Yep, doing this to myself again

Welcome to my weekend:

Haven't had a lot of success with this one, but apparently I'm a glutton for punishment. But Psych 1 has ended, so I'm free.

Quote of the day: Mental health

"It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." (Krishnamurti)

This popped up in my Psychology 1 text (we're on psychological disorders this week) and also because of so much crap that's going on in the world and our country these days. It just really got my attention.

Soda cake? Challenge accepted!

Stumbled across this on Facebook recently:

I've honestly never heard of this, but it's just crazy enough to give it a shot. I'm torn about which one...orange creamsicle is always a go-to flavor for me, but the root beer float cake sounds good too. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Update: Tried the creamsicle version - it was okay. Nothing I'm going to be craving.

50 Things you need to eat in L.A.

Spoon University has come up with a list of 50 Things You Need To Eat In L.A. Before You Die.

So far I can only check a few off the list:

• Dodger Dog at Dodger Stadium (many, many times)
• Hickory Burger at The Apple Pan (although it may have been the steak burger, can't remember for sure)
• Lobsta Roll at Lobsta Truck (a couple years ago at the L.A. Times Festival of Books)
• Animal Style at In-N-Out (a friend and I were yelling our order and a couple of guys in another car were looking at us weird - they had apparently never heard of "animal style", at least as far as burgers were concerned)

What do you think of this list? Agree/disagree? Off the top of my head I'd add tacos from Tito's Tacos (there's got to be more hole-in-the-wall Mexican places that could go on this list) and the Big Boy Combo at Bob's Big Boy.

Dinner last night

Mahi-mahi sauteed with butter, olive oil, garlic and lemon. Angel hair pasta with heirloom cherry tomatoes and basil, tossed in pan drippings. Roasted organic rainbow carrots. Garlic bread.

The mahi-mahi was bought frozen at the grocery store. Just a reminder, if you're going to freeze your fish, buy it already frozen. This is probably the only time I would buy fish at a grocery store that isn't Whole Foods. Trader Joe's also has good frozen mahi-mahi.

The angel hair pasta is De Cecco, an Italian brand you can buy in any grocery store. The heirloom cherry tomatoes were also a grocery store purchase (obviously I need to get to a farmer's market). The basil was from my plant, which miraculously is thriving instead of dying a horrible death like most of my plants usually do (in fact, their all doing really well right now).

The bread is La Brea Bakery's Take & Bake French Baguette. This is the same bread we used at culinary school and it's some of the best bread I've ever had. I had made garlic butter earlier in the day with basil (gotta get some mileage out of that plant).

Breaking: House refuses to label GMOs

This is not good: House of "Representatives" approves the DARK Act.

More info here.

H/T to Millions Against Monsanto on Facebook.

Take a writing class with James Patterson

I've been wrapped up in an online Psychology class for the past five weeks, which is why blogging has been non-existent. It seems like every time I make the decision to blog regularly, something comes up. It's a great class and the topic is really interesting, but not something you should be trying to cover in a six-week period. In the past week we had to cover two chapters plus a portion of a third, and one of the chapters alone was almost 50 pages. The good news is that it's almost done and now I can concentrate on things I've been neglecting, like blogging, writing and cooking. And I just found a great way to get back on the writing horse.

Via MasterClass on Facebook: James Patterson Teaches Writing. Patterson is the prolific author of 19 consecutive Number One New York Times Best Sellers. The 22-part course is online so you can do it from anywhere and at your own pace. The best part: It's only $90. One more week of psychology and I'm signing up.

This will be the first time I've taken a course through MasterClass, but they've got a lot of interesting looking ones including Serena Williams teaching tennis, Dustin Hoffman teaching acting, and Annie Leibovitz teaching photography. All for less than $100. Anyone have any experience with their classes?

California Crime Writers Conference - Day 2 (afternoon)

The final wrap-up...

Keynote speaker Anne Perry spoke (very softly) about writers and writing.

"Social Media Tips From Professionals"
Terry Ambrose (moderator), Diane Vallere, Holly West, Lee Nelson

First off, Holly West turned out to be the winning bidder for the Maltese Falcon. She paid $200 and brought it to the panel with her. I was jealous.

Lots of great advice from this panel:

• Tweet and Facebook posts can be scheduled, but be sure to unschedule them if there's a major tragedy in the news, or you'll look like a jerk.
• Consistency of message: Vallere describes her books as being about shoes, clues and clothes, and that's what she talks about on social media. Ambrose pointed out that her latest post (the day before) showed the clothes she brought for the conference laid out.
• While Twitter, Facebook and blogs are the most common social media platforms, there was a lot of talk about Goodreads, which has become a major author platform. Nelson warned about authors getting into battles with readers/reviewers on Goodreads, mentioning that it had just happened the day before and resulted in the author's account being deleted. (Apparently she was referring to this).
• Query Shark got props.
• "Buying" fans for your social media accounts got a big thumbs down.
• Vallere's website got props from the panel as a great example of what an author's official site should look like. Vallere mentioned the importance of constantly updating your site in order to keep pushing it to the top of search engines.
• Another way to increase your web presence is to guest blog. 

Left to right: West, Nelson, Vallere and Ambrose

"Putting Your Blog to Work"

Mar Preston (moderator), Sybil Johnson, Patricia Smiley, S.W. Lauden

• Smiley is an LAPD Reserve Detective who writes cozies. She is also part of an MAB (multiple author blog) called Naked Authors, which was started in 2006. She also had a friend who was one of Ted Bundy's victims.
• The panel was asked how much personal info they include on their blogs. Smiley: Funny stuff, but otherwise no family, although she did blog about her father's death. Johnson will poke fun at herself, but doesn't generally talk about her family. Lauden is a pen name, to separate his writing career from his real life, which included a wife, kids and a corporate day job.
• Trolls: Lauden is fortunate enough not to have been trolled. Smiley was trashed in comments by an author who didn't get a harmless joke she'd made. She also had a guy who started commenting as famous authors, then complained when she deleted his comments.
• Blog tips: The importance of keywords in titles (SEO) and tags in Blogger. It was recommended that you end a blog post with a question to help draw out comments. Lauden also uses lots of visuals/graphics. People move so fast that a wall of text can be a turnoff.

That was the end of the day and my first California Crime Writers Conference. It was a great conference and I look forward to the next one in 2017.

California Crime Writers Conference - Day 2 (morning)

"Hidden Talents: Using Skills From Other Media"
Stephen Buehler (moderator), Lee Goldberg, Phoef Sutton, Ellen Byron, Catherine Pelonero

This panel featured authors who have also excelled in other areas of writing besides books.

Left to right: Byron, Pelonero, Sutton, Goldberg, Buehler

Goldberg's extensive television credits include Diagnosis Murder, Spenser: For Hire, Baywatch, Monk, 1-800-Missing, Psych, and The Glades. Sutton is an Emmy/Writer's Guild/Peabody winner whose credits include Newhart, Cheers, Boston Legal, Terriers, and the feature The Fan. Byron is a journalist and playwright who has written for Wings and Just Shoot Me; her upcoming novel is described as a "Cajun cozy". Pelonero is a playwright whose new book examines the life and infamous death of Kitty Genovese.

I've seen Goldberg on a number of panels, and he never fails to entertain. He talked about ghost-writing his mother's San Francisco society columns as a teen and an early job writing fake letters to the editor for Playgirl (his girlfriend was an editor for the magazine). Discussed the main difference between writing scripts and novels: You can get inside the character's heads. With scripts, you just write dialogue and action.

Sutton started out as an actor and recommended acting classes for writers.

Byron pointed out that when you're writing for television, you have to write in someone else's voice. When writing novels, you can write in your own voice.

Pelonero: "Character is everything."  Wrote her Kitty Genovese book because although a number of books about the murder exist, she felt that they only focused on Kitty's death, neglecting her life. She interviewed Winston Moseley, Kitty's killer, for the book after corresponding with him for several years.

During the Q&A, the writers were asked how they felt about the level of intelligence of their audience and if this affected their writing. This resulted in two very different answers. Suttons said he nevers writes down to readers/audience. Byron said that when she worked on Wings, a frequent question among the writers and producers was, "Do you think the Timmys will get this?" "Timmys" referred to what Byron described as the "itinerant masses". Got quite a reaction from the crowd.

After the session, I headed into the book room to browse and the authors were all there for book signing. I was intrigued by the Kitty Genovese case, so I bought a copy of Pelonero's book and she kindly signed it for me.

"Going Hollywood: Novels to Television"
Diana Gould (moderator), Charlaine Harris, Joshua Bilmes (Harris' agent)

I have to say, right off the bat, that my favorite part of this highly entertaining and informative session was Harris comparing working with HBO (True Blood, based on her Sookie Stackhouse series) unfavorably compared to working with the Hallmark Channel (the upcoming Aurora Teagarden series starring Candace Cameron Bure). She described Hallmark as "professionally happy" and HBO as "scary" and "cutthroat" (and they once kept her waiting 45 minutes for a meeting). She accentuated the difference by describing their parties: HBO's featured men clad in only loincloths and red glitter, while Hallmark's party theme was Christmas in July, complete with Dickens carolers.

Harris has sold over 30 million books and Bilmes has been her agent for all of them. He read her first manuscript during a rain delay at Shea Stadium.

Bilmes on breaking into and working in Hollywood:

• The entertainment business is rife with conflict of interest, lies and self-interest. You need to be careful.
• Write good books that Hollywood will find. Alan Ball stumbled across the Sookie Stackhouse books in an Encino Barnes & Noble while killing time before a dentist appointment. He wasn't the only one interested, but the other party was unable to secure funding. Said all major studios have books to TV/film people always looking for the next big thing. Waiting for the phone to ring is not the worst way of dealing with Hollywood.
• Need to have a good agent and be very careful how reserved rights are defined and negotiated. One mistake they made was not reserving Sookie/True Blood comic book rights. Fans don't realize this and Charlaine said that she autographs them "reluctantly".

Harris on True Blood and producer Alan Ball: 

• After finding her books, Ball called her at her office in Arkansas. He told her he liked the mix of comedy and horror and that he saw it as an HBO series.
• Was dismayed at what she described as the show's "political turn", but overall felt that everyone involved did great work.
• She was given a line in one episode and still receives $2.16 residuals from SAG.
• Said Ball likes working with HBO because, "It's an easy drive."

Left to right: Bilmes, Harris, Gould

Death Wish 2015

Some things you look at and they're so cool, and some things you look at and you think, "That guy is seriously batshit crazy, and he's lucky to be alive."

This is one of those batshit crazy things:

Here's the insane story: Crazy-ass diver with a death wish leaves cage to give enormous great white shark a high five.

That dude has bragging rights forever. Good thing someone got the shot. Can you imagine pulling that off and no one got a picture for proof?

Oh, and also...THE. SIZE. OF. THAT. THING.

H/T to @LAKingsDru on Twitter for the only non-choking shark in my Hockey feed.

California Crime Writers Conference: Day 1 (afternoon)

Today's keynote speaker was Charlaine Harris, who was utterly charming and gave a wonderful, Southern-accented speech about, "Everything I know about writing." In this speech, she became the third person today to advise, "If not now, when?" Message received.

Charlaine Harris addresses the troops.

"Miss Marple's Rules: Traditional Mysteries Today"
Susan Goldstein (moderator), Jill Amadio, Susan Shea, Carole Sojka, Gay Degani

Goldstein on the definition of traditional mystery: 1) A criminal problem solved by a professional or amateur; 2) It's not about crime, but about relationships - what fractured the relationships?

On the changes modern times have changed the definition of traditional mystery:

Shea: Basic rules don't change - there's still a puzzle to be solved. Difference now is that the characters can move beyond a small town or their existing social circle.

Sojka: Social issues have changed and are now included more than in the Agatha Christie/Dorothy Sayers era. Her protagonist is an alcoholic and that plays into the story. Plus the modern technology.

On the subject of amateur sleuth:

Shea: Amateurs have skills from their day jobs that they can bring to sleuthing.

Goldstein: Amateurs can be teamed up with pros/law enforcement to give them access to information they wouldn't normally have.

Degani: Her protagonist was originally a suspect, which propels her to start researching and investigating her case.

"Forensic Investigation From Beginning to End"
Professional Donald Johnson, California State University, Los Angeles

Dr. Johnson seems like he would be a great instructor to have. His affability made the chasm between his personality and the horrific subject matter all that much more jarring. But if I was murdered, I'd want him on my case.

We were warned in advance that some of the photos would be graphic. It took a while to get to those, so I think we were kind of lulled into a false sense of security as to what we were going to see. They were from a real crime scene and one of the victims was a young girl. I won't even describe them, but as tough as it was to see the pictures, it also increased my admiration for people who work these cases and bring the killers to justice (which they did).

Some points about forensics:

• Rigor is variable and therefore not necessarily a reliable indicator of time of death. Unlike on television, in real life they do not make a TOD determination at the scene of a crime. Same thing with digestion - too many variables.
• Autopsies are usually done in order of receipt (yes, he used that expression).
• It's assumed that first responders may unintentionally alter the scene.
• Luminol is used to search for blood that is not visible to the human eye. It can detect blood diluted 1 million times, but can also react to paint and rust.
• Stabbing: A lot of bleeding occurs internally and can actually leave very little blood at the scene.

During the Q&A (and after the graphic photos), Dr. Johnson was asked how he and others in the field cope with the horrible stuff they see. He responded that he does view it as a mission, but also as a scientific issue. He also said it helps to have a cast-iron stomach.

Oh, and by the way, have I mentioned that this is part of the silent auction:

It's a replica, but WANT.

An L.A. Live by any other name

Nokia Plaza? Nokia Theatre, yes. Club Nokia, certainly. But up until now I had no idea Nokia's world domination extended to a plaza as well.

The comprehensive partnership between AEG, owners and operators of L.A. LIVE and Microsoft will also include rebranding L.A. LIVE’s 40,000 sf. outdoor plaza into Microsoft Square among other assets.

And then I dug out this pic I took at a Kings game a couple years ago:

Huh. There it is. In lights and everything.

I hate to break it to Microsoft, but I'm not sure I've ever heard of the general public referring to or thinking of the place as Nokia Plaza. Angelenos will continue to refer to it as L.A. Live.

Lucky for Microsoft, they've got money to burn. Money Nokia apparently doesn't have anymore.