A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to NY. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.

Vividly depicts the colorful, sometimes disreputable, inhabitants of a run-down area in Monterey, California.

Takei, the actor best known for playing Lieutenant Sulu on the original Star Trek, was four years old when the U.S. declared war on Japan. Like other Japanese Americans on the West Coast, his family was forced to leave their home and live for several years in prison camps. First, armed soldiers escorted them by train to Arkansas. A year later, they were sent to a harsher detention center in Northern California, where they stayed until the war ended....

As one of the many fortune seekers during the California Gold Rush in the 1850's, the reader makes plot choices based on situations real people faced during this exciting time in history.

Historical and modern romance stories intertwined to tell the story of Kenworthy, California -- once a Gold Rush town and now a ghost town.

Young Simone is woken up in the middle of the night to evacuate due to a wildfire. Simone is terrified, and her mother tries to provide comfort, sharing that she, too, had to evacuate as a child back in Vietnam because of a major flood. They arrive at the local high-school gym to take shelter, and it is packed.  Simone remembers a saying from her mother, "You don't fight fire with fire. You fight fire with water." Simone draws to make herself feel...

Drew was never much of a runner -- until his dad's unexpected diagnosis. Mia has nothing better to do -- until she realizes entering Half Moon Bay's half-marathon could solve her family's housing problems. And just like that they decide to spend their entire summer training to run 13.1 miles. Along the way, they both discover it takes a lot more than a good pair of shoes. Drew and Mia may have very different reasons for running, but these two twelve-year-olds...