Rebranding

Like most authors these days, I’m deluged with spammy, scammy marketing emails, promising fame and fortune if I simply let them rebrand me and my novels. “A well-executed rebrand can enhance customer perceptions and increase revenues,” they say.

My favorite rebrand idea so far is an offer to pitch me as “The CPA of Southern California Soul.”

It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Huntington Beach Mayor, Casey McKeon has decided Surf City needs rebranding. On April 9, 2026, Casey was all set to pay a company called Wolffhaus, operated by Tyler Wolff, $720,000 for “a comprehensive Surf City branding and marketing overhaul.” Casey had already paid Tyler Wolff $30,000 for an “audit” that determined that the majority of news coverage of HB was negative, which impacts city revenues.

I could have told them that for free. And I put quotes around “audit” because Wolff admits in the document that financial, operational, and contractual data was not available. This former CPA has a problem with that.

“Not so fast,” the community and three other city council members told Casey because that kind of contract needs a study session first and then to be offered to other firms. Requests for Proposals were immediately sent out with a due date of April 27th and this week the city council narrowly agreed to set up a three-member committee to make the final decision instead of having city staff or the full council decide.

What’s the rush? Casey has apparently just realized that the 250th anniversary of the Fourth of July is coming right up, and Surf City can’t afford to miss the chance to capitalize.

In better news, Protect HB screened The Librarians at the Huntington Beach Central Library on April 22nd, and the 300-seat theatre was packed with residents, educators, and librarians.

The documentary is about the Texas “Krause List,” which targeted 850 books focused on race and LGBTQ+ stories and triggered book bans across the U.S. including Huntington Beach. There’s still a stack of books on a tall shelf on the fourth floor of the HB Central library that Surf City’s council deems “too obscene for children,” despite a judicial order to make the books available.

“The Librarians” documentary is powerful and often depressing but it convinced me of the importance of electing the right decision makers to local school boards and city councils. I may be a childless cat woman, but even I understand the importance of school curriculums and available library books to my future.

I’ll be moderating a panel on May 9th at 2 p.m. in the same 300-seat theatre at the Huntington Beach Library. The title of the panel is “Surf City Under the Surface” and includes a very diverse group of authors. The genres span from a short story collection to my novels, from a children’s book to an adult memoir, and to non-fiction about surfing and Teddy Roosevelt.

What we have in common and what I hope we are going to talk about is our focus on place and our connection to Surf City and Orange County. In fact, when I googled “books, or novels, or surf stories, set in Huntington Beach” most of these names came up.

RSVP here.

This is part of the first ever Surf City Author Fest, which will set up outside the front of the library all day on Saturday May 9th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Just in time for Mother’s Day shopping!

I have a bunch of fun stuff coming up in May. I’ll be talking politics on May 1st at Litfest in the Dena in Pasadena, partying at the launch party for The Ear on May 5th, paneling with Surf City authors on May 9th, and reading my story from the White Picket Fence Anthology out in Riverside on May 13th.

Hoping to see you out there.

In celebration of Indie Bookstore Day, Bookshop.org is offering free shipping this weekend (April 25th to April 26th.) You can support your favorite independent bookstore, like LibroMobile, and pickup copies of my novels The Lockhart Women and Those People Behind Us.

If you’d like to win (US subscribers only) a copy of Volume 20 of “The Ear” which includes a story by me titled “Carr Park,” write back and tell me how you spent Independent Bookstore Day. A revised version of “Carr Park” ended up in Those People Behind Us.

Congrats to Karen D’Ambrosio who won a copy of The Lockhart Women in last issue’s giveaway.