‘Hard Hat’ Art Event Will Benefit Library Damaged in Quake : For $1, children and adults can create their own masterpiece on cement floors before carpeting is installed in Thousand Oaks.

The earthquake-damaged Thousand Oaks Library needs your help now. The children’s section was destroyed by debris and water. Ten thousand books were damaged beyond restoration. The carpets were ruined. The phone system and computers must be replaced or repaired. Early estimates indicate the restoration will cost $2 million. The rebuilding has already begun. Friends of the Library invite you to bring children to the Hard Hat Art event at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 5, at the library, 1401 Janss Road. Everyone can create a masterpiece on the bare cement floors before the new carpet is installed. Colored chalk will be provided, or bring crayons. No paint please. A $1 donation will be expected. There are many ways to participate in the restoration. Join the Thousand Oaks Library Investment Group. A share of stock costs $20. Call Friends President Kathy Lewis at 498-9773 or Ruth Ann Cooper at 495-5626, Ext. 138, to volunteer time, services and money.

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Once again Audrey Moore of Mysteries to Die For is providing an opportunity for people to meet authors they enjoy reading. Abigail Padgett will sign “Strawgirl” at 4 p.m. Saturday and Jan Burke will sign “Sweet Dreams, Irene” at 1 p.m. Sunday in the bookstore, 2940 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks.

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Robert Bloch will be at Phantom Bookshop, 451 E. Main St., from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday to sign a first edition of the just released collection of his horror novels “Psycho, Psycho II” and “Psycho House,” and a new edition of the long out-of-print “The Early Fears,” a collection of his 39 classic horror tales. Twenty-four of his works were made into movies that have scared us witless. Bloch, a Hugo Award winner, has written screenplays for “Star Trek,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “Night Gallery.” He will also sign his “Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorized Autobiography.”

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I can guarantee that spending an evening listening to Harlan Ellison talk about the power and purpose of the written word will be an electrifying experience. An acknowledged master of the difficult art of writing short stories, Ellison is the author or editor of 60 books, more than 1,500 stories, essays and articles and dozens of screenplays and teleplays. He is uncomfortably honest, often exasperating and always brilliant. His seminar “On Being a Writer,” sponsored by Learning Tree University of Chatsworth and Thousand Oaks, is scheduled at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Warner Center Marriott, Woodland Hills. The cost is $39. To register, call 497-2292 or (818) 882-5599.

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We all know that love: makes the world go round, is a many-splendored thing and creates jingling cash registers on Valentine’s Day. But did you know that romance novels account for more than 50% of the books published and sold in this country? And that writing good genre fiction is a great way to get a first book published? Margaret Brownley of Simi Valley, the author of 11 novels including “The Kissing Bandit” and the just released “Rawhide and Lace,” will conduct her “Passion on Paper: How to Write and Sell Romance Novels” seminar from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. March 5 at Learning Tree University, 1408 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks. The fee is $69. Call 497-2292 to register.