She pays tribute to local events, like Temple City’s Camellia Festival and its more than 75-year history. “I wanted to bring some of that perspective to readers.” “Because we’re so spread out, places like the San Gabriel Valley can develop and create these very dynamic and, in some ways, self-sufficient communities that reflect the people that are there,” she says. Describing the differences and diversity of neighborhoods from Monterey Park to San Marino, she drops in real-world landmarks such as La Puente’s Donut Hole, Arcadia’s Santa Anita Plaza and the San Gabriel River Freeway, aka the 605 freeway, among others. Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo gets a love letter in new YA novel set in Asian American communityĪoki, who grew up in Rosemead, said she was attracted to writing about the area in the book.

Pomona native José Vadi says skateboarding, and rejection, inspired his California essays.Pasadena’s Naomi Hirahara explores treatment of Japanese Americans in ‘Clark and Division’.Anaheim author Yoon Choi says raising four children helped shape the stories in ‘Skinship’.How El Monte and the San Gabriel Valley inspire writer Carribean Fragoza’s writing.28, merges elements of folklore and science fiction as three women wrestle to balance tradition and modernity: Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender violinist fleeing an abusive home to start a new life Shizuka Satomi, a musical prodigy turned teacher with an ulterior motive Lan Tran, a donut shop owner and mother who used to captain a starship. The violin figures in the story as part of a nefarious bargain, a source of competition, and a tool for empowerment.Ī work of speculative fiction set in the San Gabriel Valley, “Light From Uncommon Stars,” which is in stores Sept. In Ryka Aoki’s novel “Light from Uncommon Stars,” an essential instrument of the plot is an actual instrument.

Light from uncommon stars