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West Hollywood Book Fair

The 8^th West Hollywood Book Fair took place on Sunday October 4^th. The fair is located in Hollywood Park just a few blocks from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was a great local event with over 400 authors and artists in attendance, as well as more than 100 different panels and book signings. They had live poetry, writing workshops, and fun stuff to keep the kids busy.

ZWN attended several panels while we were there. We also got bumped into by Cindy Brady, met Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy), laughed at Carol Channing (how can she still be alive?), and had words with Bob Barker (he really did do his own fighting in Happy Gilmore). But ZWN was there with really only one panel on our mind-The Zombies and Other Creatures of the Night.

The panel consisted of:  Amber Benson, Francesca Lia Block, S.G. Browne, Seth Grahame-Smith, and E. Van Lowe   The moderator was: Del Howison.

The two highlights of the panel were Amber Benson and Seth Grahame-Smith.

You may remember Amber Benson; she spent three seasons as Tara Maclay on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It turns out that there is life after Buffy. Amber is an actress, but she’s also a director, producer and a writer. Up till now she has co-authored with Christopher Golden, but February of 2009 saw the release of her first solo book Death’s Daughter, whose main character is called Calliope Reaper-Jones (she’d better have a talk with her parents about who named her).  

Here’s the synopsis of her book:

Calliope Reaper-Jones so just wanted a normal life: buying designer shoes on sale, dating guys from Craig’s List, web-surfing for organic dim-sum for her boss… But when her father — who happens to be Death himself — is kidnapped, and the Devil’s protégé embarks on a hostile takeover of the family business, Death, Inc., Callie returns home to assume the CEO mantle — only to discover she must complete three nearly impossible tasks in the realm of the afterlife first. Buy it here:

She co-wrote and directed the animated web-series, Ghosts of Albion, (with Christopher Golden) for the BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ghosts/embers/one/

She’s also doing a spinoff of Death’s Daughter called The New Newbridge Academy; it’s a kid’s book for Simon and Schuster and it should be out in 2010. Amber keeps herself busy.

The moderator Del Howison (of Dark Delicacies) asked, “What’s the weirdest question you’ve been asked about your writing?” Amber replied, “Most people don’t know I wrote a book. They’re mostly interested in Buffy. They say Tara wrote a book? Some people ask if I actually wrote it.” Check out Amber’s blog here: http://amberbensonwrotethis.blogspot.com/

We got to hear from Francesca Lia Block, controversial author of many young adult books, most famously the Weetzie Bat series.  She briefly discussed Weetzie Bat, as she is writing the screenplay to take it to the big screen. She also discussed her new book: Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur: A Mythological Dating Guide. It is exactly what it sounds like, a dating book to find your compatible type, be it Minotaur, Satyr, or whatever. You can see what she’s up to here:

Next up was our pal S.G. Browne, author of Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament. Scott seemed mild mannered on stage with everyone; ZWN was rooting for him. He spoke about his current book, the process of it being turned into a movie and also his upcoming book, Fated. Del asked Scott, “Is there a lot of Scott in your stories?” To which he replied, “In this one not so much. My first 3 books were a lot like me. But in this book, each character has a little of all of me. I was inside a fraternity in college, which gave me some insight as to how they operate, which can be seen in Breathers.” He’s very intellectual in person and has a firm grasp of language. He’s articulate and has a strange sense of humor. We love the zombie haikus by the way. Make sure to check out ZWN’s one on one interview with him as well. If you haven’t read the book, why not? Go out and get it already. It’s in nearly every bookstore and if not, you can buy it online:

Also, Scott’s blogs are quite funny and sometimes thought provoking; check them out at: http://sgbrowne.com/blog/

Second to last was heavy hitter and another ZWN pal Seth Grahame-Smith. You all should know by now that he is the author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which debuted at #3 on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into 18 languages. He is also a film and television writer and producer, semi-frequent political blogger (Huffington Post), and the co-Creator/Executive Producer of the new MTV comedy series, Hard Times. We don’t want to tell you what Hard Times is all about; you should look on the Internet and find out for yourself. His next book, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, will be out in hardcover this spring. Seth was asked about his book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is in its 20^th printing. When it first came out, it was 3^rd on the New York Times bestseller list. It promptly dropped to 7^th because there were not enough available. So stores had to order more. Then it made its way back up to 3^rd. Quirk Publishers originally planned for an April 1^st release date, but everybody thought that was a joke so they moved it.”   When asked about writing fiction and doing another Jane Austen mash-up book, he replied, “I love fiction, I want to continue writing fiction. I didn’t want to be the Jane Austen mash-up guy again. I would love to continue doing twisted genres, but I don’t want to be gimmicky forever, because that’s a short career.” When asked about his new book, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, he stated, “It’s a darker book; our 16^th president, the Great Emancipator, was also one of the greatest vampire hunters of all time. He’s like the original goth; he’s dark and brooding. I wanted the book to be as historically accurate as possible; God bless Wikipedia and the Lincoln Log. There’s a lot we don’t know about Abe, especially in his first 30 years. He was lean, buff, could throw an axe 30 feet and split a log… or a vampire.” That’s it— we’re sold! We know it’s not about zombies, but we can’t wait for that book to come out. As for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, we’re not going to tell you to go out and buy the book, because if you haven’t by now then you’re just plain stubborn. However, the deluxe edition is out now, with 30% more zombies, so go buy that instead:

Last but not least was E. Van Lowe, a veritable unknown (to us anyway), but we found out he used to write for the Cosby Show and that makes him okay in our book. He co-wrote the Academy Award nominated short film Cadillac Dreams and most recently a teen book called Never Slow Dance with a Zombie. He stated that this was not his last teen novel, but we’re not sure if he’ll be doing another zombie book. We’ll have to see. Buy the book. It’s great for kids; really it is:

and check out his website at: http://evanlowe.com/

After the panel they all did a signing at the Dark Delicacies booth. By the way, if you’re ever in Los Angeles, it pays to stop in at the Dark Delicacies store in Burbank. It’s one of the coolest stores ever, with all manner of horror items throughout the store (books, magazines, DVD’s, music, clothing, etc).They’re open every day except Monday and the owner Del Howison is quite a writer himself. If you can’t make it to the shop, that’s what the internet is for, check them out at: http://www.darkdel.com/

We also met another quirky author by the name of Dana Fredsti; it turns out that she’s working on a zombie anthology. The title is Hunger for Your Love and it will be published by Ravenous Romance; the editor is Lori Perkins. Keep an eye out for it in stores possibly as early as Halloween and check back here as we have more information on it, along with possible interviews and reviews.

We enjoyed the West Hollywood Book Fair and it was great to meet authors that we admire and put a face to a name. Until next year, then.

Check out the pics on our Facebook page!

Tags: Amber Benson, book fair, hollywood, seth grahame-smith, zombies