Eric Lynxwiler and I were pleased to give a little talk about Wilshire Boulevard yesterday at Round Table West, a venerable luncheon group that began meeting 29 years ago at the Ambassador Hotel. After the Ambassador closed they moved west to the Beverly Wilshire. The locale gave me a chance to mention the massive auto racing track that used to stand on the site. We were fortunate to go on first, because after us came Christopher Kennedy Lawford, the actor, lawyer and political figure who was pitching his new book, Symptoms of Withdrawal. Hard to beat opening lines like he learned to do The Twist from Marilyn Monroe and the first woman he ever saw naked was Jackie O. Yeah, the Kennedy kid sold a few more books than we did.

Add books: The schedule of panels (and list of participating authors) for the Times Festival of Books April 29-30 is out. L.A. author Tod Golberg offers his recommendations here. I'm moderating one panel on California writing with authors D.J. Waldie, Rick Wartzman and Peter Schrag, and interviewing Los Angeles Times Editor Dean Baquet on the state of the newspaper (details here.) Eric and I will also be signing both days at the Angel City Press booth and in the Borders tent.