ArtsDay LA was held Saturday on campus – kind of a buffet of panels celebrating the arts taught at UCLA Extension. I had a dream panel – novelist Kerry Madden (Gentle’s Holler), playwright, director and actor Leon Martell (The History Of Fairfax According to a Sandwich) and novelist Noel Alumit (Letters to Montgomery Clift). All of them terrific writers, very articulate and passionate about teaching, and very funny. The subject of our panel was “Getting Started As A Writer”. The thing about getting together with other Writers’ Program instructors is that you learn as much as anybody in the audience. At least I did; I took notes as they talked. Before doing the panel we shared experiences of – shall we say, less than celebrity status appearances at bookstores. Tragedy plus time equals humor (according to Carol Burnett) so we laughed a lot about those readings when just one person shows up (with his dog), or it turns into a one-on-one with the bookstore manager, or a loudspeaker in a big chain bookstore announces “Author on aisle three!” like you’re a box of soap. (to continue reading, click on the title above)

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