LITERATURE + LECTURES

Blue Willow Bookshop presents  book signings and discussions 3@7 in June. Fridays in the Month of June.

Friday, June 12, 7pm:  Our 3@7 series kicks off with Melissa de la Cruz, author of great teen reads, most notably the Blue Bloods series. Join us for a very fun event, full of great books with a great author!

Melissa de la Cruz is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of many critically acclaimed and award-winning novels for teens including The Au Pairs series, the Blue Bloods series, the Ashleys series, the Angels on Sunset Boulevard series and the semi-autobiographical novel Fresh off the Boat.  Her books for adults include the novel Cat’s Meow, the anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys and the tongue-in-chic handbooks How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less and The Fashionista Files: Adventures in Four-inch heels and Faux-Pas.

She has worked as a fashion and beauty editor and has written for many publications including The New York Times, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Allure, The San Francisco Chronicle, McSweeney’s, Teen Vogue, CosmoGirl! and Seventeen. She has also appeared as an expert on fashion, trends and fame for CNN, E! and FoxNews.

Melissa grew up in Manila and moved to San Francisco with her family, where she graduated high school salutatorian from The Convent of the Sacred Heart. She majored in art history and English at Columbia University (and minored in nightclubs and shopping!).  She now divides her time between New York and Los Angeles, where she lives in the Hollywood Hills with her husband and daughter. 

Friday, June 19, 7pm: We continue our 3@7 series with local author Tera Lynn Childs, (pictured)  author of Oh.My.Gods. and its sequel Goddess Boot Camp. Join us!

Tera Lynn Childs is a wannabe goddess and the author of OH. MY. GODS. and GODDESS BOOT CAMP. Tera lives in Houston, Texas, where she spends her time fleeing hurricanes, making character profiles on MySpace (stop her before she makes one for Adara—oops, too late), blogging with the Buzz Girls, and writing wherever she can find a comfy chair and a steady stream of caffeinated beverages.

Friday, June 26, 7pm:  Our 3@7 series concludes with Lauren Conrad, star of The Hills. She'll be in town to discuss her debut teen novel, L.A. Candy. Want to meet a TV star? Here's your chance.

Lauren Katherine Conrad was born on February 1, 1986, in Newport Beach, California. Friends and family often refer to her as LC. Her parents are Katherine and Jim Conrad. Lauren’s father is an architect who designed their current mansion in Laguna Beach, California. Conrad also has one sister, Breanna, and one brother, Brandon.

Lauren became one of the most recognizable high school students when she signed on to star on the MTV reality show, Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County in 2004. MTV producers approached Lauren, who was attending Laguna Beach High School as an active member of the student government, to star in the show. She agreed and became the narrator of the first season.

The show became an instant success and catapulted LC into stardom. Other members of the season one cast included Stephen Colletti, Kristen Cavallari, Talan Torriero, Deiter Schmitz, and Lauren Bosworth. Throughout the entire first season LC found herself in a love triangle between Kristin Cavallari and Stephen Colletti.

At the end of the first season of the show, Lauren graduated high school with a 3.0 GPA and moved to San Francisco to study fashion design at the Academy of Art University. She left after only one semester, saying that San Francisco was not a good fit for her. She then began attending FIDM at their Irvine campus.

Although she had finished high school by the start of season two, she still made regular appearances on the show and even began dating one of the new cast members, Jason Wahler. The couple shared an on-again off-again relationship until August of 2006, when Lauren reportedly ended the relationship for good.

Following the end of the second season, Conrad got an internship at Teen Vogue magazine in Los Angeles. She transferred to FIDM at their Los Angeles campus and moved into an apartment in Hollywood. This spawned her spin off show, which also airs on MTV, The Hills. This show has also become hugely successful and earned Lauren a Teen Choice Award in 2006 for Best Female Reality Star. The show features an entirely new cast including Whitney Port, Heidi Montag, and ex-boyfriend Jason Wahler.

Since her internship at Teen Vogue has ended, Lauren began another internship at 3 Dots Clothing Line in Los Angeles. She is determined to make it in the fashion industry, a dream she has had since she was in the seventh grade. Her younger sister, Breanna, carried on the torch by starring in the third season of Laguna Beach.