Book Party

After working on fiction writing for 25 years and collecting a large stash of polite publishers’ rejection letters, Santa Ynez author Elayne Klasson has published Love Is a Rebellious Bird, a 320-page which traces a 60-year-old love affair, examining the age old question of why we love the people we do.

Elayne, 72, who grew up in Chicago and retired here five years ago after teaching at San Jose State, is now planning her next tome The Earthquake Child, about a difficult adoption.

“I didn’t take the rejection letters personally,” she says. “When I got them I’d just do another book.”

A born optimist…

King of Pop

A movie revolving around the life of the late singer Michael Jackson, who died in 2009 aged 50, is in the works.

Hollywood producer Graham King, known for his Oscar-winning film Bohemian Rhapsody about rock group Queen’s Freddie Mercury, has plans to bring a biopic about the Santa Ynez Valley-based singer to life, according to Variety.

The project is still in the embryonic stages of planning and has yet to lock in a studio or distributor.

John Logan has been asked to develop the script for the movie. Both King and Logan worked closely together on the 2004 film The Aviator, about the late tycoon Howard Hughes played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Jackson’s 2,700-acre Neverland property in Los Olivos, now renamed the Sycamore Valley Ranch, is still up for sale for $31 million.

It is owned by Santa Barbara Polo Club patron Tom Barrack‘s Colony Capital.

Bravo, Bandstand

The Tony Award-winning musical Bandstand hit the right note when the American Theatre Guild staged the energized production at the Granada.

The show, which chronicles the return of a World War II veteran who forms a swing band of similar veterans to win a national competition, features catchy songs, humorous interaction and, of course, a love story.

The two principals, Zack Zaromatidis and Jennifer Elizabeth Smith, were ideal for their roles, with a great supporting cast.

CC Receives Grant

City College Foundation has just received a $100,000 check as a small business technical assistance grant from MUFG Union Bank Foundation which will be used by the college’s Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation to provide technical and business advising support to entrepreneurs and small businesses.

“It will allow us to increase support for youth entrepreneurship and the startup and growth of businesses that are women, minority or veteran-owned,” says Julie Samson, center director.