I have hosted a Wordsmith Writing Coaches booth at the LA Times Festival of Books—affectionately called “Latfob” or just “the Fob” by the writing community here in LA—every year since 2014. Every year that it was held, anyway.
When the FoB was canceled at the last minute in 2020, Russell Nohelty and I created an online writers conference to fill that weekend, and invited many of our fellow authors and creatives who had hoped to attend it, and others just for fun. You can watch those marathon live-streaming sessions here.
The FoB didn’t happen in 2021 either, not in person anyway, but I was there with a WWC booth in 2022, their first post-pandemic Festival. It was amazing. I missed 2023, since I was on sabbatical (in Guatemala at that time), but I hear it was even better, with attendance creeping back up toward pre-pandemic levels.
Now we are preparing for the 2024 Festival of Books here in Los Angeles, and I am super excited. It is only three weeks away!
But this will be my last LATFoB as a Los Angeles resident.
I haven’t mentioned this earlier, since the dates and details were too sketchy, but now I can say for certain* that my wife and I will be moving to Washington State sometime this summer, to be closer to her family.
Wordsmith Writing Coaches will not be affected by our move, since it is already 100% online and includes Wordsmith coaches in Georgia, Texas, and Washington State, as well as various cities in California; if anything, we will expand our service and influence to include even more of the West Coast and Pacific Northwest.
But I, Nic Nelson, will be affected by our move. I’ve spent most of my adult life in SoCal. After 33 years in South Los Angeles and 15 years here in our beloved home near USC, I feel like a native Angeleno being uprooted and carried off to be replanted somewhere strange and far away. Still, I’ll be replanted in astonishingly fertile soil in the PNW, and I’m looking forward to what my new home will hold for me. Details pending.
I will return to Los Angeles for the LATimes Festival of Books 2025, and other writers’ conferences and events in Southern California. It will be a challenge to set up the Wordsmith booth when I can’t store my gear a three-minute drive from the USC campus, or bike from booth to home in less than ten minutes if I forget something. But I accept that challenge, and the others awaiting me in the coming year.
[Like finding room for a new Washington State sticker on the lid of my laptop…]
How about you? Are you facing big changes or challenges in the year ahead? Are they the sort of thing Wordsmith Writing Coaches could help you with?
Don’t hesitate to text or email us to set up a free consultation. Actually, we have a handy online tool for that…
I hope to see you at the Festival of Books (Booth #38!) soon, while I am still a California resident!
Until then, write well and publish wisely!
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