Writers

Sophia Stewart didn't attend her June 13 hearing at the U.S. federal court building in downtown Los Angeles. She saw the proceeding as a minor hurdle on the way to an anticipated July 12 trial in her copyright infringement suit against directors Andy and Larry Wachowski, James Cameron and other defendants--a trial she imagined would be "one of the largest suits for damages in the history of the film industry."

BALTIMORE - As long as there are 8-year-olds, there will be baseball. Bud Selig has produced revenue-sharing and value-escalation. He deserves much credit. The mothers of this country have produced a never-ending supply of baseball customers. They deserve more. Once upon a time - Sunday, actually - a grandfather accompanied his 8-year-old grandson to a major league baseball game. His granddaughter was there too, but she had a friend with her. If you are a 10-year-old girl, you cannot be seen in public at a baseball game with your grandpa and little brother without a friend along.

All these years later, Frances Kroll Ring can still see it, the afternoon she filled out an application at Rusty's Employment Agency on Hollywood Boulevard and drove to Encino to meet a writer who was looking for a secretary. It was April 1939, and she was 22, a Bronx transplant with typing and dictation skills. She'd been in Southern California for a little more than a year, coming west to help her father, a New York furrier, set up shop on Wilshire Boulevard. "Everybody said, 'You're a furrier?

WHEATON, Ill. - I'm standing in a cemetery, which is probably better than lying in one. I came to Chicago to write about the Angels, and while I seem to be focused on the dead, this has more to do with Mother's Day. My mom is here. This isn't the first time I've set out to write about the Angels and found myself mentioning my mother. Maybe the name Angels triggers her memory, or maybe I'm always trying to avoid writing about the Angels. Funny how the mention of Angels, though, never brings back memories of my father.

Olympic sprint champion Florence Griffith Joyner died after suffering an epileptic seizure, according to autopsy results released Thursday, and her family and friends say they hope the findings will put to rest rumors that drug use contributed to her death. Griffith Joyner died last month in her sleep at age 38. Her husband, Al Joyner, bitterly criticized those who suggested that she took performance-enhancing drugs.

Craig Johnson comes as advertised. Standing outside the Autry National Center on a boiling summer afternoon, the Wyoming-based crime novelist is decked out in a long-sleeve shirt made of heavy cotton, scuffed brown boots and a 10-gallon hat that provides shade, but not nearly enough. Spotting his interlocutor, Johnson sticks out his hand and delivers a booming "How ya doin'?!"

All across America, a panic is spreading. But you won't hear the terrified multitudes and their pleas for help, their expletives shouted at the sky. Why? Because these suffering people are mostly fiction writers. And fiction writers almost always suffer alone. The application deadline  for the fiction-writing grants from the National Endowment for the Arts is just hours away. (To be precise, the deadline is 11:59 p.m. EST, or 8:59 p.m. PST.) Fill out a few forms, submit a sample of your work, and you have a shot at winning $25,000 to write your next book.

Michael Crichton, 58, creates fantasy worlds that consume readers, TV viewers, moviegoers and video game players. The creative force behind "Jurassic Park," "Timeline" and "ER" is a longtime computer buff. Trained as a doctor, Crichton once quipped that his decision to switch to writing "struck most people like quitting the Supreme Court to become a bail bondsman." DESKTOP: I've got a dual-processor Macintosh G4.

At times he seems a combination of Martin Luther King Jr., whom he paraphrases often, and Gandhi, whose countenance he resembles, as he speaks in soft, earnest tones while sporting little, round spectacles like the ones the Mahatma wore. Mark Mathabane, one muses, is a man in the process of self-creation.

I am warming up at Rancho Park's driving range in July 2002 when the old instructor approaches. He is wearing a beige Gilligan's hat pulled down to his eyebrows and quietly observes me hitting balls off a faded green mat. "When did you start playing?" he asks. As a teenager, I reply. "How often do you practice?" Not enough. "What is your occupation?" Investigative reporter. He pauses a moment, then gently inquires, "Do you know Frank Deford?" Of course. "Are you familiar with his work?"

Somebody is going to get killed out there. I've said it a hundred times, thought it a thousand. The only question was, what ballplayer would have to die on the mound before something was done to protect pitchers? The issue, in the news again after Toronto Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ was felled by a line drive Tuesday night, is personal with me because it happened to my son Matt. Twice. He was struck in the face by a line drive in a high school game and on the side of the head during a scrimmage in college.

Stanley A. Dashew, an inventor and entrepreneur who helped revolutionize the credit card industry, died of natural causes Thursday in Los Angeles, according to a family spokesman. He was 96. Dashew held 40 patents in fields as diverse as credit card processing, mining, mass transit, medical equipment and offshore oil transportation. He also was an avid sailor, writer and photographer who late in life wrote for the Christian Science Monitor and the Huffington Post. At 94, he distilled his insights about life and business in a book, "You Can Do It: Inspiration and Lessons from an Inventor, Entrepreneur, and Sailor.

Dear Travel Writer: Welcome to the cornerstone of what we do. What follows is the most important information contained in these several pages. The Los Angeles Times values honesty, fairness and truth. We understand the difficulties of the profession, but we also know that our reputation - and yours - rests on ensuring that our readers receive the best information possible. These guidelines are from our own code of ethics, constructed over many months and with much care.

Janet Fitch's first novel, "White Oleander," hit big when it was picked by Oprah for her book club. Before that happened, she was just another aspiring writer in this big city. She sat down with me at the L.A. Times Festival of Books and talked about who she used to come to see. Sometimes, when she couldn't get tickets to see an author, she'd sit on the grass and watch readers and writers pass by. Once, when her own writing wasn't going well, she couldn't bear to attend. That time passed -- she published "Paint It Black" in 2006 and is now hard at work on a new, very different novel.

At the L.A. Times Festival of Books, Molly Ringwald sat down with L.A. Times staff writer Carolyn Kellogg to discuss her book of short stories, “When It Happens to You,” surprising tour encounters and the new book she's starting. VIDEO: AUTHOR INTERVIEWS FROM FESTIVAL OF BOOKS In honor of our new interactive map of literary L.A., Ringwald also talked about her favorite L.A. author, Joan Didion. "She was a definite inspiration...all of the car stuff [in “When It Happens...”]

Few people know the 32 NFL teams better than the writers who cover those teams on a day-to-day basis. Those beat writers made the selections for this mock draft, choosing the players as if Thursday night were to unfold this way: 1. KANSAS CITY (Adam Teicher, Kansas City Star) - Luke Joeckel, T, Texas A&M: "With all the uncertainty over Branden Albert, the Chiefs need to do something to secure that position for the long term. That's a priority. " 2. JACKSONVILLE (Vito Stellino, Florida Times-Union)

Nearly half a century after its debut, Jack Kerouac's "Big Sur" is getting its due. By the time he published the book in 1962, Kerouac was already lost in the alcoholism that killed him seven years later at age 47. Wednesday marked the 40th anniversary of his death. The reviews of Kerouac's last major novel -- a wrenching, thinly veiled account of his failed efforts to stop drinking -- certainly didn't help his crumbling state of mind. "What can a beat do when he is too old to go on the road?

Michael Verhoeven's film "The Nasty Girl" is Germany's entry in the foreign-language category in this year's Academy Awards. It is an occasionally surrealistic and often very funny account of a teen-aged Fraulein's distinctly unfunny and dangerous attempts to investigate the Nazi years in her hometown.

Specktor will appear at the Festival of Books on Sunday at noon on the panel "Fiction: Inside Hollywood" with Adam Braver, Alex Espinoza and Nina Revoyr. More information: latimes.com/festivalofbooks Matthew Specktor knows the offices of talent agency CAA - past and present - like his own backyard. That's because, as son of top agent Fred Specktor, they practically were. He ran around in the hallways; he worked in the mail room. And although that it set him down the not unexpected Hollywood producer path, what he really wanted to do was write.

WESTERN CONFERENCE LAKERS VS. SPURS 2. San Antonio 58-24 (Home: 35-6; Road: 23-18) 7. Lakers 45-37 (Home: 29-12; Road: 16-25) Season series: San Antonio, 2-1. Key stat: Kobe Bryant will play zero games in the series after tearing his left Achilles' tendon April 12, taking his averages of 27.3 points and 6.0 assists off the board. His presence may be even more irreplaceable. Outlook: The Lakers unveiled a template for beating San Antonio in their most recent meeting, playing lockdown defense to disrupt the Spurs' precision passing game while holding them to 37.1% shooting in a 91-86 victory.