Return to Carson Springs

A neighbor stopped by this morning. He kept me company while I did my cat stretch. He was, like, “You need a yoga mat for that?” He is a cat, after all. The other day a coyote came and played in the backyard. Yep, you guessed it. “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore,” as Dorothy would say.

I’m in Ojai, California, where I’m working on my new book, set in California. Some of you might be familiar with the location from reading my Carson Springs trilogy. My fictional town of Carson Springs was inspired by Ojai. A small city in Southern California, north of LA and east of Santa Barbara, it sits in the valley of the Topatopa Mountains—one of only two round valleys in the world (the other one is in Nepal). Here the sun shines 300 days a year and orange groves line the roads of its farmlands. The historic Spanish-style esplanade in the village of Ojai dates gives the shopping district the quaint look of a bygone era. Classic film buffs might also recognize Ojai as the location shot of the fictional paradise Shangri-la in the 1937 movie “Lost Horizon.” One reader of my Carson Springs trilogy was so inspired by its setting, she wrote and asked, “Please tell me it’s based on a real place because my bags are packed and I’m ready to move there.”

I started coming here after I married Sandy. He went to boarding school here in the 1970’s, so he knows the area well. I fell in love during my first visit. I envisioned Ojai as the setting of Stranger in Paradise, Book One of my Carson Springs trilogy. I imagined a teen runaway arriving here not knowing a soul. How would she survive? Through the kindness of strangers, as it turns out. Here in Ojai, you seldom meet a stranger. Everyone you meet is your friend within minutes of being introduced. Or at least that’s been my experience. But I’m naturally curious about other people, so I make friends easily.
In Taste of Honey, Book 2 of my Carson Springs trilogy, you’ll meet the beekeeping nuns of the local convent. The Blessed Bee honey they produce and sell locally came out of a visit to an apiary where I communed with the bees while learning everything I needed to know about beekeeping. Donned in my protective suit and hood, I was social distancing before that term even existed.

The beekeeping nuns in Taste of Honey harbor a murderer in their midst, you might be interested to know. Why? Because I can. The mind of the writer is a strange place filled with all sorts of random items, rather like the garage crammed with odds and ends that you’ve been meaning to sort through for ages. You don’t know half the stuff that’s in there and you’re often surprised by what you stumble across. Marry plots filled with twists and turns to a setting, and voila—a trilogy is born.

Now I’m going out on the deck to drink my morning tea and watch the local wildlife at play before I head back to my desk for another day of romance and intrigue.