Chip Jacobs is an award-winning author and journalist. His books include the biography Strange As It Seems: the Impossible Life of Gordon Zahler; the environmental social histories The People's Republic of Chemicals and the international bestselling Smogtown: the Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles; the dark-humor true crime caper The Ascension of Jerry; and the stories collection The Vicodin Thieves. He also has contributed pieces to anthologies, most recently for Los Angeles in the 1970s: "Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine" about the attack on an idealist lawyer by a depraved cult. His reporting has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, L.A. Daily News, CNN, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and LA Weekly, among others.

Colleen Dunn Bates is the publisher of Prospect Park Books, one of the leading book publishers in Southern California. A sixth-generation Southern Californian, Bates studied journalism at USC and has lived in Pasadena for 28 years. She is the editor and co-author of Hometown Pasadena, the definitive book about the culture, history, people, and noteworthy places in the greater Pasadena area. She also serves as the president of the PubWest board and is a board trustee of Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles.

Bobbie Brown in conversation with Marilee Albert by rarebirdlit

Chip Jacobs is an award-winning author and journalist. His books include the biography Strange As It Seems: the Impossible Life of Gordon Zahler; the environmental social histories The People's Republic of Chemicals and the international bestselling Smogtown: the Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles; the dark-humor true crime caper The Ascension of Jerry; and the stories collection The Vicodin Thieves. He also has contributed pieces to anthologies, most recently for Los Angeles in the 1970s: "Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine" about the attack on an idealist lawyer by a depraved cult. His reporting has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, L.A. Daily News, CNN, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and LA Weekly, among others.

Doug Cooper is the author of the award-winning novels 'Outside In' and 'The Investment Club'. Always searching, he has traveled to over twenty-five countries on five continents, exploring the contradictions between what we believe and how we act in the pursuit of truth, beauty, and love. Originally from Port Clinton, Ohio, he has also called Cleveland, St. Louis, Detroit, New York, Las Vegas, and Oslo, Norway home. 'Focus Lost' is his third novel.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Gary Lippman received a law degree from Northwestern University and has worked with New York's Innocence Project. Lippman's play Paradox Lost ran off Broadway for a month in 2001 and his writing has been published in The New York Times, The Paris Review, VICE, Fodors, and more. Having lived in Illinois, Florida, California, and France, Lippman can now be found in what used to be called "Fun City" with his imaginary French bulldog, his very real Hungarian wife, and a whenever-he's-inclined-to-visit adult son.

Laura Albert has won international acclaim for her fiction. Writing as

JT LeRoy, she is the author of the best-selling novels Sarah and The

Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, and the novella Harold's End. She

is the subject of Jeff Feuerzeig's feature documentary Author: The JT

LeRoy Story and Lynn Hershman Leeson's film The Ballad of JT LeRoy.

She has written for The New York Times, The Forward, The London Times, Spin, Man About Town, Vogue, Film Comment, Interview, L'Équipe Sport&Style, Filmmaker, I-D, and others – more recently, the cover article for Man About Town and her reflections on fashion for VESTOJ. A writer for the HBO series "Deadwood," she also wrote the original script for Gus Van Sant's Elephant and was the film's Associate

Producer. She has written the short films Radiance for Drew Lightfoot

and ContentMode, and Dreams of Levitation and Warfare of Pageantry for Sharif Hamza and Nowness.

www.LauraAlbert.org

Bobbie Brown is an American actress and model best known for starring in Warrant’s classic “Cherry Pie” video. In 2011, MSN.com featured Bobbie in the list of the top ten “women who’ve broken the most hearts in rock music.” Her first book Dirty Rocker Boys came out in 2013. Bobbie lives in Hollywood, where she performs stand-up comedy.

Caroline Ryder is a British screenwriter and journalist based in LA. Previous books include Bobbie Brown's Dirty Rocker Boys, Kicking Up Dirt, the autobiography of deaf motocross champion Ashley Fiolek, and Let There Be GWAR, story of the shock rock band GWAR. Her writing has appeared in Dazed, AnOther, Vulture, Swindle, Cosmopolitan, and Variety, where she was Style Editor.

Chip Jacobs is an award-winning author and journalist. His books include the biography Strange As It Seems: the Impossible Life of Gordon Zahler; the environmental social histories The People's Republic of Chemicals and the international bestselling Smogtown: the Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles; the dark-humor true crime caper The Ascension of Jerry; and the stories collection The Vicodin Thieves. He also has contributed pieces to anthologies, most recently for Los Angeles in the 1970s: "Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine" about the attack on an idealist lawyer by a depraved cult. His reporting has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, L.A. Daily News, CNN, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and LA Weekly, among others.

Writer. Teacher. Mother. As a writer, Carla hopes to help readers feel less alone and more resilient. As a teacher, she strives to help others tell their stories and hone their craft while experimenting with new forms. The journey of motherhood informs much of her writing. Carla’s memoir, 'One Day on the Gold Line', is available now.

Raised in L.A by his grandfather who instilled in him his Jewish faith, Riley was a multi sport athlete who gravitated to boxing. His passion for the sport took him from the comfort of his Hancock Park neighborhood to train at gyms around L.A, eventually settling at Broadway Gym in South Central where he trained under Bill Slayton. The combination of being a straight A student and the first rate education on the L.A streets caught the attention of Robert "Puggy" Zeichick, one half of a Jewish-Italian bookmaking team. Riley started doing pick-ups and quickly graduated to felonious capers. After a stint in juvenile reform school, Riley resumed his gambling association, which had grown to working for Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello. He balanced his bookmaking business with his travels as an employee for TWA. Briefly, Riley settled on University studies in Germany, but returned to LA full time after capitalizing on the tech boom of the 90s in part by day trading stocks and then creating software that he licensed to Washington Mutual Bank, a company he worked for, which allowed him a solid foundational understanding of banking regulations, that he took with him into his online gaming ventures.

Jessica is the self-proclaimed podcast guru and Publicity Manager for Rare Bird. In addition to Rare Bird, Jessica works closely with the Society for Creative Anachronism, an international not-for-profit volunteer organization devoted to the research and re-creation of pre–seventeenth century skills, arts, combat, culture, and employing knowledge of history to enrich the lives of participants through events, demonstrations, and other educational presentations and activities. Jessica has a BA in English from the University of La Verne.

Raised in L.A by his grandfather who instilled in him his Jewish faith, Riley was a multi sport athlete who gravitated to boxing. His passion for the sport took him from the comfort of his Hancock Park neighborhood to train at gyms around L.A, eventually settling at Broadway Gym in South Central where he trained under Bill Slayton. The combination of being a straight A student and the first rate education on the L.A streets caught the attention of Robert "Puggy" Zeichick, one half of a Jewish-Italian bookmaking team. Riley started doing pick-ups and quickly graduated to felonious capers. After a stint in juvenile reform school, Riley resumed his gambling association, which had grown to working for Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello. He balanced his bookmaking business with his travels as an employee for TWA. Briefly, Riley settled on University studies in Germany, but returned to LA full time after capitalizing on the tech boom of the 90s in part by day trading stocks and then creating software that he licensed to Washington Mutual Bank, a company he worked for, which allowed him a solid foundational understanding of banking regulations, that he took with him into his online gaming ventures.

Doug Cooper is the author of the award-winning novels 'Outside In' and 'The Investment Club'. Always searching, he has traveled to over twenty-five countries on five continents, exploring the contradictions between what we believe and how we act in the pursuit of truth, beauty, and love. Originally from Port Clinton, Ohio, he has also called Cleveland, St. Louis, Detroit, New York, Las Vegas, and Oslo, Norway home. 'Focus Lost' is his third novel.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Gary Lippman received a law degree from Northwestern University and has worked with New York's Innocence Project. Lippman's play Paradox Lost ran off Broadway for a month in 2001 and his writing has been published in The New York Times, The Paris Review, VICE, Fodors, and more. Having lived in Illinois, Florida, California, and France, Lippman can now be found in what used to be called "Fun City" with his imaginary French bulldog, his very real Hungarian wife, and a whenever-he's-inclined-to-visit adult son.

Gary T. McDonald is a practicing Buddhist and an award-winning playwright and filmmaker with a life-long interest in the origins of Christianity. His latest film is The Fourth Noble Truth (winner of the Audience Award at the Sonoma International Film Festival). 'The Gospel of Thomas (the Younger)' is his first novel and is the basis for his forthcoming historical epic 'The Blood of Men and Angels..'

Tina Rae Collins is an internationally known, award-winning author who has published twenty-three books, including a novel, nine juvenile novels, a fable, two poetry books, a religious book for women and one for children, a collection of religious articles, a doctrinal book about the end times (The Gathering in the Last Days), a biography of her deceased son Aaron (Aaron Collins Did That), her Masters thesis (Snow White: The Story of Eve's Redemption), her doctoral dissertation (We Are Emmanuel: How Man Became God), and, after leaving Christianity, her books The Judaeo-Christian Myth, Yahweh on Trial, and The Truth Is a Funny Thing (written for young people whose parents are atheist/agnostic). She received a bachelors degree in English from Pikeville College and a Masters degree in Theology and PhD in Biblical Studies from Northwestern Theological Seminary. She resides in Lexington, Kentucky, and spends her free time enjoying her two daughters and six grandchildren who live nearby and visiting her older son in China.