Hi everyone–
As you may know, i set a lot of my books in Laguna Beach. California. I currently have 17 books (including a long short story and a short novella.) and 8 of them are set in or around Laguna Beach. Have you ever been there? Seen a picture? Laguna Beach is a great place to set a romance.
A small town full of sand, surf, art galleries and shows, beautiful homes, little shops, and lots of people, Laguna is the quintessential beachy art colony. As you drive into Laguna after miles of relatively flat coastline, you’re surprised to see tall hills dotted with houses looking out over the ocean. Incongruously, the Pacific Coast Highway runs directly through the town, bisecting the expensive hillside homes from the even more expensive beach front mansions. While most of southern California is ruled by the automobile, in Laguna you can walk to a lot of venues and that’s a good thing because parking is pretty horrible and newcomers panic on the twisty roads and steep upslopes.
When you visit, you quickly find out that you never call any of the other towns in the area simply “Laguna”. Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, Laguna whatever are NOT Laguna. Only Laguna Beach is Laguna. Laguna is a bastion of extreme liberality in the midst of hugely conservative Orange County. For years it was the only city in the OC to vote democratic. Today it’s been joined by a couple other cities but they maintain much smaller margins. It’s also one of the most gay friendly cities in America. At one time, Laguna had the largest percentage of gay population per capita of any city in the US. Today, some of the gay population has moved out to Palm Springs, but the city remains gay friendly. When the Mormon Church organized a huge rally down the coast of Orange County against gay marriage, they stopped their banner carriers at the city limits. They knew they weren’t welcome. In Laguna, people carried pro-gay banners.
Laguna is most famous for its art festivals that happen every summer including the famed Pageant of the Masters in which people are dressed and lit to appear to be famous works of art. It’s an amazing show. Between the sand, surf , art and generally gay friendly atmosphere, Laguna Beach is a perfect place to welcome my gay lovers — a gallery owner and two sand volleyball players in Volley Balls, an artist and a firefighter in Fire Balls, an environmentalist and a developer, both scuba divers, in Beach Balls, a decorator and a cop in Snow Balls, and a health food nut and a cupcake baker in my new release, Hearts and Flour. All of them are very happy in Laguna Beach. I also set my romantic suspense, Golden Dancer, partly in Laguna, as well as my quirky holiday tale, Mistletowed.
I think i should be given special recognition by the Chamber of Commerce of Laguna Beach. LOL Readers write to ask if it’s a real place, and some have planned trips here just because of the books. I have a local reader who says he expects my characters to walk onto the beach or into a restaurant any time and he alsways tries to guess which stores and eating places i’m using with different names in the books. I’m lucky to get to set my stories in such a great locale. When are you coming to Laguna!
BTW, we have a lot of fun on my Facebook Page. Come on over and Like me? : )
I think i should be given special recognition by the Chamber of Commerce of Laguna Beach. LOL Readers write to ask if it’s a real place, and some have planned trips here just because of the books. I have a local reader who says he expects my characters to walk onto the beach or into a restaurant any time and he alsways tries to guess which stores and eating places i’m using with different names in the books. I’m lucky to get to set my stories in such a great locale. When are you coming to Laguna!