THE WRITE STUFF: When the band finishes...

THE WRITE STUFF: When the band finishes its set at the Cowboy Boogie in Anaheim on Monday, the crowd should replace calls for an encore with the more classical shouts of “Author!” Or better yet: “Authors!”

The band that night will be just that--a collection of published authors, topped by scaremeister Stephen King, humorist Dave Barry, droll essayist Roy Blount Jr., novelist Amy Tan and “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening. Rock critics Dave Marsh, Joel Selvin and Greil Marcus will also be part of the ensemble, billed as the Rock Bottom Remainders, which will play such rock ‘n’ roll classics as “Louie Louie,” “Gloria” and “Da Doo Ron Ron.”

The writers are all gathered in Anaheim for the annual American Booksellers Convention. Bay Area “media escort” Kathi Goldmark came up with the idea for the performance, with the $10 cover charge benefiting the free-speech Right to Rock Network, Literacy Volunteers of America and the Homeless Writers Coalition of Los Angeles. (The show is open only to registered conventioneers.)

For most of the participants, it’s a chance to live out the common fantasy of playing in a rock band. But for Blount, who will be barking the title refrain of “Ain’t I’m a Dog” (“I’m basically a refrainist,” he says), it’s part of an ongoing fantasy familiar to any writer.

He explains, “I look at this as one more in a long series of excuses not to write for a given period of time.”