On the Way Back

We are off on our trip to San Diego and Hawaii, so I won't be blogging too regularly for a week or so, but I wanted to let you know where we are headed when we return to town.

Emily, Abigail and Ethan, my aspiring authors and artists, want to go to the Tucson Festival of Books. Ethan mainly because he found a coupon to get a free book. Some 200 authors will be invading the U of A campus, along with 25,00 or so of us simpler folk. Emily also has one of her stories entered in the writing contest.

Here are some of the visiting authors that I am especially interested in meeting:

Nina Burleigh - the author of four critically acclaimed nonfiction books. Her latest, Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land (Collins 2008), tells the story of the unraveling of a Bible relic forgery scheme in Israel, and the intriguing world of biblical archaeology and relic collectors.

Jay Dobyns - “Jaybird” Dobyns, is the author of No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels.

Gail Carson Levine Author of, among others, Ella Enchanted.

Richard Peck - an American novelist known for his prolific contributions to modern young adult literature. He is the author of a couple of my favorite books.

Miles Swarthout Miles Swarthout is a Hollywood screenwriter, journalist, and novelist and has adapted a number of his father's novels for the screen, including The Shootist (John Wayne's final film).

Stephanie Elizondo Griest - has mingled with the Russian Mafia, polished Chinese propaganda, and belly danced with Cuban rumba queens. She just seems kind of cool.