Southern California Fiction

At the age of thirty-nine, Alice Chang suddenly finds herself living in the last place she expected: her mother’s house. But in the face of divorce, eviction, and the recent death of her father, she doesn’t have a choice. Watching as her mother thrives in a new job and meets younger men at the local gym, Alice struggles, reflecting on her parents’ marriage, her relationship with each of them, as she adjusts to being single again for the first time in twenty years. Then she finds her father’s old journal...and uncovers a shocking family secret.

In a suburban LA neighborhood, neighbors keep wary distance and at times collide, propelled by desire, fury, and mischief. Precocious Korean-American sisters Mira and Rosemary find their world rocked by a suicide; a charismatic and creepy drama teacher grooms his students; an aging gay horror novelist fights loneliness; and a white mother and her adopted Vietnamese daughter deal with lifelong anger issues.

Something is wrong in California.Martial Law is in place. UN Peacekeepers take on enforcement in the cities as their secret Islamist allies terrorize the countryside. The trouble starts right away. UN Peacekeepers push the population around, beating or killing those who resist and kidnapping women to fulfill their own evil desires.Ivan the Butcher leads a movement to foil the plans of the globalists, setting up two core groups. One group works in the extreme south of the state, led by Ji-Ho, a wealthy Korean man with mob and mercenary ties. The other group works in the South Bay, led by ...

What would you do if the government took your liberty?California citizens wage war against the UN, brought in to enforce martial law as their Islamist henchmen terrorize the countryside. Some citizens feel safer under martial law, free of the street violence and looting. Other citizens see this for what it is. Globalist tyranny. Their only choice is to fight the invaders, to the death if necessary. In Bug Out! California Book 15, the Deep State is exposed. They become a bigger danger than the surviving funders of the war.In Book 16 – Darkness to Light, the Deep State is frantic, upping ...

What would you do if the government took your liberty?California citizens wage war against the UN, brought in to enforce martial law as their Islamist henchmen terrorize the countryside. Some citizens feel safer under martial law, free of the street violence and looting. Other citizens see this for what it is. Globalist tyranny. Their only choice is to fight the invaders, to the death if necessary. In Bug Out! California Book 13, the war ends after Daan Mertin’s defeat in New Mexico, the citizen forces ready to celebrate and go back to their normal lives. It was not to be. General Hogan ...

What would you do if the government took your liberty?California citizens wage war against the UN, brought in to enforce martial law as their Islamist henchmen terrorize the countryside. Some citizens feel safer under martial law, free of the street violence and looting. Other citizens see this for what it is. Globalist tyranny. Their only choice is to fight the invaders, to the death if necessary. They’re making progress, but the cost is high.In Bug Out! California Book 12, a multi-front battle rages. Marines and civilian recruits in Mexico battle a horde of Islamists as they race ...

After a few months of living with her boyfriend, Greg, Jill Gardner is still getting used to sharing such close quarters, but she's got no hesitation about joining him for a weekend at South Cove's most luxurious resort. While Greg and his college pals celebrate their buddy's upcoming wedding, Jill intends to pamper herself in style. But when the groom is found floating facedown in the pool, Jill must find the killer fast, or she might not have a boyfriend to come home to anymore....

Southern California is where dreams come true—or so Scarlett Gardner thought. When she moved there and opened the Palm Trees and Page Turners bookshop, she thought her boyfriend and business partner would be part of the story. When he leaves her for a better job, Scarlett finds herself struggling to keep her new business afloat. And that’s not the only thing she has to worry about—she discovers something underneath the pier by her bookshop that she didn’t outline for her life’s story: the dead body of a book-buying customer.

What would you do if the government destroyed your liberty?California citizens labored under the cruel hand of the UN, brought in to enforce martial law. Some citizens felt safer, free of the street violence and looting. Other citizens saw this for what it was. Globalist tyranny.In Bug Out! California Book 5, the battle is ramping up. Citizens won early battles, kicking the UN and their Islamist allies out of LA and Orange Counties, but the battle didn’t end there. The enemy has regrouped, and they’re coming at the citizens full force. Who will prevail?Ivan the Butcher is using his vast...

After seven months laying low in Ocean Beach, California, Seattle PI Leo Waterman has finally stopped looking over his shoulder - specifically, for the vengeful band of Washington white supremacists who blame Leo for blindsiding their big plans for America. Where better to disappear with his bodyguard, Gabe, than this laid-back stretch of San Diego heaven? But when Leo finds a boy’s body on the beach, he comes out of hiding to investigate.

It’s Christmastime in the quiet Los Angeles County city of Vista Beach, home of computer programmer and tole-painting enthusiast Aurora (Rory) Anderson. The magic of the season fills the air as residents enjoy school concerts, a pier lighting ceremony and the annual sand-snowman contest. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Rory plans on painting ornaments to sell at the local craft fair and joining in on the holiday fun. But she finds the season anything but jolly after the house across the street is torn down, revealing a decades old crime. Past meets present when her father is ...

“You float through life like a piece of driftwood. Aimless. You have nothing to strive for.” Wellington Estates heiress Danielle Riley has everything her heart desires. But for the first time, she wants something she cannot have: Mike, the poor, proud, talented athlete, whose mother is working class, whose family is beneath hers. Mike Melgoza works hard for a living and bears a terrible secret, a secret that clouds his decisions, that pollutes his relationships. He mistakes Danielle’s generosity for pity, spurning her love and everything she represents. Brokenhearted, Danielle embarks...

In this moving collection of short stories and essays, Gordon Lee Johnson (Cupeño/Cahuilla) cements his voice not only as a wry commentator on American Indian reservation life but also as a master of fiction writing. In Johnson’s stories, all of which are set on the fictional San Ignacio reservation in Southern California, we meet unforgettable characters like Plato Pena, the Stanford-bound geek who reads Kahlil Gibran during intertribal softball games; hardboiled investigator Roddy Foo; and Etta, whose motto is “early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise”.

In the dangerous world of outlaw motorcycle clubs, one woman's quest for the truth could cost her everything--including the man she never knew she needed. Ginger "Shy" Jones thought she knew the rules of the game. Raised in the shadow of the Red Vipers MC, she's no stranger to the gritty underbelly of biker culture. But when she wakes up battered and bleeding on a country road with no memory of how she got there, she realizes she's in way over her head. As she struggles to piece together the events of that night, she finds herself caught between her volatile boyfriend and Viking, her ...

Working with Seoul’s premiere matchmaker, Jisu’s traditional South Korean parents are determined to ensure her success in life and love by matching her with the right boyfriend. After one too many slip-ups at school, Jisu finds herself shipped off to San Francisco to focus on her academics and approved dates, leaving her little space to figure out her own dreams. As her newly realized passion for photography lights her on fire, Jisu wonders...does she even want to find "The One"?