Summer in the City

Yesterday after working at my writing desk for a few hours, my husband thought I’d just come back from the gym. “You’re glistening,” he said.

It’s humid in Southern California these days. We’re wimps I know, but we also don’t have air-conditioning.

Growing up in the Carolinas, my people didn’t have air-conditioning either. We had screened-in porches and fans to sit in front of. I remember long afternoons playing Monopoly with my brothers and sipping iced tea.

This summer, when I’m not at my writing desk, I’m most likely sitting in front of a fan reading and possibly sipping an adult beverage. Here are a few Riley recommendations, all with connections to my own forthcoming novel.

• Orphans of the Living, by Kathy Watson, is about a family’s early 20th century quest for home and redemption in the racist American South and West. My new novel features a similar quest and setting.

• What the Trees Remember, by Abigail Cutter, is set post-Civil-War near Lynchburg, Virginia where one of the main characters in my new novel was born. The lead character in Cutter’s book is named Alma, my mother’s name (in real life!)

• We Are Bridges, A Memoir by Cassandra Lane, is about a woman rescuing her great-grandparents lives from erasure and is also set in the early-20th-century South

• Kin, by Tayari Jones, is about the complexities of being a woman in the American South. I especially love the cover artwork of honeysuckle and kudzu.

I’m especially excited about celebrating my favorite bookstore’s 10th anniversary next month.

The LibroMobile Weekend LitFest kicks off Friday evening, August 21st, and ends on Sunday afternoon, August 23rd, with the announcement of the new Orange County poet laureates.

These are ticketed events, but you can also buy the entire package for $75, which includes LibroMobile's paletero book cart tote, pin, and sticker (a $46.25 value), and a $10 discount on a new book! Sign up here for all or part of it.

• Friday evening, August 21st, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm there’s a local author mixer, featuring Israel Moya, Lila Riesen, Alexis Jaimes, Ron Gonzales, Susie Yi, and Theodore Chao.

• On Saturday, August 22nd from 9 to 11 am there will be a Community Arts Forum featuring representatives from OC Mutual Aid, VAALA, CSO Orange County and UC Libraries.

• There are two afternoon workshops on Saturday, August 22nd from 12 to 2 pm, one for teens lead by Sailee Charlu and one for adults led by Elvia Rubalcava.

• From 3 to 5 pm on Saturday, August 22nd, there’s a BIPOC panel featuring Roger Reyes, Alexa Vasquez, Lisa Alvarez, and Alkaid Ramirez.

• At 7 pm until 9 pm on Saturday, August 22nd, there’s a VIP after hours cocktail party featuring my husband, Steve Camarillo, Jarli, and Ruby Castellanos.

Thanks to generous donations from the Frida Cinema, Ron Gonzales, Santa Ana River Brewing, Common Corners Brewing, Arte Publico Press, Travel Santa Ana, Reggie Peralta, Luella L. Reyes, there will be snacks and drinks at each event.

It’s all in support of keeping LibroMobile open.

If you can’t attend the LitFest, consider making a donation. Book sales are declining, funds and grants have disappeared, the rent still needs to be paid, and we need to celebrate ten years of this community treasure—the only independent bookstore in Santa Ana, California.

I had a fun chat with Marla Miller on her podcast Marla Miller Talks to Authors & Content Creators. Marla is the author of two novels, leads writing workshops, had a byline at O.C. Register’s lifestyle magazine, and was a founding editor-in-chief of an O.C. coastal lifestyle magazine.

Marla’s podcast is focused on “second career” stories and she gave me a chance to talk about my writing journey, my postal career, as well as one of my favorite topics, the similarities of writing audit reports and fiction.

You can watch and/or listen here.

What are you reading this summer? Write back and recommend something and I’ll enter you in a drawing (US readers only) to win an eBook of The Lockhart Women or Those People Behind Us.

Stay cool.