Had a lovely conversation with Pat Montadon (Oh the Hell of it All) yesterday at the Book Group Expo in San Jose, a two-day event that brings authors and readers together. We talked about her current project, a book about her famous Roundtable lunches in San Francisco, which brought together the famous and infamous, the wealthy and the down-and-out, writers and artists and politicians and promoters, etc., to share food and stories. The new book will include recipes, stories from some of these lunches, and tips for hosting similar events. We also talked about why she hates the term “socialite,” and about Montadon’s Children As Peacemakers Foundation, which began in 1982 when she took 7 kids to Moscow for a meeting at the Kremlin.

I sat on an “Instant Book Group” panel with Lalita Tademy, author most recently of Red River. Tademy’s first novel, Cane River, has just been announced as San Francisco’s One City One Book choice for September, so if you haven’t yet seen her read you’ll have plenty of chances to do so in the fall.

In line for the author “fashion show” I had a chance to chat with Julia Sheeres, who had dressed up to embody the Calvinist upbringing of her youth in Indiana. The clothes, she said, hit a little too close to home. Roy Blount Jr. ended the fashion show by appearing onstage in a bathtub, which is apparently where he does all his best writing.

In literary news, I just heard from Mickey Disend (who promises to take me to my first boxing match one of these days) that he was selected by San Francisco Weekly as the 2007 Masterminds winner in the Literary Arts category, based on his work in progress, The Penman Chronicles. Congrats!