dreams."
- Sunday 3 p.m. -- Deanne Stillman will be on the panel "Life on the Edge: Violence and the West."
Parking at UCLA is ten bucks these days, fyi.