For nearly 10 years as a columnist with the Los Angeles Times, STEVE LOPEZ HAS TRAVELED SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SIFTING FOR GOLD. When asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” Lopez responds, “I wake up and roll out of bed and bump into column ideas everywhere.” Ideas come from readers, from the news, from driving down the road or walking down the sidewalk, from getting a haircut or going to a ballgame.The greater L.A. area is a place where $50 million mansions are just a short limo ride from cardboard box colonies. Action heroes and billionaires run for office with neither a plan nor a clue. You can get a fake driver’s license or a medical marijuana card faster than you can drive six blocks. There’s drama every day, a story in every block. Dreamers and schemers are found around every corner. And Lopez puts a spin on it all that makes the reader cringe, laugh, and even think.Dreams and Schemes: My Decade of Fun in the Sun is a collection of Lopez's most controversial, irreverent, trouble-making, and heart-warming columns. He writes through the eyes of the region and its people, unflinchingly taking on the movers and shakers, and poking about in places where other reporters wouldn’t dare go. This collection offers an entertaining and insightful look into the workings of modern-day life that will delight not only people who know the players and locations well, but will resonate with people anywhere because people, politics, and situations that catch Lopez’s eye are universal. Read Less