Lowenkopf's "Love Will Make You Drink…" Wins at the Los Angeles Book Festival

Shelly Lowenkopf's short story collection Love Will Make You Drink and Gamble, Stay Out Late at Night has won the award for Best Compiliation at the Los Angeles Book Festival.

"Love Will Make You Drink and Gamble, Stay Out Late at Night," published last September, brings a number of Shelly Lowenkopf's previously published short stories together in a single volume. All the stories revolve around life and love in Santa Barbara, the oceanside city north of Los Angeles where people go after they've burned out in San Francisco and L.A.

Interwoven into Santa Barbara's picturesque setting, the people in these twelve stories reveal what their hearts and souls encounter in relationships. Their misreadings, mistakes, and misadventures bare what happens to people who love another.

Publisher Christopher Meeks, whose Los Angeles-based White Whisker Books publishes "Love Will Make You Drink and Gamble, Stay Out Late at Night," says, "Lowenkopf is a maestro of the short story. He'd taught creative writing for thirty-four years at USC, writing fiction all the while. I hope more people discover the genius of Lowenkopf."

"Shelly Lowenkopf is a master of the art of stealth in fiction," says author David Gillham ("City of Women"). "His writing draws you in and then, ka-pow! Here comes the sucker punch that flattens you."

Lowenkopf is best known as the author of the popular "The Fiction Writer's Handbook," which is the definitive volume to explain the words and phrases that writers and editors use when they talk about a work. The book helps new writers who need an understanding of the writing process, and seasoned writers can dive into a refresher course with new angles. He is currently Visiting Professor at the College of Creative Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara.

The Los Angeles Book Festival, not to be confused with the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, will have its awards ceremony at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood on March 7th. The list of the winners and runners-up can be found at http://www.losangelesbookfestival.com/.

The Festival is produced by JM Northern Media LLC, a company focused on media and the people who make it. Founded in 1999, it oversees other book festivals, such as those in Paris, New York, and San Francisco.

White Whisker Books started in 2005 and publishes five authors. To see its offerings, go to www.WhiteWhiskerBooks.com. Its books are distributed by Ingram.

For more information, call White Whisker Books at 323-344-7132.