“AN ENDEARING CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE THAT KEEPS A-ROCKIN’.” — Kirkus Reviews
The Chayotes
The Chayotes is a light-hearted, rock n’ roll fiction novel set in a small coastal community in 2014.
When pampered rock star Thørnn craves anonymity and renewed purpose, he impulsively escapes LA to a quaint beach town near
San Luis Obispo, California. After meeting a surfer-drifter named Reggie, Thørnn hastily trades his Lamborghini for a bike and cart and assumes the name Stone. In his awkward attempts at transiency, Stone finds shelter in a barn where aging local musicians The Chayotes regularly jam. Identifying with the name of an unsung squash, they can never seem to finish a song. Can Stone inspire these seniors to finally realize their performance dreams in time for a quickly approaching Monterey music festival? Or will his manager and identity catch up with him first? And what havoc has Reggie been creating in the meantime? Travel back to 2014 for a race up Big Sur before the curtain goes up on the big reveal.
Fun Extras:
Music: Each chapter features suggested correlating “earworms” (songs that tend to stick in your head all day) of classic rock & blues, some more popular than others, up to the year 2014. A playlist with these songs in order of appearance can be found on YouTube Music and on Spotify. Hum along as you read or after each chapter, but be warned, they may stick with you!
Gardening? The growth of seemingly magical chayote squash, the band’s odd namesake, is highlighted in occasional bridges between chapters as an analogy to the band’s progress as the story evolves.
Inspiration: I wrote The Chayotes over the course of ten years, completing it last year after retiring a few years beforehand to MidCoast Maine–a moving plan that had been in place for decades. The storyline of this book was inspired from firsthand experiences working for City & Federal government parks and recreation, musicians I’ve known, and attending various jam sessions to sing or play.
The Chayotes explores themes of escapism, identity, transiency, and finding purpose through helping others, delivered to the reader with humor and warmth. Readers have enjoyed its fast pace, engaging characters, and vivid late summer surf town setting. Though set in coastal California (San Luis Obispo County), the story’s spirit fits any town.
EXCERPTS
“When the sun rises up in the morning and shines its face down on Colitas, it’s already been on a long journey of rising and resting, coming from everywhere else in the world east of there first, which is almost every place. Most of the year, it dreams itself straight out of the universe to awaken on an island of Kiribati, yawning on to New Zealand and Japan, stretching toward India and South Africa, on to coffee in Germany and tea in Scotland and breakfasts in Newfoundland, Maine, and Colorado. The sun then swims toward California, skipping right over Bakersfield (of course) until boom, there it is coming up over the coastal range, rising enough to finally spy sandy-shored beaches. Waving the gray fluffs of fog away back to the ocean, the sun kisses the beach and the waves and says, “I’m done, this is the place, get me a mimosa ’cause I’m hanging out here awhile. Oh, what the hell, all day. I like it here!” But of course, the truth is that it isn’t the sun that is traveling through space and time, it’s us. On its last mile to the beach, the sun peeped voyeuristically in through skylights and parted curtains onto still-sleeping surfers, students, and seniors, in through car windows of rushing commuters gulping sips of cappuccinos, and onto the roofs of restaurants and parking structures. It glanced over the tops of branch-woven nests, nudging dozing mother birds off their warmed eggs, then spied petals of morning glories, prodding them to unfold for waiting bees. Sun then peered through the eaves and cracks of barns to the blinking eyes of owls just returning from the night’s hunt and a life-tired, rock-star-turned-transient awakening from a mouse-eaten mattress in a loft.”
(Chapter 17: “What About Breakfast at Tillys?” – The Chayotes)
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Certification of Human Authorship: AI was never used to write this book, nor will it ever be used to facilitate my writing.
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