Siel Ju's Blog, page 16
April 3, 2017
April giveaway: Cake Time!
This month’s giveaway is my own book! After many years of wanting and waiting, I’m beyond excited and grateful that Cake Time is finally coming into the world on April 6, 2017.
When people ask what my book is about, I say this: Cake Time is about a smart girl who makes risky choices about men and sex in Los Angeles.
Here’s a longer description:
Daring yet aimless, smart but slightly strange, Cake Time’s young female protagonist keeps making slippery choices, sliding into the dangerous space...
March 31, 2017
Melrose Station: Best speakeasy hidden behind a bookcase
If you’ve ever looked at your bookcase on a Friday afternoon — and wished the shelves were lined with booze instead of books — I’ve got a bar for you.
Melrose Station, a newish speakeasy in the Fairfax area, is a craft cocktail bar and tapas restaurant hidden behind a bookcase. To get there, you’ll first need to go to Glass Hookah Lounge, where a host will let you in the velvet rope, escort you to the back of the smoky room, then pull open a bookcase and tell you to go through the door at 11...
March 30, 2017
March book reviews: Art, life, and Los Angeles
Brief reviews of books by contemporary authors I read this month — along with photos of what I ate while reading. The list is ordered by the level my enjoyment:
Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz (Knopf, 1977)
*
“So the artists in Los Angeles just don’t have that burning eagerness people expect. And they’re just not serious.”
*
Eve Babitz’s book is a sort of ode to LA — a perfect read for a slow day wandering around the sunny city. Eve goes on many strange, fun adventures, from a trip to...
March 28, 2017
Pasadena Festival of Women Authors to star Yaa Gyasi, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney 4/8
Along with like half the people I follow on Instagram, I recently read Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and enjoyed the expansive sweep and ambition of the novel. Then I logged onto Facebook — to find out Yaa is coming to town!
Yaa is one of the headliners of the Pasadena Festival of Women Authors, happening April 8 at the Pasadena Hilton Hotel. Joining her will be Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, author of The Nest, an entertaining book I carried around last year — with nails painted to match.
Which is to sa...
March 23, 2017
Disquiet International Literary Program: Two-week adventure in Lisbon, Portugal
Love literature and love travel — but don’t want to do all the plotting and planning to make an international literary adventure happen on your own? Try the Disquiet International Literary Program in Lisbon, Portugal.
I went two summers ago, and loved it. I mean, this was the view from my Airbnb.
Plus I got to meet fantastic authors, workshop with acclaimed writers, go on excursions to castles and beaches, and explore the pretty streets. I went to readings and receptions at gorgeous, histori...
March 21, 2017
Come celebrate Cake Time in April: LA, Oakland, Portland, Seattle
Friends — My debut novel-in-stories, Cake Time, is almost here!
April 6, 2017, is the official publication date — and I hope you’ll celebrate with me at one or many of the cakey events next month, the biggest of which is the Los Angeles launch event:
Siel Ju reads from her novel-in-stories CAKE TIME
with special guests
Janice Lee, Victoria Patterson, and Jim Ruland
Wednesday, April 5, 2017 at 7:30 pm
Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles
FREE!
(Facebook event page)
It’ll be really...
March 16, 2017
My writing residency at Vermont Studio Center
Earlier this winter, I left sunny SoCal for snowy Vermont — where I meditated, yoga’d, read, and drew.
No, I wasn’t in rehab — or at a wellness retreat, for that matter. I was at a writing residency! For two weeks, I got to live at Vermont Studio Center, a residency program that brings together 50 artists and writers each month to form a temporary community in a tiny town called Johnson.
And I’m so glad I did. I loved this place — and already have hopes to go back for a full month soon, tho...
March 14, 2017
Angels Flight • literary west Salon: Cocktails, cafeteria food, and literary conversation
Get your favorite cafeteria food and drink your fancy cocktails too — while enjoying literary conversations. Come to the next Angels Flight • literary west Salon — where I’ll be chatting with fellow author Lilliam Rivera!
But first about the salon: Put together by local literary journal Angels Flight • literary west, these monthly events happen at Clifton’s Republic in the second-floor Ballroom — a lovely historic space with idiosyncratic decor, including a lion that looks over the proceedin...
March 9, 2017
Five firsts: Louise Wareham Leonard on secrets and thinly-veiled memoirs
Every month, I interview an author I admire on her literary firsts.
March’s featured author is Louise Wareham Leonard, author of 52 Men — a thinly veiled memoir written in tiny, flash pieces. Each of the 52 snippets features a guy with whom the narrator had a relationship — some affairs brief, some longer, some intimate, some cruel.
The book is sexy as well as scary, tender as well as crude — making for a riveting read. Relatedly, Louise runs 52 Men the Podcast: Women Telling Stories About Me...
March 7, 2017
Downtown Bookfest: Emily Dickinson meets Cut Chemist meets Siel
If live music by Cut Chemist and remixes of Emily Dickinson poems sound like the makings of a perfect Saturday in the park for you, head to Grand Park for Downtown Bookfest this weekend.
There, you’ll be treated to performances, workshops, and readings — including one by me, along with other Red Hen Press authors!
But first, about Emily: This year, the event will be a special treat for Emily Dickinson fans — with a book-making workshop inspired by Dickinson’s collection of 400 plant speci...
