By Ernest Marquez.One of the world’s most popular and beloved beaches is documented in never-before-published photographs dating back to 1877. Author Ernest Marquez is a descendant of the family that held the original Mexican land grants to what is now Santa Monica. Read from the introduction here.
Stories in Features:
An excerpt from Burn, Baby! Burn! The Autobiography of Magnificent Montague
by Bob Baker. Bob Baker writes about his thirty-nine year journey to write the book on LA radio personality Magnificent Montague.
An excerpt from The Green Age of Asher Witherow
By M. Allen Cunningham. Read an excerpt from this novel-styled-as-memoir set in the boom and bust years of an immigrant coal mining town in nineteenth-century California.
An excerpt from Zero Break An Illustrated Collection of Surf Writing
By Matt Warshaw. From its first written record more than 200 years ago, surf literature traces a surprisingly broad arc, but, Matt Warshaw puts it all into historical and cultural context in this must-read intro to his surf-writing anthology.
Adapted from School of Dreams Making the Grade at a Top American High School
By Edward Humes. College Essay 101: When you’re done, no one but you should be able to put a name at the top.
An excerpt form Pen on Fire
By Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. Barbara DeMarco-Barrett has created “a practical, inspirational guide for fitting serious writing into stolen moments.” And, she says, it is never to late to begin.
Guest author David Ulin
Shaking all over. The author on his “fascination with seismicity” and the birth of The Myth of Solid Ground.
Guest author Kat Meads
How the West Won Out. A Carolina-born writer finds she is a California author after all.
An excerpt from California Girl
By T. Jefferson Parker. Novelist T. Jefferson Parker shares an excerpt of his page turner set in 1960s Orange County.
Guest author Rochelle Krich
An unexpected community at the scene of the crime. A bestselling mystery author’s personal guide to California’s mystery scene.
An excerpt from Just a Geek
By Wil Wheaton. This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven: Wil Wheaton feels the love at his first reading.
An excerpt from The Golden Game The Story of California Baseball
By Kevin Nelson. For decades California has produced more major league ballplayers than any other state. As impressive as this may be, author Kevin Nelson says it is not the central story of California baseball. Read an excerpt from the introduction here.
Guest author Dayna Dunbar
The Transition from Screenplays to Novels. The author on the road from screenwriting to novels.
An excerpt from Sacred Spaces Historic Houses of Worship in the City of Los Angeles
By Robert Berger. Photographs from more 300 churches, synagogues and temples, along with text by architectural historian Alfred Willis. Read an excerpt and see some of the images here.
An excerpt from More Like Wrestling
By Danyel Smith. Paige and Pinch and Oakland. Their dreams and destinies are hopelessly knotted in Danyel Smith’s lyrical novel about two young sisters careening through the 1980s violence and crack trade of their changing hometown. Read from the prologue here.
Guest author Charles Fleming
Our Time in Havana. The author shares a recollection of Cuba and the rainy research trip for his book After Havana.
An excerpt from The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill A Love Story . . .with Wings
By Mark Bittner. Mark Bittner tells the story of how he found his life’s work caring for a flock of birds. Read from Chapter Four: A Question of Trust.
Guest author Derek M. Powazek
San Francisco Diary: Weddings on the Brain. The author writes about marriage, gratitude and the scene as San Francisco City Hall was granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Guest author Pamela Ribon
Site life: One writer’s book donation bonanza. I thought I’d make a few people laugh enough that they’d send over a children’s book or two.
An excerpt from Barbie Loves L.A.
By Greg LaVoi. Author and photographer Greg LaVoi shows off Barbie in vintage outfits at dozens of Los Angeles-area landmarks, including the new Disney Concert Hall, the Getty, Spago, Pink’s Hot Dogs and PCH in Malibu. A Barbie diary entry accompanies each glamour shot. Read the intro here.
An excerpt from Burn, Baby! Burn! The Autobiography of Magnificent Montague
by Bob Baker. Bob Baker writes about his thirty-nine year journey to write the book on LA radio personality Magnificent Montague.
An excerpt from The Green Age of Asher Witherow
By M. Allen Cunningham. Read an excerpt from this novel-styled-as-memoir set in the boom and bust years of an immigrant coal mining town in nineteenth-century California.
An excerpt from Zero Break An Illustrated Collection of Surf Writing
By Matt Warshaw. From its first written record more than 200 years ago, surf literature traces a surprisingly broad arc, but, Matt Warshaw puts it all into historical and cultural context in this must-read intro to his surf-writing anthology.
Adapted from School of Dreams Making the Grade at a Top American High School
By Edward Humes. College Essay 101: When you’re done, no one but you should be able to put a name at the top.
An excerpt form Pen on Fire
By Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. Barbara DeMarco-Barrett has created “a practical, inspirational guide for fitting serious writing into stolen moments.” And, she says, it is never to late to begin.
Guest author David Ulin
Shaking all over. The author on his “fascination with seismicity” and the birth of The Myth of Solid Ground.
Guest author Kat Meads
How the West Won Out. A Carolina-born writer finds she is a California author after all.
An excerpt from California Girl
By T. Jefferson Parker. Novelist T. Jefferson Parker shares an excerpt of his page turner set in 1960s Orange County.
Guest author Rochelle Krich
An unexpected community at the scene of the crime. A bestselling mystery author’s personal guide to California’s mystery scene.
An excerpt from Just a Geek
By Wil Wheaton. This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven: Wil Wheaton feels the love at his first reading.
An excerpt from The Golden Game The Story of California Baseball
By Kevin Nelson. For decades California has produced more major league ballplayers than any other state. As impressive as this may be, author Kevin Nelson says it is not the central story of California baseball. Read an excerpt from the introduction here.
Guest author Dayna Dunbar
The Transition from Screenplays to Novels. The author on the road from screenwriting to novels.
An excerpt from Sacred Spaces Historic Houses of Worship in the City of Los Angeles
By Robert Berger. Photographs from more 300 churches, synagogues and temples, along with text by architectural historian Alfred Willis. Read an excerpt and see some of the images here.
An excerpt from More Like Wrestling
By Danyel Smith. Paige and Pinch and Oakland. Their dreams and destinies are hopelessly knotted in Danyel Smith’s lyrical novel about two young sisters careening through the 1980s violence and crack trade of their changing hometown. Read from the prologue here.
Guest author Charles Fleming
Our Time in Havana. The author shares a recollection of Cuba and the rainy research trip for his book After Havana.
An excerpt from The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill A Love Story . . .with Wings
By Mark Bittner. Mark Bittner tells the story of how he found his life’s work caring for a flock of birds. Read from Chapter Four: A Question of Trust.
Guest author Derek M. Powazek
San Francisco Diary: Weddings on the Brain. The author writes about marriage, gratitude and the scene as San Francisco City Hall was granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Guest author Pamela Ribon
Site life: One writer’s book donation bonanza. I thought I’d make a few people laugh enough that they’d send over a children’s book or two.
An excerpt from Barbie Loves L.A.
By Greg LaVoi. Author and photographer Greg LaVoi shows off Barbie in vintage outfits at dozens of Los Angeles-area landmarks, including the new Disney Concert Hall, the Getty, Spago, Pink’s Hot Dogs and PCH in Malibu. A Barbie diary entry accompanies each glamour shot. Read the intro here.
Meet the authors of the California Authors Directory. Visit the directory to discover writers like Andrew Sean Greer, a San Francisco novelist whose latest book, 
You can shop online from your local independent booksellers.