Sunday, October 29th, 2006
(& the last Sunday of every Month)

(not just for chicks)

L.A. Y.A: Los Angeles Young Adult Fiction Authors Pajama Party

Curated by Cecil Castellucci
…Spread the Word

Teen Angst. Sure, you remember it...the tryouts for the cheerleading squad, that horrible pimple you had on your nose for the spring fling, the reject table in the lunchroom, the SAT. LA YA (Los Angeles Young Adult Authors) remember it so well that they write whole novels about it.   Make no mistake, Young Adult literature has come a long way from Beverly Cleary's Fifteen or Judy Blume's Forever. It's said that we are going through a Golden Age of Young Adult literature.

Come mix and mingle with some of Los Angeles' brightest writers of the genre: Cecil Castellucci ( The Queen of Cool ), Dana Reinhardt ( A Brief Chapter In My Impossible Life ), Jordan Roter ( Girl in Development ), Kerry Madden ( Gentle's Holler ), Mark L. Williams ( Danger Boy ), Melissa de la Cruz ( The Au Pairs ), Sally Nemeth ( The Heights , The Depths and Everything In Between ), Amy Goldman Koss ( Poison Ivy, Side Effects ), Rachel Cohn ( Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist , Two Steps Forward ) and others! Swap your teen horror battle stories. Put on your Cherry Smackers lip-gloss. Go out for the football team. Pajamas are highly encouraged!

Jeff Jones, a Los Angeles-based artist and musician is the October Bookmark Artist.

The evening will conclude with a lively set by the Cat Hair Ensemble so you can kick back and soak up the Django Rheinhardt-inspired sounds, while musing over your forgotten teen fantasies.

As always, we will serve piping hot, organic, locally roasted, sustainably farmed coffee from the Coffee Cellar ( www.coffeecellar.com ) and, yes, there will be a secret juvenile cocktail.

Password:
“Dinky Hocker shoots smack. ”

RIDE YOUR BIKE TO THIS EVENT AND GET TWO -FOR-ONE ADMISSION www.bikemetro.com for routes.

Why socialize on a Sunday? Because mingling is good for your mental health.

Cat Hair Ensemble Comprised of Joe Tepperman (bass trombone), Michael Ibarra (bass), Clint Heidorn (guitar, tenor banjo), Andrew Duncan (trumpet) and Roderick Cumming (guitar, accordion, tenor banjo, vocals), Cat Hair Ensemble promises melodies that cough and choke as much as they croon...dance tunes for three-legged dancers...nervous tangos, club-footed waltzes, gallows' swing.   The Past pinches at our leg hair as we race towards the party at end of the world.   It's going to be a blast. http://www.myspace.com/cathairensemble

Cecil Castellucci has published two novels for teens,  Boy Proof , which was a 2006 American Library Association BBYA and Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers and The Queen of Cool.   She was named a Flying Start by Publishers Weekly. In addition to writing books, she writes plays and makes movies.  Her newest novel Beige is due out on Candlewick Press in June 2007.  For more information go to www.misscecil.com .

Rachel Cohn is the author of the young adult novels Gingerbread and its follow-ups, Shrimp and Cupcake ; Pop Princess ; with David Levithan, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist ; and, for middle-grade readers, The Steps and Two Steps Forward .

Melissa de la Cruz is the author of many books for teens and adults, including the best-selling series The Au Pairs which has been published in ten countries and was sold to Warner BrothersStudios as a major motion picture. Her other books include the Blue Bloods series, the trilogy Angels On Sunset Boulevard , the novels Cat's Meow and Fresh Off The Boat , and the tongue-in-chic handbooks The Fashionista Files: Adventures In Four-Inch Heels And Faux-Pas and How To Become Famous In Two Weeks Or Less , and the forthcoming anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys . She has written for Glamour , Marie Claire , Harper's Bazaar , Allure , Teen Vogue , Cosmopolitan , Cosmo Girl! , Seventeen , The New York Times , The San Francisco Chronicle and McSweeney's . She lives in Los Angeles with her husband. They are expecting their first child this November.

Jeff Jones is a carpenter, artist and musician who was born and raised in Los Angeles.

Kerry Madden's critically acclaimed novel Offsides (William Morrow) was selected by the New York Public Library in their 1997 "Books for the Teen Age" list. Her second book, Writing Smarts (American Girl) helps kids craft their own stories.   Her debut children's novel, Gentle's Holler , (starred Kirkus and Publishers Weekly ) is the story of a young songwriter from the Great Smoky Mountains, coming to terms with life in a large family and her desire to create her own adventures beyond the holler. Kerry's next book, Louisiana's Song , will be published in 2007. The mother of two teenagers and a seven-year-old, her kids are both her editors and inspirations. You may visit Kerry at www.kerrymadden.com or www.readerville.com

Sally Nemeth , author of The Heights, the Depths and Everything in Between (Knopf), is an award winning playwright and screenwriter. Plays in publication include Holy Days , Mill Fire , Water Play , and Sally's Shorts . She has written for every major television network, and her screenplay, Ibeji , is currently under option.

Dana Reinhardt was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and after a long stint on the East Coast, lives here again with her husband and daughters. She has never been to a speakeasy, and didn't even know that such a thing existed outside of the South in the former century.   She does however leave the house in her pajamas on a regular basis.   She is widely known to be very bad at parlor games. Oh, and A Brief Chapter In My Impossible Life is her first book.   Her second novel, Harmless , also for young adults, is coming out in February 2007 from Random House.

Jordan Roter was born and raised in New York City. After studying English and American literature at Brown University, she moved to Los Angeles to work in film development and production. Her first novel, Girl In Development , about an eighteen-year-old girl who moves from Massachusetts to Los Angeles for a summer internship at a Hollywood production company, was published by Dutton in May 2006. Her second novel, Camp Rules , about breaking the rules at an all-girls summer camp, will be published by Dutton next May 2007.

Mark London Williams writes Danger Boy books in the wilds of Los Angeles, while contemplating dinosaurs and keep a careful eye out for wormholes. He's also a columnist for the paper Below the Line , where he writes about Hollywood and politics. He's slung ink and pixels for Variety , the Los Angeles Times , Moving Pictures magazine, and other on and offline publications. He's scripted comics, published a coyote poem or two, and had a slew of produced plays, in venues ranging from California to London. Mark draws both inspiration and "perspective on the craft" from his own two "danger boys" ages 12 & 7.

Smart Gals Productions is a 501(C)3 not-for-profit, public-benefit arts organization dedicated to creating original gatherings in unlikely places, and to building the greater arts community of Los Angeles. On the last Sunday of every month, Smart Gals brings together curious, likeminded people via their socially progressive underground salon, The Speakeasy, now enjoying its fifth year.