Welcome to California Story!

Thanks for joining me here.

I had some downtime in 2021 and came up with this idea to use my family‘s particular history to tell a larger story about California. Here it is. The project has thirty-nine (mostly) short chapters and was issued as a serial memoir in 2022.

The project is now completed and, while readers can still access the archive, there will be no new posts. The archived project is available only by paid subscription, here:

What’s it about? It’s a sweeping tale covering nearly a century between my grandparents’ arrival in Redondo Beach and the COVID pandemic. Each chapter takes place in a different California location, and the throughline themes are about fathers and sons and brothers, compromise and conscience, nature-as-tonic, climate change, how place shapes your life, and profiles of decency. And, of course:  California, land of immeasurable beauty, bounty, change, and promise.

Praise for California Story includes:

Thank you for so beautifully describing the unique grandeur of our fragile place on earth. Thank you for your dedication to protecting not only its beauty, but it’s habitability and ability to offer the resources to support our lives and those of the other creatures who depend upon it. Your writing is warm and thoughtful. Thanks for sharing it so honestly.

Dr. Gloria Duffy

Executive Director

Commonwealth Club of California

Sharp, haunting, and gripping in its storytelling, your manuscript has the potential to join California’s literary canon alongside the work of writers such as Joan Didion, Kevin Starr, Cheryl Strayed, Rebecca Solnit, David Mas Masumoto, and Gary Kamiya.

John Sheehy

Writer and former publisher at Time Inc., Utne Reader, and Afar magazine.

Author, On A River Winding Home

It amazes me how lean and vivid your storytelling is. Some would-be writers work for years to develop that kind of linguistic muscle and never can. You’re already there.

Robert Aquinas McNally

Author, The Modoc War

Winner, California Book Award Gold Medal

Welcome to California Story, and let me know what you think!

—Steven Falk