Ojai Blooms!

California Poppies

E.E. King emcees
at Spacemonkey

Aromatic orange blossom, lavender and jasmine perfume doused the roadways as we plotted our navigation through the Topatopa Bluffs on the opening day of the Ojai Word Fest. Ray Bradbury’s God-daughter E.E. King (Evie) and I began our journey at Spacemonkey, Johann Wolf’s new creative arts center, where Evie emceed “Behind the Mic,” a literary stand-up extravaganza. Highlights included local rapper, Lanny Kaufer and a cross-section of CA talent, including multi-media poet, Akka Be and graphic artist and writer, Anna Karakalos.

Sartuse and Larry Kaufer

Accompanied by local drummer, Sartuse Shankara, Kaufer (aka Dr. K-Dawg) performed “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” and “Rolling,” both rousing calls to social action, owing to Lanny’s years embedded in the Civil Rights Movement.

As for Evie, she charmed the crowd with readings from her first book, Dirk Quigby’s Guide to the Afterlife: All you Need to Know to Get Into the Right Heaven, which Bradbury describes as “impish and delightful.” Then we climbed aboard for a hilarious romantic romp with Nietzsche, Danielle Steele, Sartre and Nora Roberts, when Evie performed, “The Weight of Fiction,” one of her many addictive shorts.

Bart's Books

Later, Bart’s Books, the largest outdoor bookstore in the world, hosted the evening’s poetry slam competition, where writers gathered to share personal essays, memoirs and lyrics. Sequoia Hamilton and Bret Bradigan, the two founders of Ojai Word Fest welcomed the crowd, and Georgia Menides headlined the celebration.

Last night, Evie performed at The Jester and today she reads snarky snippets from her first collection of short stories, Real Conversations with Imaginary Friends at Ojai’s Public Library.

Sequoia Hamilton, Ojai Word Fest Co-Founder

Soon after we connected, last month, at the San Miguel Writers Festival, Evie uploaded over 30 works to Inkubate and just last week, as part of our preliminary publisher/agent BETA test, one of her stories was picked up by Oakland, CA-based agent, Andy Ross. Inkubate’s smart technology is helping talented writers to be seen—and discovered! Ross commented by phone, “As an agent, I'm excited about having more access to the unpublished works of verteran writers. It really makes a lot of sense." We couldn’t agree more. Congratulations, Evie!  

Let us know where you are sharing your stories. Email me at stacy@inkubate.com.