The Day I Was Almost Shot During a Shoot

Okay, so it wasn’t quite as dramatic as that, but I’m a writer and we tend to embellish. What happened was I sneaked onto private property, an orange grove I’d seen as I was passing on the road I was on at the time during a trip in California where I was doing research for my work in progress. I needed an author photo for the forthcoming publication of the first book in my Carson Springs trilogy, Stranger in Paradise, and I’d had the bright idea of getting my shutterbug husband, Sandy, who was with me, to take a picture of me standing in an orange grove…

Let me pause here to explain my trilogy is set in a fictional valley town in Southern California inspired by the real life city of Ojai, a small jewel of a city nestled in a bowl of valley surrounded by mountains. I’ve visited a number of times, most recently this past October (which I wrote about in previous posts). So entranced was I by the setting, the climate, the community, I had decided to make it the basis for my fictional town.

Stranger in Paradise is the story of a teen runaway who finds herself at the end of the rainbow instead of the end of the road she’s on when she stumbles on the town of Carson Springs, where the gold lies in its year-round sunshine and the orange groves for which it’s known. It’s also the story of Sam, a woman whose announcement that she’s marrying a much-younger man, the son of her daughter’s husband, is met with shock and dismay by her family and friends. A lot more happens, and rather than risk being a spoiler, I’ll let you find out for yourself if you haven’t read the book and are curious to know more. The enthusiastic response I got from readers and reviews like this one paved the way for the two other books in my trilogy: “Romance, gossip, and murder upend a California town in this “intelligent, page-turning read” from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Diary (Booklist).

And here’s the good news: The first two books in the trilogy, Stranger in Paradise and Taste of Honey, are both on sale for $1.99 (as e-books) for a limited time only. So if you haven’t been introduced to my Carson Springs trilogy, now is a good time.

Back to me in the orange grove. So there I was posing against the backdrop of orange trees while my husband fired away with his camera when along comes Farmer John. Or Rancher Ron. Or whatever his name was. He might have been carrying a rifle. Let say he was. Anyway, he informed us “This is private property and you folks are trespassing.” After we explained the purpose of our trespassing, and that we weren’t there to steal any oranges, he was nice about it, as I recall. No shots were exchanged. And I got a great author photo out of it for my book jacket.