Events

Laguna Beach Books is pleased
to welcome Kira Peikoff, author of Living
Proof, to the store. There is no charge for this event.

In
2027, destroying an embryo is considered first-degree murder. Fertility clinics
still exist, giving hope and new life to thousands of infertile families, but
they have to pass rigorous inspections by the U.S. Department of Embryo
Preservation. Fail an inspection, and you will be prosecuted.

Brilliant young doctor
Arianna Drake seems to be thriving in the spotlight: her small clinic surpasses
every government requirement, and its popularity has spiked—a sudden, rapid
growth that leaves the DEP chief mystified. When he discovers Arianna’s radical
past as a supporter of an infamous scientist, he sends undercover agent Trent
Rowe to investigate her for possible illegal activity.

As Trent is pulled into Arianna’s enigmatic
world, his own begins to unravel. The secret he finally uncovers will deeply
move him — and jeopardize them both. With the clock ticking her life away, he
finds himself questioning everything he knows to be true, and then must summon
the courage to take the greatest risk of all. Nothing less than human life — and
a major scientific breakthrough — hang in the balance.

About Kira Peikoff:

Kira
Peikoff is a writer based in New York
City. She graduated with high honors from New York University
in 2007 with a degree in journalism, after four years of various reporting
internships: covering street crime for the The Daily News, writing about Capitol Hill for The Orange County Register in Washington,
D.C., reporting on business and technology for
Newsday, and researching feature stories
for New York magazine.

Realizing that fiction was
her true love, she then spent a year working full time on Living Proof, her debut novel. The story was inspired by her
experience reporting from the White House in the summer of 2006, as she watched
President Bush announce the first veto of his presidency to deny federal
funding for embryonic stem cell research. Peikoff’s passionate feelings about
what many people view as a controversy of morality vs. science – one with
potentially life-or-death stakes –led to the central conflict in Living Proof.

Laguna Beach Books is pleased
to welcome Stacy Bierlein, author of the story collection A Vacation on the Island of Ex-Boyfriends, to the store. There is
no charge for this event.

Two
friends plan a visit to Nantucket, but find
themselves on a different island completely, where the men they have loved are
lined up on the beach in chronological order. A grieving mother and daughter
encounter naked strangers in unexpected places en route to the Dordogne River. A restless New
York artist travels to Madrid
to find a European lover, only to fall for another persnickety New Yorker. Such
quirks of fate are the hallmark of Stacy Bierlein’s debut story collection.

From that mysterious island
in the Atlantic to the crowded highways of Los Angeles;
from the Charles Bridge
in Prague, to the temples of Luxor
and the most remote regions of the Myanmar peninsula, Bierlein's
characters are women of dazzling ironies and introspections, always in motion
and trusting in love -- even when it remains out of reach.

The book has already garnered
quite a bit of advance praise. Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, had the following to say: “Stacy
Bierlein’s work is like a glass of water with cucumber slices in it. What I
mean is that the vitality in her prose is absolutely refreshing. Things you
don’t expect suddenly make complete sense.” And from Booklist: “With their sudden slicing
dives through bright, scintillating surfaces into the cold darkness of pain and
fear, Bierlein’s dagger-sharp, witty, authentic stories reveal what life is
like now for women torn between anything goes and choices of a lifetime.”

About Stacy Bierlein:

Stacy Bierlein is the editor
of the award-winning anthology, A Stranger Among Us: Stories
of Cross Cultural Collision and Connection, and coeditor of Men Undressed: Female Writers and the Male Sexual Experience. She
is a founding editor of the independent press Other Voices Books, and
co-creator of the Morgan Street International Novel Series. Her articles about
writing, publishing, and the arts appear on various websites, including TheNervousBreakdown.com. She
lives in Newport Coast, California.

Laguna Beach Books is pleased
to welcome Carlos Kotkin, author of Please
God Let It Be Herpes: A Heartfelt Quest for Love and Companionship, to the
store. There is no charge for this event.

Humorist-writer-mammal
Carlos Kotkin is lucky in love -- if lucky in love means he's had enough
horrible, pathetic, and downright bizarre dating experiences to write a book.
His trouble with females usually begins upon opening his mouth. An intimate mix of cynicism, dry humor, and matter-of-fact
prose makes nearly every page funny.

Here, Carlos shares his ups and mostly downs
of bachelorhood, including romantic conquests with a slew of childhood crushes,
insane yogis, a Playboy vixen, a STD host, the flaky, the deaf, and the just
plain dumb. His unique mating style is not to be duplicated, but it will
definitely make readers laugh -- and want to get tested ASAP.

Please
God Let It Be Herpes received a
favorable review from Publishers Weekly,
which had the following to say about the book: “While
he engages in plenty of one-night stands, deep down, Kotkin just wants to find
his soul mate, marry, and live happily ever after. (A gracious forward from his
own mother asserts as much, and she assures readers, "You will not get
herpes by reading this book, but you might get a stomachache from all the laughing.")
It's a fantasy he finds more tempting than tawdry trysts with strangers or
dalliances with a drunk Nordic blonde. This is a hilarious -- and unexpectedly
empathetic -- take on one man's search for love that will appeal to those
who've found it, and folks who are still looking.”

About Carlos Kotkin:

Carlos Kotkin regularly
performs in the Comedy Central Stage show Sit ’N Spin, and has appeared at the
Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater and The Comedy Store. He is a ten-time Moth
StorySLAM winner, including two-time winner of the coveted GrandSLAM, and has
been featured on NPR’s The Moth Radio
Hour, KCRW’s UnFictional, and the
popular podcast RISK! He lives in Los
Angeles.

Laguna Beach Books is pleased
to welcome Allene Symons, who will be presenting a panel entitled “Selling Your
Book in Traditional (and New) Markets — From Bookstore Shelves to Selling Via
the Internet.” This will be a panel discussion and conversation amongst workshop
attendees.

At a time of
transformation in book publishing, when printed books co-exist with e-books,
many aspiring authors turn to self-publishing as a way to achieve creative
closure for a book project. This panel will focus on the next step: realistic
ways to reach the reader.

Among the topics covered in
this panel will be criteria required for a self-published (or small press) book
to be sold at independent bookstores, which include suitable subject matter,
content quality, and visual quality. She will also discuss channels of
distribution, specialty book categories, and selling over the Internet.

About Allene Symons:

Allene Symons has worn many hats in the publishing industry. She is an
author and the former Bookselling & Marketing Editor at Publishers Weekly in New York. She is also a former manager of
Rizzoli Bookstore in South
Coast Plaza.
Her books have been published by a major publisher and a small press. Her
latest release is Nostradamus, Vagabond
Prophet, which is based on the life and times of Catherine de Medici’s
personal astrologer. Her articles have been published in the Los Angeles Times, American Bungalow, Details,
and New West, and she has worked as
an online columnist for MSNBC.com’s Great Reads for the Restless, a travel
literature review feature with emphasis on travel memoirs. 

Joiin us for our monthly book club, it's always a lively discussion! This month we are reading Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. Our book club meets on the third Wednesday of every month.