Private-Eye-Turned-Author to Speak at Round-Table Lunch

Retired Orange County private investigator Joyce Spizer will discuss her first mystery novel, “The Cop Was White as Snow,” at the Round Table West luncheon at noon Friday at the Balboa Bay Club, 1221 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach.

Spizer, now a La Quinta resident, will be joined on the speakers panel by science fiction legend Ray Bradbury, who will discuss his new book, “A Medicine for Melancholy & Other Stories,” and Rochelle Krich, author of “Fertile Ground.”

Cost: $35. Reservations: (213) 256-7977.

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T. Jefferson Parker, author of “Where Serpents Lie,” and Gregory Benford, author of “Cosm,” will discuss and sign their Orange County-set thrillers at noon Wednesday at the UC Irvine campus bookstore.

Parker also will sign at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at B. Dalton Booksellers in the Laguna Hills Mall.

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Monday is the deadline for making reservations for the 11th annual literary luncheon sponsored by the Laguna Beach chapter of the American Assn. of University Women on March 14.

Maria Knjazeva, author of “America Through the Eyes of a Russian Woman,” and Lisa See, author of “On Gold Mountain,” will speak at the 11 a.m. luncheon at the Surf and Sand Hotel in Laguna Beach.

Cost: $45. Reservations: (714) 494-9647.

Also this week:

* Brea residents Stu and Jeanne Lerner, authors of “Change Your Life with Humor,” will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday at Borders Books and Music, 429 Associated Road, Brea.

* Magda Gerber and Allison Johnson, co-authors of “Your Self-Confident Baby,” will speak and sign at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Barnes & Noble in Irvine Spectrum, 31 Fortune Drive. They’ll also speak and sign at 7 p.m. Thursday at Barnes & Noble in Fashion Island, 953 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach; and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Borders, 429 S. Associated Road, Brea.

* Poet Rod Vickery will read at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Alta Coffee House & Roasting Co., 506 31st St., Newport Beach.

* A six-week writing critique group led by Barbara DeMarco Barrett begins Thursday in Corona del Mar. Cost: $125. (714) 760-8086.

* G.M. Ford, author of “Slow Burn,” will sign at 6 p.m. Thursday at Book Carnival, 348 S. Tustin Ave., Orange.

* Mission Viejo cartoonist Kevin Fagan will speak and sign copies of his collection, “Son of Drabble,” at 3 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble in Fashion Island, 953 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach.