Author Vinnie
Hansen fled the howling winds of South Dakota and headed for the California
coast the day after high school graduation. She’s now the author of numerous
short stories, the Carol Sabala mystery series, and Lostart Street, a cross-genre novel of mystery, murder,
and moonbeams. Still sane(ish) after 27 years of teaching high school English,
Vinnie has retired. She lives in Santa Cruz with her husband and the requisite
cat. Learn more about her and her books at her website.
Santa Cruz Weird
Even though we’re not a large city, people across the country know
of Santa Cruz, California. Huntington Beach may think it’s “Surf City,” but
everyone here knows we claim the title. We’re the ones with a statue of a surfer
who wears a pumpkin head on Halloween. Jack O’Neill, inventor of the wetsuit,
lived here until his death last year. Santa Cruz has a lighthouse converted to
a Surfing Museum and even a hanger for Lost Souls.
Others recognize Santa Cruz as a tourist destination featuring a
beautiful coastline and The Boardwalk, with its historic, wooden Giant Dipper
roller coaster. But there’s so much more here! Santa Cruz overflows with
artists and musicians. The Doobie Brothers and Neil Young lived here. Santa Cruz
produced James Durbin (who should have won American
Idol). My own orchestra leader used to play with Eddie Money. For visual
artists, we have a long-running Open Studios event, and we offer first-rate
theater with Santa Cruz Shakespeare.
Music, visual art, and theater collide in local legend, The Great
Morgani. The Great Morgani
is a real musician with over 1,000 songs in his
repertoire. His costumes (over 50) are all handcrafted masterpieces that cover
even his accordion. And he has his patter down—artist,
musician, and thespian—rolled into one. And, just a little weird—a perfect
representative for Santa Cruz.
 |
| The author posing with The Great Morgani |
Where else but Santa Cruz can you find Sons of the Beach, as many
as 200 ukulele players congregating every Saturday morning to play music? And
that’s separate from the Santa Cruz Ukulele Club, which boasts it’s the largest
ukulele club in the world!
Not convinced yet that we’re any quirkier than, say, Austin,
Texas?
In our Santa Cruz Mountains, we have a museum dedicated to Bigfoot
and a physics defying Mystery Spot.
We're literally fishy. Fish were vital to the native Ohlone. Commercial
and sport fishing remain integral to our community.
Santa Cruz is a city where you go for a walk and encounter magic.
It’s part of our everyday life. We expect nothing less.
And now to celebrate the wonder and weirdness that is Santa Cruz,
Nancy Lynn Jarvis has put together Santa
Cruz Weird, an anthology where all the stories are set in this wacky place.
The collection includes my story, “Critical Mass.” My protagonist, writer May
Knight, allows a horrid literary agent to invite herself to stay in her condo,
hoping that the agent will represent her work. That’s not what happens.
Santa Cruz Weird
Stories contributed by Lynda West Scott, Marc Darrow, Vinnie
Hansen, Jan Harwood, Katherine Bolger Hyde, Ed Sams, Edward Weingold, Nancy
Wood, J.D. Graves, Mary Flodin, P. Maya Morgan, Nancy Lynn Jarvis, S.L. Hawke,
Helene Simkin Jara, Jill Scott, Rick Parfitt, Maryanne Porter, and a reprinted
column by Stephen Kessler from The Santa
Cruz Sentinel.
5 comments:
Thanks for hosting me, Lois. Always a pleasure.
We're always happy to have you stop by, Vinnie.
Thanks, Vinnie, for getting the Weird word out, and thanks, Lois, for inviting her to do so.
Love that photo of the little rock creatures. Congrats to the Santa Cruz Weird authors. I'm looking forward to reading your stories.
Nancy and Kass, thanks for dropping by. As someone else pointed out, there's plenty of weirdness left for a vol. 2.
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