Where ideas flow freely

Compelling figures from a variety of fields convene to discuss their work.

Author Josh Kun told his audience to look at menus as pieces of urban storytelling. “How I Met Your Mother” actor and “Nightmares!” author Jason Segel told his listeners it’s OK to be afraid. And Joyce Carol Oates revealed what she thinks is her ideal age.

The two-day Los Angeles Times Festival of Books closed Sunday at USC, but not before compelling figures from the worlds of entertainment, the arts, economics, sports and more joined panel discussions to share their work and ideas.

Young fans of author and illustrator Dav Pilkey arrived to the announcement that he’s working with DreamWorks Animation on a “Captain Underpants” movie. Pilkey spoke of a difficult childhood with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia.

“School had a way of wiping the smile right off my face,” said Pilkey, who found solace in drawing.

Segel said the first time he shopped his story “Nightmares!” it sat on the company’s shelf for seven years.

“That is when a logical person would stop and say, ‘OK, this one didn’t work out,’ ” the actor told the festival audience.

But he bought the story back, and with the help of “The Eternal Ones” author Kirsten Miller, turned it into the first book of a trilogy. Se-

gel said there’s this myth that people have to “wait for permission” before living out their dreams.

Inspired by his childhood favorites, fantasies like Roald Dahl’s “James and the Giant Peach,” Segel said he wanted to write a book that showed children that it’s OK to be afraid.

“Nightmares!” is about a boy who is convinced that his stepmother is a witch and dreams of witches coming into his room, trying to eat his toes. (Segel said he thinks this real childhood dream likely came from moments when adults pretended to eat his toes when he was a baby. “It’s terrifying!” he said.)

“I’ve always felt like your fears are the gateways to your dreams,” Segel said. “It’s walking through them that you get to have these really great experiences … that make you strong.”