LITERARY TALK: The Orange County African-American Literary...

LITERARY TALK: The Orange County African-American Literary Society, a group of about 15 book lovers, meets monthly in Santa Ana. Says Larry Brown, a real estate appraiser who started the group a year ago: “We primarily are just seeking to expand our knowledge in the area of black literature. And not just literature, but subjects pertaining to black people or how to improve ourselves as people.” . . . Brown is compiling a list of what he calls “100 Books That Every Black Person Should Read.”

SUCCESS SECRET: Costa Mesa author Jo-Ann Mapson, whose second novel, “Blue Rodeo,” is due out in May, will participate in Authorfest at Orange Coast College Tuesday. The event is titled “Success Secrets of Writers.” Says Mapson, who had one unpublished early effort make the rounds for two years: “Persistence is the main thing.” It takes hard work too, she says. “I just got back from a conference in Arizona and I brought my computer and everybody laughed at me. But at night I went to my room and worked for an hour.”

HEFTY SUM: Laguna Niguel author Nancy Taylor Rosenberg, whose first four-book contract with Dutton was for $3 million, recently signed a new, five-book deal for what she says is “substantially more.” Four of the five books will be in the legal thriller vein of her best-seller “Mitigating Circumstances.” But the fifth, which will be published under the name Nancy Taylor, will have the flavor of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” It’s titled “California Angel,” she says. “It’s about a living angel. I think California needs one, so I invented one.”

WACKY GUY: Ten years ago, Jordan Young of Anaheim wrote “Spike Jones and His City Slickers.” Now he’s back with “Spike Jones Off the Record: The Man Who Murdered Music.” “I think you get a much fuller picture of him,” says Young, who calls the zany music legend “a dead-serious musician in a funny suit.” Young compares Jones to the Wizard of Oz: “He’s a straight-faced guy behind the curtain operating all this machinery and special effects--flashing lights and gimmicks and nutty stuff.”