BLOG

My Interview With…Well, Me

by | Mar 2, 2025 |

Q: How did Pirates of Sausalito come about? 

I live in Tam Valley, two miles from the Waldo Point houseboat harbor, in Sausalito, where close to 300 floating homes are docked and where, for decades, there was conflict between the artists, hippies, and squatters who lived there and the police, city leaders, and developers determined to evict them and build docks to attract more affluent residents. What became known as the “houseboat wars.” 

The more I learned about the turbulent history of the houseboat wars, the more I thought it would make a promising setting for a murder mystery. Conveniently, I’m an actor in a local community theater troupe called the Tam Valley Players, which has performed a murder mystery every year for almost two decades. 

I pitched the idea for the play to the troupe and got the green light. 

Q: But how did your play become a novel?

That’s an easy question. I finished writing the play in the summer of 2020, during the early months of the pandemic, and I had no idea if and when live theater would ever come back, so I thought, well, if we can’t perform this, why don’t I turn it into a novel? 

That turned out to be harder than I expected.

Selling ‘Pirates of Sausalito’ at the Scene of the Crime

by | Aug 20, 2024 |

On the first Saturday of August, I sat behind a table at Galilee Harbor Maritime Day in Sausalito to sell my latest novel, “Pirates of Sausalito: Houseboat Wars Murder Mystery.” I was not especially looking forward to it. I enjoy the creative part of writing a book, but not so much the promotion. But it was a sunny and gorgeous afternoon, my table was right across from the stage where a band was playing a peppy surf rock, so my feet were bouncing along with the beat, and I had a series of stimulating and enjoyable conversations with passersby.

Sausalito Houseboat Wars: What Really Happened?

by | May 14, 2024 |

On May 1, I gave a talk at the Mill Valley Library: ”Sausalito Houseboat Wars: What Really Happened.” Not only was I thrilled by the turnout and how well it went, the library recorded it and I just watched the video and it’s pretty compelling.

Last fall, anticipating I would be finished with my novel, Pirates of Sausalito: Houseboat Wars Murder Mystery, I pitched a librarian on hosting an event, and she connected me with the Mill Valley Historical Society involved. They asked me to talk more about the history my book is based on than about the novel itself. I was wary at first, but it was a brilliant idea — we had a full house, in the main reading room. It’s unlikely that many people would have come if I were talking only about my book.

Here is the video, which is 50 minutes long. I’ve posted highlights below.

Pirates of Sausalito

by | Apr 22, 2024 |

My fourth novel, Pirates of Sausalito: Houseboat Wars Murder Mystery, is now available. The story, inspired by true events, is set in the late 1970s on the shoreline of Richardson Bay. Hippies and squatters living on houseboats in a ramshackle shantytown are...

‘Writing California’ + Seeking Feedback on Book Cover Redesign

by | Sep 11, 2023 | ,

On September 21, I’ll be part of a local author panel at the Mill Valley Library discussing researching and writing about California. I’ll be discussing my 2015 novel Wasted, a “green-noir” mystery set in the garbage and recycling world of Berkeley, as well as my work-in-progress, a historical mystery/comedy based on true events in Sausalito during the houseboat wars in the 1970s.

Because I’ll be talking about Wasted, I am percolating, again, on whether or not to redesign its cover, which is a problem.

Sausalypso Video on YouTube

by | Jun 5, 2023 |

Finally getting around to posting the video of Sausalypso Houseboat Wars Murder Mystery, the play I wrote and directed earlier this spring. Watching it on the screen can’t match the energy of being there in person, but it’s still fun. Replete with a pretend pirate, a greedy developer with a maniacal laugh, his vengeful ex-wife and his hiccuping henchman, not to mention Sausalypso’s first ever woman police chief. 

Here are some highlights — in case you don’t have time to watch the whole thing. 🙂

Scene 3 (The Greedy Developer and the Liberal Police Chief) 7:24
Scene 4 (The Vengeful Ex-Wife Confronts the Mistress) 12:28
Scene 6 (Eviction Raid) 24:20 (includes sword fight)
Scene 7 (I Hated You Before You Were Born) 33:12

Sausalypso! — ‘All is Lost’ or ‘The Show Must Go On’?

by | Mar 27, 2023 |

While directing my play, “Sausalypso Houseboat Wars Murder Mystery,” I read a book called Save the Cat Writes a Novel, in which author Jessica Brody lays out the various “beats” in a novel, one of which is “All is Lost.”

Three days before Opening Night, when three cast and crew members got covid, that was how I felt. All is lost. 

Oh, and all four shows were sold out. Which was great, except a full house without a full cast is not great.

But we came up with a plan to push Opening Night from forward a week, so by the time three more cast members notified me they had covid the next day, we had switched the show dates, canceled our in-person rehearsals, and were practicing on zoom. Crossing our fingers that enough of us would be healthy to mount the show on our new Opening Night.