Sunday, August 28, 2022

A whale of a good time.


Yesterday cemented I believe where I live is completely magical.

We did a two-hour tour out of Avila Harbor surrounded by sea birds, porpoise, otters, sea lions, and breaching whales with Avila Beach Whale Watching and Boat Tours. The salt and wind on my face are something that I long for. The laughter and 23-year-old rum in my flask cemented the fact we were modern-day pirates of love. 

Then we wander down the pier to the magical Mersea's. Devouring fish recently plucked from the sea made into tacos, blacken, fried, chowder, and rare while watching the sailboats sway.  Bartender Rob stirred up some tasty beverages that delighted us all. 

We drove to Stone Soup Music Festival, Food & Street Fair to boogie to a plethora of musical options. The cold fog soaked through our bones so we went to The Spoon Trade- The crown jewel of Grover Beach. Fresh bluefin tuna was chopped and spread on toast with avocado and Calabrian chilis. The chef sent over some bites of tuna cheek, and yummy deviled eggs. We ended the meal with the pot de cream and brown butter cookies. We ventured back to Stone Soup to watch the Young Dubliners rock on the outside stage.  

This was a perfect day. One that will enhance my dreams forever. I Love where I live.  #Avila #WhaleWatching #CaptainMark #Mersea #GroverBeach #TheSpoonTrade #BluefinTuna #StoneSoup #GonzoGidget 








Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Doug Richardson Teaches Teri Bayus On How To Hones Your Pitch


Doug shows us how to hone your pitch to capture a producer, publisher or agent for your work. He uses Teri as a guinea pig.

Doug Richardson cut his teeth writing movies like DIE HARD 2, BAD BOYS, and HOSTAGE. But scratch the surface and discover he thinks there's a killer inside all of us. His Lucky Dey books exist between the gutter and the glitter of a morally suspect landscape he calls Luckyland--aka Los Angeles--the city of Doug's birth and where he lives with his wife, two children, three big mutts, and the dead body he's still semi-convinced is buried in his San Fernando Valley back yard.

Mark Parsons and Wendelin Van Draanen talk about writing and Young Adult books.


Wendelin Van Draanen is the bestselling author of more than thirty books, including the long-running Edgar-winning Sammy Keyes mystery series. Her novel Flipped, named a Top 100 Children’s Novel for the 21st Century by SLJ, became a Warner Brothers feature film, and Shredderman became a Nickelodeon made-for-TV movie. Her first non-fiction book, Hope in the Mail, Reflections on Writing and Life, will be published by Random House in January 2020.

An experienced non-fiction author, Mark Parsons’ first YA novel, ROAD RASH (Knopf/Random House) is a band-on-the-road adventure which explores coming into adulthood. It was named to the 2015 ALA/YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults list, as well as Bank Street College’s Best Children’s Books of the Year list.