An Interesting Time at BEA

There are definitely some perks to being and author living in Los Angeles. You get go to interesting events. This past week I signed some of my For Dummies series books at the John Wiley booth at Book Expo America. BEA is the annual convention for the book publishing industry where authors rub shoulders with librarians and the ever present PR folks.
It was good to see Jackie Collins, who looks exactly as you'd expect someone who writes the sexy books she writes. Fellow For Dummies author of "Sex For Dummies", Dr. Ruth, was celebrating her 90th birthday. Also on the scene was George Hamilton who was there to sign copies of his new book, “Don’t Mind If I Do,” an intimate look at behind-the-scenes Hollywood. Yes, even pushing 70, the man is magnetic with his klieg light smile and bronzed complexion (not orange). He should have some amazing stories to tell in the book. After all he was present at the making of many a Hollywood legend: he was at the "Cleopatra" wrap party where Richard Burton declared his love for Elizabeth Taylor in front of Eddie Fisher (Yikes); he witnessed one of Judy Garland’s suicide attempts and rumor has it hat he skinny-dipped with JFK. Whew. busy, busy busy.