Sun, 24 Mar 2024 10:23:47 GMT

I’m working on a mystery series, set in San Francisco during the Summer of Love.

Since I’m one of those people who has to seriously hash things out on paper before I actually create my stories, I’ve decided to do a big chunk of my preparation in public. Both to start getting the word out, and to help overcome that dreaded writer’s block. No pressure.

I don’t want to give away too much at the moment, but let’s just say that my detective is in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe; except she’s a woman, and she’s in a romantic relationship with her female Watson.

Which isn’t completely legal in 1967—even at the height of the Summer of Love.

And also, by the way, her mom’s parents came to the U.S. from Japan, landing in Hawaii, where her mom and her were both born. So some of her relatives who’d already come to the mainland by late 1941—like her Aunt Sachi—lived in those camps you hear about from time to time.

(Her cousin Annette was born in one.)

Our hero and her partner live with Aunt Sachi, a prominent Beat poet, in a rambling Victorian in the Haight-Ashbury called The Commune.

Along with Annette, who’s a jazz cellist, and her old man Billy, who is Black, and who plays bass clarinet with Annette in the Billy Brophy Trio.

These characters are based on people I have known, and people I have loved, and people I have known and loved.

Welcome to our world.

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