Based on a true story, "California Awakening" is a coming-of-age story set in mid-1970s California that young and not-so-young readers will relate to. The book focuses on the close friendship between 15 year olds Mark and Luke, taking place when Mark travels for the first time on his own from the Marshall Islands to visit Luke and his family during a summer school break. With descriptive, scene-setting language and engaging dialogue, the book explores how personal connections develop among friends and family and the love, tensions and self-realizations that come out of those interactions. The book is infused with dreams, both those we have when unconscious and those we strive for in life. My writing style and voice is a result of growing up Jewish and gay in Philadelphia and the Marshall Islands and, as an adult, working for three decades in public relations in the Northeast U.S. before slowing my life down in rural Puerto Rico and central Florida to be more at peace with myself.
