The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 110, No. 12 - March 25, 2021
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................11
Classifieds............................4
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................3
Legals.............................. 9,10
Obituaries.............................2
Pets......................................12
Police Briefs........................2
Real Estate.......................5-7
Sports....................................3
Weekend
Forecast
Women’s Car Show and Vintage
Fashion Made For a Perfect Day
More and more women are enjoying, collecting and restoring classic and vintage automobiles. Executive Director, Marisol Herrera is helping women come together by putting on events and car shows at
the Automobile Driving Museum. This past weekend, women from all over LA & OC cruised in their vintage cars to enjoy a beautiful day filled with vintage fashion, music, good food, and vintage cars.
Photo courtesy Automobile Driving Museum.
Megan Close Zavala Helps
Writers Follow Their Dreams
By Duane Plank
El Segundo’s Megan Close Zavala is an
avid reader and five-year entrepreneur. She has
figured out a way to not only satisfy her love
of prose but make money at the same time.
Not a bad gig, right, getting paid for something
that you would probably pay to do?
Zavala, the founder and owner of Turn the
Page Book and Editorial Coaching, gets paid
to read, edit, and advise on other people’s
creations.
Zavala grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland,
in what she termed “a book-filled home.” She
said that both of her parents were “incredibly
well-read,” mentioning that her father was a
“voracious reader.” She remembers that growing
Studio Antiques Celebrates
33 Years of Business
By Kiersten Vannest
In the middle of Richmond Street,
innocuously tucked behind the 99 Cents
Only store, sits an antique store with the
apropos name “Studio Antiques” painted
on the front. Passing this store, it looks
like an average antique shop, with lots
of old items and a few treasures if you
know what to look for. But behind the
doors of this little shop is an antique
hunter’s dream.
Laurence and Sally Martin own and
operate Studio Antiques. If you’ve ever
seen Baggage Wars on the Travel Channel
or Storage Wars on A&E, you’ve seen the
Martins hunting, appraising, and obtaining,
and selling one-of-a-kind items from all
over the world.
Neither of the Martins began their lives
in the business of antiques. Laurence grew
up in England, becoming a scientific engineering
designer and eventually helping
to design the black box recorder still used
today in airplanes. After that, he spent
the next ten years traveling the world as
a contractor and working on all things air
space. His profession led him to work for
Northrop Grumman and landed him right
here in El Segundo. One day, on his lunch
break, he found a little studio that had a
painting shop and framing business. He
up, if she posed a question to her father,
his stock answer was, “We’ve got a book on
that!” She said that “storytelling has always
been a huge part of my life, whether bookrelated
or film-related.”
Zavala graduated from the University of
Hartford, then sojourned to environs nearby
to Tinseltown to chase her dream. She said
she was “obsessed with films my whole life”
and was “determined to become an Oscarwinning
screenwriter,” a lofty career goal. She
spent a short time as a personal assistant for
a producer, also later working in the business
and legal affairs department at the E! network.
After toiling in the entertainment industry for
most of her 20’s, Zavala said that “I realized
that the entertainment industry was not where
I was destined to be and started looking for
my new path.”
And that “new path” exploration was jumpstarted
when she met her later-to-be husband
Mike while both were living in a Burbank
apartment complex. Zavala said that the landlord
played matchmaker, and after a few months
of dating, Megan and Mike Zavala moved to
India, where Mike had been offered a job.
The couple spent a year in India and, when
returning stateside, got married, and now have
two children. While in India, the couple traveled
all over southeast Asia, and Zavala said
that she started focusing on her editorial work.
She landed a job as an editorial assistant at a
literary agency, quickly becoming an agent. She
loved her work, Zavala said, but soon realized
that because “agenting is 100% commissioned
based, I couldn’t afford to work with clients
who weren’t 100% ready to publish and 100%
likely to sell.” So, she switched gears, started
her own editorial services company, and “I
haven’t looked back. I truly love what I do.”
Mike Zavala works in the film industry
as a visual effects producer. With many of his
jobs centered on the Westside, the Zavala’s
See Zavala, page 10 Book Coach and Editor Megan Close Zavala.
See Studio Antiques, page 8
Friday
Partly
Cloudy
61˚/47˚
Saturday
Sunny/
Wind
70˚/53˚
Sunday
Sunny
73˚/54˚