PRESS RELEASE FOR THE RAY BRADBURY READ

The Ray Bradbury Read

CONTACT

Steven Paul Leiva

pasob@aol.com

818-679-2825

Celebrities and Fans to Read Aloud from Author’s Work on 96th Anniversary of His Birth

Public Invited to the Ray Bradbury Read - Free Lunchtime Event at DTLA Maguire Gardens by Central Library and Ray Bradbury Square

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Los Angeles - August 3, 2016 - At 12 noon on Monday, August 22, 2016, actors Joe Mantegna (Criminal Minds) and Seamus Dever (Castle), L.A. City Councilmember Jose Huizar, Internet personality Jeff Cannata (We Have Concerns), science communicator Cara Santa Maria (KCET’s SoCal Connected), and others will participate in the first “Ray Bradbury Read,” which will be held in Maguire Gardens, situated between the Central Library and Ray Bradbury Square (Fifth & Flower) in downtown Los Angeles. The event, which is free and open to the public, will celebrate the life and words of literary master Ray Bradbury on the 96th anniversary of his birth. L.A. City Librarian John Szabo will open the event and make introductory remarks.

Prior to organizing the “Ray Bradbury Read,” author Steven Paul Leiva (Traveling in Space), conceived of and organized “Ray Bradbury Week” in Los Angeles (2010) and spearheaded the movement to name the intersection of Fifth and Flower as “Ray Bradbury Square” (2012). For the “Read,” he solicited and obtained the sponsorship and support of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Councilmember Jose Huizar, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, the Los Angeles Public Library, the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, Bradburymedia.co.uk, OUE (the owners of Maguire Gardens), HarperCollins Publishers (publisher of many Bradbury works), and Don Congdon Associates (Bradbury’s long time agents).

Each participant will read a short excerpt from a Bradbury novel, story, poem, or essay,

showcasing the master storyteller’s soaring prose, passionate emotions, startling imagination, and enthusiastic creativity.

Several of Bradbury’s daughters will be in attendance, one of whom, Bettina Bradbury, will read her father’s poem, “The Boys across the Street are Driving My Young Daughter Mad.”

Also reading will be Mrs. Gene (Patricia) Kelly. Bradbury’s novel, Something Wicked this Way Comes, was inspired by a screenplay he wrote for Gene Kelly to produce. The film was never made, a disappointment for them both, but Bradbury acknowledged his debt to Kelly by dedicating the book to him.

Ray Bradbury was born in 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois, and moved with his family to Los Angeles when he was fourteen. He became a dedicated Angeleno as he grew to literary prominence, penning such classics as Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked this Way Comes, The Illustrated Man, and hundreds of acclaimed short stories. He died in June 2012, at the age of 91.

Bradbury loved downtown Los Angeles, and spent many hours at the Central Library, which he thought of as “my university.” It was there that he received an improvised, intellectually far-ranging, unstructured, and altogether inspirational education. He never forgot the important role the Central Library – and all libraries – played in his life, and spent many hours giving speeches in libraries across the country, inspiring in turn countless readers.

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CARA SANTA MARIA TO BE A CELEBRITY READER AT THE RAY BRADBURY READ

I’m pleased to announce that Emmy-Award winning science communicator Cara Santa Maria will join actors Joe Mantegna and Seamus Dever, Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar, and Internet personality Jeff Cannata as a celebrity reader at the Ray Bradbury Read on August 22, the ninety-sixth anniversary of the birth of the literary master.

The Ray Bradbury Read will take place in Maguire Gardens in downtown Los Angeles, situated between the Los Angeles Central Library and Ray Bradbury Square (Fifth & Flower) and featuring members of the general public reading five minute-and-under excerpts from the novels, stories, essays, and poems of Ray Bradbury.

Cara has a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology with a minor in philosophy, a Master of Science in biological science with a concentration in neuroscience, and has taught biology laboratory courses and performed neuronal cell culture duties and electrophysiology research at the Center for Network Neuroscience. She enrolled in a doctoral program studying clinical neuropsychology at Queens College, City University of New York, where she worked as an adjunct professor and laboratory researcher, but withdrew after a year of coursework to pursue science communication full-time. It is her fervent belief that it is essential for the public to know and understand what science is and what it tells us about things big and small in the universe.

Cara was the Senior Science Correspondent for the Huffington Post contributing print journalism and hosting the HuffPost video program, Talk Nerdy to Me. Since leaving the HuffPost, Cara has performed hosting and correspondent duties for network, cable, and local television stations, and for various Internet venues. She has appeared on BBC America, CBS, CNN, Current TV, Fox, Fox News, G4tv, Nat Geo WILD, Science Channel, SundanceTV, the Travel Channel, and KCET in Los Angeles where she contributes science reports on the Peabody Award-winning SoCal Connected.

Cara hosts her own popular podcast, Talk Nerdy, where she has conversations covering science, knowledge, reason, and the essential need for their promotion and application for a better world.

Like many people in the sciences, Cara was greatly influenced and inspired by the works of Ray Bradbury. Not so much for any details of science, but for the sense of wonder he conveyed that every good scientist needs.

Full information can be found HERE on the blog of Steven Paul Leiva, the organizer and director of the Ray Bradbury Read.

The Official RAY BRADBURY READ poster

Feel absolutely free to download and share!

Many thanks to John Clifford for his wonderful work on this.

POPULAR INTERNET PERSONALITY JEFF CANNATA TO READ AT THE RAY BRADBURY READ

I am pleased to announce that popular Internet personality Jeff Cannata will join actors Joe Mantegna (Criminal Minds) and Seamus Dever (Castle), and L.A. City Councilmember Jose Huizar (14th District) as a celebrity reader at the Ray Bradbury Read August 22 in Maguire Gardens, just off Ray Bradbury Square (Fifth & Flower) in downtown Los Angeles (subject to availability).

The celebrity readers will join members of the public in reading excerpts from the novels, stories, poems, and essays of the American literary master in celebration of the ninety-sixth anniversary of his birth. The read will take place from 12 noon to three P.M.

Cannata first gained notice on the Internet by co-hosting The Totally Rad Show with Alex Albrecht and Dan Trachtenberg. The Totally Rad Show was a Webby award-winning video podcast of reviews and commentary on pop-culture phenomena such as movies, videos games, television programs, and comic books. 

The show ran for five years, ending in 2012 when Trachtenberg was tapped to direct the feature film 10 Cloverfield Lane for J.J. Abrams.

Cannata went on to create his own popular video podcast, Newest, Latest, Best (NLB) 

and appears on a number of Internet shows including the videogame-themed DLC, an Entertainment Weekly “Must Listen” podcast. Cannata co-created and co-hosts with Anthony Carboni, We Have Concerns, a comedy podcast wherein they take interesting or unusual news stories and pick them apart to reveal their own existential dread and the hilarity therein. It was named an iTunes Best of 2014 podcast.

Additionally, Jeff is an actor who has appeared on such TV shows as Scandal, Shameless, and The Mentalist and performs regularly on Los Angeles stages. He starred in the Edgar Award-winning comedy mystery The Psychic by Sam Bobrick.

A long time Ray Bradbury fan, Jeff participated in Ray Bradbury Week In 2012 by performing in a staged reading of the Bradbury one-act play, "The Better Part of Wisdom," along with James Cromwell and Seamus Dever.

More information on the Ray Bradbury Read can be had at http://tinyurl.com/gvydnfa

To contact Jeffrey Cannata: Jennifer A. DaRe, Mgr. 323-230-5360

I can be reached at 818-679-2825

YAKKIN' ON THE 'NET -- Guesting on podcasts and other internet venues

We all get ensnared in the 'Net. It's become such a part of our lives. Podcasts, videos, commercial sites, political rants, hate speech, love speech, the cuter than cute, the most horrible of the horrific, real and true information, and myths upon myths upon myths. All this makes the internet really not that much different from any other conduit of communication: TV, Radio, newspapers, books, pamphlets, the local coffee shop, and the neighborhood bar. It is just so much bigger, pervasive, and not only in your face, and in your home, but in your pocket. It is a big (even if small), digital companion. We can only hope that for most of us, it is also a friend.

For an author of books, it allows you to get your face and voice out there for discovery. As authors rarely get invited on to early morning and late night network and cable shows, that's a pretty good -- if nowhere near as potent -- benefit.

And it can be fun. I've had some good times being a guest on podcasts and videos, and even making a few of my own in the past eight years or so. And I thought it might be useful to gather them together in one place just in case anyone trying to decide to take a chance on my books wanted to get to know me a bit. So, here they are:

Cara Santa Maria is quickly becoming one of our best and brightest science communicators. She was the senior science correspondent for the Huffington Post, and now not only reports on science for public TV station KCET in L.A., but participates in several popular podcasts, including her own, Talk Nerdy. I was thrilled to be her guest one fine day last year to talk about science fiction, the future of humanity, and my novel Traveling in Space.

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Frank Thompson is a film historian who has a great podcast, The Commentary Track. Here he has illuminating conversations with other film historians and people involved in the making of films. As he knew of my twenty-year plus history of working in film, and some of the people I worked with, including Chuck Jones, Dick Zanuck, and Ray Bradbury, he asked me to sit down and yak with him. I was more than happy to oblige and had a good doing so. 

LISTEN HERE!

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Sword & Laser is a popular internet show on all things SF (the laser) & Fantasy (the sword). Jeff Cannata, who recorded the audiobook of my novel Traveling in Space (which I produced and directed), and I appeared on the show and talked about our collaboration and my novel in some detail.

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April 2, 2014, Peter Lonsdale and I finish recording the audiobook of Traveling in Space with the very talented Jeff Cannata. And we get a little silly. 

On September 23, 2013, the Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library in Los Angeles was dedicated to Ray Bradbury. This had been Ray's local library, and he had spent many hours here with his four daughters and often spoke here. I helped bring this about, although it really was the combined efforts of Councilmember Paul Koretz, the Los Angeles Public Library, the Friends of the Palms-Rancho Park Library, and leaders in the local community that made it happen. After the dedication I joined fellow authors Harlan Ellison and George Clayton Johnson upstairs in the Ray Bradbury Room to talk about our mutual friend, Ray Bradbury. This video was shot by another friend of Ray's, John Sasser.

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L.A. public TV station KCET invited me to be one-day food critic on their internet show, Free Lunch. I was happy to do it as free lunches are gold to a writer.

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I've guested often on Peter Anthony Holder's The Stuph File podcast. Here's on of my favorites, sharing the mic with Jonah Cummings, the audiobook narrator of my novel Blood is Pretty.

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Speaking of Blood is Pretty, here's a piece shot by Peter Lonsdale of me -- speaking about Blood is Pretty 

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The last work I did in film animation was to voice the character of Scott, the owner of a Snow Dome store, who wants a son, in Steve Moore's (although credited here as Oscar Moore) award-winning animated short. It's a charming, if off-beat, love story.

The Indescribable Nth from Steve Moore on Vimeo.

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I was the first person to be asked to give some free advice for a series of internet shorts. My free advice actually was wisdom I had received from a world famous film animation director who shall remain nameless.

TRAVELING IN AUDIO SPACE -- BOOKS IN 3-D

Here is a Facebook message exchange I had right after the release of the audio book of Traveling in Space that sums up perfectly the importance and power of a spoken word version of prose writing. And how the use of a really fine actor -- as opposed an author who's just a happy ham -- is required.  

Reader Peter Frazier had read Traveling in Space twice (and I thank him for that), but in this listening, a certain aspect of my words and what I do with them took on another dimension making my intentions stand out in a way Peter never saw before. It was almost as if the audio book was a good 3-D version of the text

Now, I have no problem with people just reading my words and getting my intentions in the lovely one-dimension of ink on paper, or even E-ink on screen, but as readers read in different ways -- some sound out the words in their heads, some don't and report that they just see "images," some read only for plot, some skip the descriptive parts (I shudder here in existential writer’s fear) -- that you can't trust that your author's "voice" will be "heard" as you want it heard. But in an audio book, especially if you have the opportunity and skill to direct the performance of your words yourself, you can strive to record a voice you trust will fully convey your voice.

Often it can even go beyond that The actor sometimes surprises you with an interpretation of an intention you didn't even know you were clever enough to have. In other words, the actor brings something of his voice to your "voice" and as long as it is not a 180 turn away from your intentions, it might just be a small revelation to you -- and for the audience.

Here's the whole thing in short -- I try to put music in my words; there is music in the human voice; it is only natural to meld the two.

You can purchase the audio book of Traveling in Space on Audible.com HERE

Print editions of Traveling in Space are available on Amazon.com HERE

Thanks for listening!

AN AUTHOR'S HAPPY NEW YEAR

Nothing starts a new year off well for an author like indications that his work is appreciated. Oh, possibly a royalty check in six figures would do the trick, but barring that….

On January 2nd I got a notice via email that a message for me had been posted on Goodreads. Dutifully, I went to Goodreads to have a good read of the message:

Well, I was, of course, delighted. What author wouldn’t be, what author does not like being give a second chance and coming out a winner. Especially since Joanna’s first reviewed Traveling in Space in July of last year, giving it, I believe only two stars out of five and and writing this:

“I did not get very far in. I don't care for flippancy in first-contact novels. A little humor is fine, but not complete ridiculousness. I didn't mind it in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but usually I don't care for it.”

I remember noting the review as an example of a reader honestly not liking a certain style of writing. Fair enough -- horse races and all that. I was, though, sad that she did not continue with the book to find that the “flippancy” was possibly but a mad method to get somewhere else. However, I do not remember contacting Joanna to express that or “guilt-tripping” her into trying the audiobook. I suppose I might have, but as I had no way to contact her outside of a message via Goodreads and there is no record of my having messaged her, I do not quite know what happened. But I am happy to leave that as a mystery, because the outcome is quite lovely. Especially since Joanna not only privately messaged me, but was good and kind enough to correct her impression of Traveling in Space publicly by amending her original review:

I now, of, course, very much wanted to contact Joanna, thank her, and answer the question she asked in her message::

As has often been pointed out, the writing of novels is an individual, lonely pursuit. But serious readers like Joanna make it less so.

Still feeling the glow of Joanna, the next day I got an email notice that lead me to this webpage:

The delight here was in now knowing that there are listeners out there who enjoyed the experience  of the audiobook that Jeff Cannata and I worked so hard to achieve, not to mention my co-producer and audio engineer, Peter Lonsdale. A “droning, monotonous performance” is definitely what we did not want. As Joanna said in her review, “The audiobook is more like a one-man radio show.” As Jeff is a fine actor, and I love audio drama, that’s exactly what we were going for, and it’ grand to have that not only recognized, but appreciated. So thank you Joshua.

And yesterday, only the fifth day into the new year, Jeff Cannata and I got this lovely Tweet. Not the first of it’s kind we have gotten in regard our audiobook, but the first one this year. I thanked the tweeter and he responded:

What I love about Scott’s tweets is that the term “Factually speaking” and him saying, “...no joke (it’s definitely NOT the season)” are both references to things in “Traveling in Space.” Lovely, that is.

Appreciation is a wonderful way to start the new year, and leads to much gleeful anticipation as my latest novel, By the Sea, 

is set to be published on February first, and I am deep into finishing another novel this year. 

Story, characters, incidents, thoughts, ideas, humor, emotions created and given shape to is a fine clay to have your hands in.

Thanks to my publishers, my collaborators, my readers for making it all real. And a great and productive and joyous new year to you all.

Traveling in Space is available as a trade paperback or ebook from Amazon

Or as an audiobook from Audible.com.