First Reviews on my True Crime Book, “The Darkest Glare”

"An entertaining true-crime period piece built around a chillingly odd sociopathic villain."—Kirkus Review


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Yeah, I’ve seen the bridge — the Colorado Street Bridge and a jam session that changed me

How an obscure song from the Hammer-of-the-Gods band grew from teenage anthem to the heart of Pasadena fiction


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The Fire That Crackled Inside of Me

Up in the foothills was a wasteland of smoke. You could barely see, and breathing took concentration. Took coughing and eye-rubbing and delusion that we could…


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I’ve waited long enough: the story of the Man in the Light

The baseball cracked off the bat, vanishing into the smoggy, gray sky over east Pasadena’s Eugene Field Elementary School. Squinting and craning for it, I…


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THE QUEEN AND ME

Pasadena’s fabled Colorado Street Bridge consumed eleven thousand cubic yards of cement, each yard weighing roughly two tons, during its lengthy—and sometimes…


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The Boom that Blew the Petals off the Rose City

E.C. Webster, it was said, could’ve sold plots on Mars for a profit...


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Lucretia Garfield: South Pasadena’s Lady in Perpetual Mourning

By the time she settled into her South Pasadena dream house, Lucretia Garfield was a longtime member of an exclusive, bloodstained club uniquely American.


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Ghosts of the Colorado Street Bridge: real or really ludicrous?

Since it's Halloween, and the witching hour is nearly upon us, it's time to address the elephant over the Arroyo Seco.


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The Colorado Street Bridge speaks, or rather initial critical reaction to my novel about her

"A riveting and enjoyable look at how local myths are constructed, and a vivid depiction of a time and a place that felt full of possibilities"—Booklist


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