Searching for Community

In SoCal Neighborhoods

My Manager of Marketing, searching for a place to take a nap

Riley may not be as thrilled as I am about this stack of books in my office chair but he of course knows how to make a space for himself. I’ll be in conversation with the authors of these books this Saturday as part of the Litfest in the Dena Festival.

The theme of the festival is “Books That Made the Neighborhood” and the title of our panel is “Beyond the Beach: Searching for Community in SoCal Neighborhoods.”

Personally, I’ve found myself “beyond the beach, searching for community in Southern California” ever since my family moved here from North Carolina in the late 1960s. We’d heard the Beach Boys on the radio and seen the Gidget movies but were shocked to learn that not everyone lived on the beach next door to a celebrity.

We landed first in Reseda in the San Fernando Valley and then in Fountain Valley in Orange County. Fountain Valley was closer to the ocean but still not what we expected. We were confused. Since then, I’ve lived in Costa Mesa, La Habra, Anaheim, and now, Huntington Beach.

I’m still a bit confused by Southern California. So that’s what I write about.

These five authors, pictured above, also write about Southern California. Their stories, novels, poems, essays, and collaborations have inspired me and given me a great deal to aspire to. Their stories are set in all kinds of Southern California neighborhoods—from Orange County to the San Gabriel Valley, from North Long Beach to Pasadena, and from South El Monte to Beachwood Canyon, right underneath the Hollywood sign.

Here’s a bit about each author including links to buy their books.

1. Elsewhere, California by Dana Johnson In Elsewhere, California, Johnson’s protagonist Avery and her family escape the violent streets of Los Angeles and move to a more gentrified neighborhood in suburban West Covina. Dana Johnson is a Professor of English at USC.

2. L.A. Breakdown by Lou Mathews L.A. Breakdown paints a riveting portrait of drag racing culture in 1960s Los Angeles. Mathews is a master at capturing working class realism in character and place. He has taught in UCLA Extension’s acclaimed creative writing program since 1989 and he lives right underneath the Hollywood sign.

3. Eat the Mouth That Feeds You by Caribbean Fragoza In Eat the Mouth That Feeds You, Fragoza’s imperfect characters are drawn with a sympathetic tenderness as they struggle against circumstances and conditions designed to defeat them. Caribbean Fragoza is from South El Monte and the Prose Editor at Huizache Magazine.

4. Letters to My City by Mike Sonksen The poems and essays in Letters to My City combine two decades of Sonken’s field experience, research, personal observations, and stories told to the author, a third-generation Los Angeles native, by his grandfather and other family members. Sonksen is a poet, professor, journalist, historian and tour guide.

5. The Secret Habit of Sorrow by Victoria Patterson The characters in The Secret Habit of Sorrow feel like people I know. Patterson writes with emotional wisdom and wry humor about human beings struggling with parenthood, relationships, excessive drinking, drug abuse, and trying to fit into suburban life. She’s been described as the Edith Wharton of Southern California.

6. Those People Behind Us by Mary Camarillo Finally, my novel Those People Behind Us is set in suburban coastal town increasingly divided by politics, protests, and escalating housing prices—divisions that change the lives of five neighbors as they search for community in a neighborhood where no one can agree who belongs.

Join us at the festival on May 4, 2024 at 5 p.m.

Community in the Afterlife

The festival site for this year’s Litfest in the Dena is the Mountain View Mausoleum in Altadena, designed in 1923 by Cecil E. Bryan. Bryan is considered to be the “master of mausoleums.” The Mountain View’s focal point is an 180-foot-long Great Gallery featuring an ornate vaulted ceiling hand-painted by artist Martin Syvertsen.

There are also stained glass windows created by Judson Studios, surfaces fashioned from more than 64 varieties of Italian marble, and intricate tile work.

I can’t wait to see it!

Cecil E. Bryan is interred in the mausoleum and is in very good company. His neighbors include George Reeves (aka Superman), Eldridge Cleaver, and Octavia Butler.

(left to right) Lauren Wise, Brooke Warner, Donaldson Brown, Donna Stoneham, Christy Cashman, Mary Pasquale, and me.

Community in Publishing

My husband and I were invited to dinner in Denver last Friday night because I was one of the finalists in the 36th annual Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Benjamin Franklin Award. One Gold winner and two Silver winners were announced in each category during the ceremony. There were over 1800 entries.

The awards are administered by the IBPA with help from over 170 book publishing professionals including librarians, bookstore owners, reviewers, designers, publicity managers, and editors.

The dinner was delicious and I got to meet my publisher Brooke Warner and my project manager Lauren Wise in real life for the very first time.

All three titles in the General Fiction category were from my publisher She Writes Press and their imprint, SparkPress. Congrats to Christy Cashman who won the gold and to me and Donaldson Brown for bringing home the silver.

This is the last year the award will be called the Ben Franklin award. Ben was a complicated man who owned slaves and was president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. After this year, the award will be simply called the IBPA Book Award.

Besides the dinner, my husband and had a great time in Denver. We met our friend Amy at Coors Stadium for a Colorado Rockies game. They won!! We spent the next morning at the American Museum of Western Art. It’s a wonderful collection.

Searching for Empathy

Thanks Atmosphere Press for letting me chat about eavesdropping, people watching and what I hoped readers would take away from reading my book.

I hope my readers realize the importance of empathy.

All the characters in Those People Behind Us make assumptions about the people around them, without knowing or trying to imagine what might be going on in their lives. In the end, when they allow themselves to find a small amount of empathy for “those people” they realize they have more in common than they expected.

I know that sounds naive and more than a tad simplistic, but I really believe that it’s true.

Searching for Something to Read?

StoryGraph is currently running a special giveaway of signed paperback copies of my debut novel THE LOCKHART WOMEN. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, enter to win now through May 18 here.