News

New Guild member and psychotherapist, Susan Black Allen has released her debut book of poetry – some are in free verse, some in more traditional structures.

Allen’s wit and emotional passion fill her gems. She covers many topics --- nature, sex and relationships, pets, her losses, and moments of pleasure. Other times, she seems to see and feel the world as others do --- some of whom may have been patients of hers.

Many of the poems caused me to ponder matters more deeply. Others made me feel surprising emotions. The poems are to be cherished and enjoy over and over. I highly recommend this book if you like poetry or even if you don’t.

Allen’s first poetry collection, The Best Sex I Never Had: Secrets and Solace of a Psychotherapist, was published by Legacy Publications in 2025. She has published essays and poems on mental health and parenting in The Boston Sunday Globe Magazine, for the non-profit, "This is My Brave," and in The San Diego Poetry Annual.

A Boston transplant, San Diego is now one of the top loves of her life. Allen is rather fond of her daughter Emmy, and fiancé Mark, too.

At the January 17 New Year's Celebration, members were invited to read their 50-word extensions of one of six first sentences. Below are some of the stories they read.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I hope they’ll have a few days of happiness before the past starts to catch up with them. Maybe she’ll never find the farewell letter I sent. Maybe he’ll never locate the gun.

--Jinny Batterson

I can’t go, not without Alex. I would be a distraction. People who know what happened might politely avoid me so they don’t have to mention him. But people who don’t know might ask me or someone else. It wouldn’t be fair to the newlyweds.

--Sandra Yeaman

It's not my wedding. I don't know the bride or the groom. Some floozy at the bar tonight asked me to go with her. It's a big wedding, she said. The booze is free. She told me she slept with the groom once. That was her big mistake.

--Corey Lynn Fayman

“And you forgot to tell me something?” The champagne flute slipped out of Allison's hand.

“I know,” Michael approached; his crisp tuxedo, long strides – handsome as ever, melting her in his embrace he whispered, “I just didn't want to upset you, but my mom invited my ex-!”

--Terry Bell

There we were. No land in sight. And no paddle.
Our boat looked like it was sitting on an enormous sheet of glass.
The silence was deafening.
The only thought I had was: What. The. Fuck.

--Mardie Schroeder

I looked ahead at my daughter, cringed. I’d pushed too hard. I can do 15 miles a day with a full pack but her swimmer’s feet aren’t used to long days on trail. I also hadn’t accounted for the rock scramble of Pennsylvania before the nauseatingly humid slap of Maryland.

--Jessica Brodkin Webb

We stowed the canoes as the rain poured. We pitched the tents in record time, and I unrolled the garbage bags, ripping head and armholes. Tentbound, the girls cried, soaking wet. I dry shaved my legs, told scary stories, and woke with friends.

--Christina Buffington

I’ll keep it that way. It’s said, if two people know a secret, it’s no longer a secret. So … You really wish to know what happened to her, eh? Well … Wish all you want. I’ll never tell.

--Bob Riffenburgh

I heard them fighting. Then, a scream. Later, silence. I watched from my window as he dragged the heavy trash bag across the garden and to his car. When he leaves, I'll follow. They say I'm only twelve. But I'm strong, and my bike is fast. What could go wrong?

--Marcia Buompensiero

And I'm not telling. Suffice it to say that she has never participated in legalizing a marriage, and her parents named her Robert--nickname Bobby--at birth. Bobby Salazar.

--Rachel

And I can't tell you because Mr. Brown mustn't find out where she is. That Narcissist shriveled the amazing Nancy Adams into an insecure, terrified couch cushion he sat on.

She's still scared to stand up to him. But a powerful, courageous first step is escaping his filthy claws.

--Margaret Harmon

That matched my mood. I sat on the bed caressing the fully loaded Ruger LCP Max cradled on my lap. As my mind swirled with conflicting emotions, hate, love, grief, I closed my eyes imagining pulling the trigger. Then, I heard my father's footsteps on the stairs.

--Sandra Stahl

… If only my life were that simple. If only seeing Charlie last night meant that the storm would rage and bluster for a while and then move on. Problem solved. Simple. But no. In my world, the storms build and wind rages in the searing light of day.

--Paul Banks

They lied. Stories arrive like rain—unannounced. Then vanish.
Stranded in California with a suitcase meant for one year that stretched decades, voices returned:
Peasant workers whose labor fed a nation that never learned their stories.
If these stories remain unread, the world has not yet made room.

--Wanjiru Warama

She was broken, hopeless, lost.
A deep desperation within her spirit.
It would take an act of GOD to give
her freedom from destruction.
She looked up from the bottom of
the grave and heard His voice calling,
"Come to Me"---That was GOD!

--Marie DiMercurio

Fourteen SDWEG members, plus the Guild itself, were among the local San Diego authors featured in the San Diego Public Library’s 60th Local Author Showcase on Saturday, January 24. Several Board members attended the event which featured Dean Nelson, a former Odin Award recipient as the speaker. 

If you missed the event, you can see all the books with information about the authors on the Library’s 2025 Local Library Showcase website.

Guild members represented among the exhibits include Connie Bennett, Susan Black Allen, M. Lee Buompensiero, Richard Carrico, and Corey Lynn Fayman. Their book covers appear above.

Other Guild members represented at the Showcase include Cynthia Gould, Cary Lowe, Erik Martin, Tamara Merrill, and Richad Opper. Their book covers appear above.

In addition to the Guild’s anthology, books by R.H. Riffenburgh, Patricia Santana, JR Strayve JR, and Thomas WIng round out the Guild’s representation in the Showcase.

Featured speaker Dean Nelson, also represented at the showcase with his book Talking to Writers based on his experience interviewing writers at the Point Loma Writers Conference by the Sea, encouraged all participants to keep writing or to start writing. Next year we’d like to see more Guild members represented at this, the longest running event of its kind in the US.

Irish Secrets and Lies by Guild member, Debbie Wastling, is part of The Sutherland Scandals, a historical series about a family that rises from poverty. In Irish Secrets and Lies, the main character, Martha Lowery, is the daughter of a nonworking alcoholic father and mother whose health is broken from having too many children too often.

Martha works two jobs. Her main one is as a cook and gifted baker. She tries to act as a mother figure to her younger siblings but, one day her father, in a drunken stupor, tries to rape Martha. The next day she finds another place to live. Being hard working and likable, a friend offers the nineteen-year-old girl a temporary place to stay.

At the same time, Martha is swept off her feet by John Benjamin (JB) Sutherland, by whom she becomes pregnant. When her condition becomes apparent, her employer wants to sack her. Fortunately, her friend allows Martha to stay on permanently, saving Martha from a much harder life. Also, a statement of her great character, JB really cares about Martha; however, he drags his feet about getting married.

Despite Martha’s lack of education, she is able to read recipes and quick to learn new skills. Will JB marry her and help raise his children? Will he succeed at starting his dream job as a pub owner? More important, how will the character, who overshadows another book in the Sutherland Scandals, affect Martha and her family members? Her first born, from a young age, lacked empathy and refused to conform to social and physical limits. 

For history lovers, this book gives the reader a sense of what life was when women had the right to own property but there still was no birth control for women so women often died when they had numerous children too often.

Guild member, Erik Christopher Martin recently published The Case of the Niceferatu¾his seventh published novel and fourth book in the Dotty Morgan Supernatural Sleuth series: The Case of the Niceferatu.

The book has been an astonishing success. For two days in the first week of January M was #1 in Children's Fantasy and Supernatural Mystery. It also hit #2 in Children's Paranormal Fantasy and Children's Mystery and Detective Adventure. 

For about 2 days in the first week of January it was #1 in Children's Fantasy and Supernatural Mystery. It also hit #2 in Children's Paranormal Fantasy and Children's Mystery and Detective Adventure. 

Elderton, North Carolina is home to Dotty Morgan, an inventive thirteen-year-old paranormal detective. Despite taking self-defense instruction for a year, Dotty is no fighter. She tries to protect her girlfriend, Hannah, when they are attacked in the locker room following one of Hannah’s wrestling matches. While it is Hannah who saves Dotty, the event awakens Dotty’s suspicions that paranormal individuals are present in her town.

Hannah, is injured as she saves a boy in a sledding incident. While the boy is unharmed, Hannah’s leg is broken. Not being able to be in wrestling competitions or to work in a self-defense studio, Hannah can no longer defend Dotty.

Now alone and wearing a mohawk with tailored clothes made by her close friend and fashion designer, Parker, Dotty endures daily teasing from the basketball team. Spitballs and humiliations become her new norm.

Parker’s dad is spending all his time with a beautiful woman client. Parker’s mom throws out his dad. His dad seems different. Parker tells Dotty that his father worries him.

Dotty discovers Parker’s father isn’t having just an affair with his client, the woman is turning him into a vampire. She also discovers a missing Elderton woman has become a vampire. Then she investigates a hidden apartment in a parking building. The residents tell her they only use the blood bank to feed themselves but say there are others who are blood-sucking monsters.

Dotty, her friend and housemate, Greg, and Greg’s vampire hunter father, investigate and try to stop the monster vampires. Some times they work together, sometimes not.

Tension ratchets up when Dotty learns a group of bad vampires plans to descend on the town for a gathering called the Fifty-Year Feast, where a large number of the town’s residents will be attacked, fed on, and killed.

Every chapter of Martin’s book is full of surprises and the pace never lags as each revelation raises the stakes. Dotty, a scientist at heart, struggles to find a cure for the vampires. Specifically, she wants to save Parker’s dad from becoming a full-fledged vampire. Will she succeed?

Martin’s paranormal creatures are unique. Some are harmful. Others need protection. In his four novels, Dotty invents ways to detect, understand, help or fight the paranormal. The Case of the Niceferatu is his best book so far.

In addition to writing books for YA and middle-grade readers, Erik Christopher Martin’s short fiction for adult readers has appeared on the Tales to Terrify Podcast, in Frontier Tales, Coffin Bell, The Potato Soup Journal, and various other anthologies and journals. He is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and the San Diego Writers and Editors Guild (SDWEG). Visit www.DottyMorgan.com or www.ErikChristopherMartin.com.

The San Diego Central Library is hosting their 60th annual Celebration of San Diego County Local Authors on Saturday, January 24, 2026, from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. The celebration and Local Author Expo features books published in 2025 by local authors and includes SDWEG's anthology Good Luck With That as well as books by a number of Guild members. The Keynote Speech at the event will be Dr. Dean Nelson, founder and host of the Writers Symposium by the Sea and a previous Odin Award recipient from SDWEG.

While registration is not required, as a local author, it is highly recommended.

RSVP here.

You may have to confirm the selection of the SD Central Library before the registration page opens.

Construction workers in the San Juan Islands of Washington State discover the body of a man who had disappeared three decades earlier. Threats again haunt investigative journalist Rent Beacham as he turns to the San Diego Herald newspaper archives to dig into the man’s disappearance following a toxic-waste scandal in the wake of the America’s Cup sailing regatta in San Diego, California.

Rent confronts prominent property developer James Michael “Mike” Johnson, the former owner of the San Diego boatyard and whose son-in-law has thrown his hat in the ring to become the next congressman to represent California’s 25th Congressional District, which encompasses California’s Imperial Valley.

Rent exposes the Johnson family’s web of financial ties to ADU construction, hazardous waste disposal, lithium mining, and entities redeveloping a geothermal plant and solar arrays to power an artificial intelligence data center in what the local boosters have dubbed as “Lithium Valley.”

The threats escalate to include the lives of Rent’s loved ones as he connects the dots between the cold case, mysterious hazmat disposal activity, a clownish Congressional campaign, and the murky depths of AI avatars and deepfakes as election day looms.

Further threats and abductions portend a dramatic showdown with ruthless rogues cloaked in a veil of propriety as he closes in on those behind the three-decades-old murder.

Although this is a work of fiction, its inspiration emerged from current events, including the indisputable pitfalls posed by artificial intelligence.

Larry M. Edwards is an award-winning investigative journalist, author, editor, and publishing consultant. He has written six books and has edited more than 500 fiction and nonfiction books.

As a journalist, he has won numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the San Diego Press Club, including four Best of Show honors. As business editor for San Diego Magazine, his reporting fueled the resignations of a corrupt CEO and an ineffective San Diego mayor.

As a nonfiction author, Edwards wrote Dare I Call It Murder?—A Memoir of Violent Loss, which took top honors in the San Diego Book Awards and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. It became a bestseller in Memoir and True Crime categories.

As an editor/publisher, one of his proudest moments came when Murder Survivors Handbook: Real-Life Stories, Tips & Resources by Connie Saindon received the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Gold Award from the Independent Book Publishers Association.

As a musician, he plays fiddle and bass and has composed nearly two dozen melodies.

A review by Pennell Paugh

Richard G. Opper has released the last book in his Oakheart Trilogy, Oaks From Acorns Grow. It is written in deep point of view of each player in the story, including the criminals.

Mona Oakheart, goes to Guam to find her leading porn star, Tina.Upon Mona’s arrival, Tina is murdered by a judge who took advantage of her when she was a minor. In the midst of events, Mona falls in love with a female court psychiatrist. Upon Gary’s arrival in Guam, Mona ends her relationship with the former Navy and Harbor Police officer.

Mona decides to go back to school, hoping to help other women from exploitation. Unfortunately, danger is close at hand, as a group of rapists terrorizes the island of Guam. Meanwhile, Gary returns to San Diego to face the Tong, a criminal organization that aims to kidnap the war orphans for whom his father is caring. 

As Mona confronts personal tragedy, she becomes aware of an unexpected miracle that will bind her to Gary for the rest of their lives. 

The book, like the others in the Oakheart Trilogy, is written in an unusual style that is fast-paced and a pleasure to read.

Former professional photographer and TV-show host, Richard G. Opper later chose law school and went to UCLA where he met his wife, Ann Poppe. They have two grown children.

After graduating they opened a law partnership in Santa Cruz, but they were soon lured away to work for the Attorney General’s Office for the Territory of Guam. Their children were born on Guam, where the family enjoyed their sailboat and being part of the local community. Richard later became the Attorney General for the Territory, On his leaving the office, he was awarded membership in the Ancient Order of the Chamorri, one of the highest civilian honors the Government of Guam can bestow.

After leaving the island he landed in San Diego, where he established a career in environmental law and practiced the power of storytelling in jury trials. Richard was a frequent lecturer on the topic of brownfield redevelopment, and the US EPA sent him to Europe several times to describe cutting edge ideas to our European allies.

Opper is founding director of Progresso Fronterizo (Foundation for Border Progress), an organization focusing on environmental and health conditions along the US-Mexico border. For many years he was a board member for the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego.

Opper has published articles in the San Diego Union Tribune and professional journals. Oaks From Acorns Grow is his third novel.

 

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

Corey Lynn Fayman stages his mystery in April 1891 in his latest novel, The Deadly Singaree. Fourteen-year-old Johnny Cong, an orphan of Scotts-Chinese parentage, who lives in the city’s Stingaree district, tells the story.

Taking advantage of opportunities that come his way, Cong ekes out a living driving a donkey cart, in spite of being treated with contempt like his African American friend. To gain free housing and a place to board his donkey, he watches over the animals in a barn where straw is his bed. He reports that San Diego is anticipating the arrival of Benjamin Harrison, the first US president to visit their city.

Norwegian, John Sigerson, hires Cong as a guide. Mysterious crimes occur that Sigerson investigates in a manner like Sherlock Holmes. Are the crimes linked together? Sigerson comes to believe the US president’s life be threatened. Will people believe him? An exciting thriller unfolds.

Fayman, claims a document was mysteriously delivered to his home that had been written by Johnny Cong. However, the book is written in modern English and Fayman does not sell the book as an authentic historical nonfiction story.

To Fayman’s credit, The Deadly Stingaree has a delightful cast of characters who stand out from the page, including the notorious gunslinger, Wyatt Earp. The book is compelling, at times exciting, and is always interesting.

Corey Lynn Fayman was born in La Jolla, CA. He holds a B.A. in English, with a specialization in creative writing and poetry from UCLA, and an M.A. in Educational Technology from San Diego State University. His creative career includes work as a musician, songwriter, sound designer, multimedia developer and college professor. He is the author of six mystery novels, including the San Diego Book Awards 2021 Geisel award winner Ballast Point Breakdown and the 2024 Shamus finalist Gillespie Field Groove.

History buffs will love Richard Carrico’s new book, El Presidio de San Diego: Excavating Southern California’s Lost City. The author’s preview to European colonization is short but extensive. Carrico’s greatest focus is upon the presidio in San Diego, which was a Spanish military post as well as the first Catholic mission and settlement in California.

Begun by Franciscans, the El Presidio de San Diego was used as a stepping stone to spread Spain’s northern empire in California, which grew into twenty-one missions and four presidios. These settlements housed soldiers, wives, native workers, and passing travelers. Sometimes, acting as the only form of law, the post declared and carried out justice. As a result, it held a few prisoners.

Carrico states, “Erase any thoughts you might have about metal-helmeted conquistadors, soldiers in matching colorful uniforms, or purebred Spaniards living within the adobe walls. Except for the small contingent of Catalonian soldiers from Spain, few presidial occupants had ever set foot in Europe. Their homeland was in the New World, in the ever-expanding Spanish empire.”

The book shares fascinating findings of excavations done in and around the El Presidio de San Diego that began with limited digs in the late 1920s. Attention was renewed in 1965, and then more extensive archeological studies were performed between 1968 and 1976. The author shares intimate details about the digs in which he was involved.

From artifacts discovered, archaeologists pieced together how people lived in the late 1700s to the mid-1800s. Grave excavations also revealed diseases and deformities of the residents and how long people likely lived.

Below is an excerpt shows how Carrico can make historical events seem exciting:

“One of the major items sought from the Spaniards by the Kumeyaay was cloth. When Serra and his companions told the village leaders that no more cloth would be provided to them, a group of Kumeyaay sailors launched reed canoes and attacked the San Carlos anchored in the harbor. The disgruntled Native men attempted to slash the canvas sails and take them as overdue tribute. They were repelled by on-board guards. In response, additional guards were sent to the ship for protection, leaving the little Spanish camp nearly defenseless.

“In August 1769, realizing that most of the soldiers had gone north with Portolá or were on board the San Carlos, insurgents led by a powerful Kwaapaay named Naguasajo, attacked Serra’s little encampment. In what was described as a pitched battle, several persons on both sides were wounded and one young Spanish boy, a valet or servant from Guadalajara, was shot through the throat and killed. Ironically, seven years later, Serra met with Naguasajo in his prison cell at the presidio. Naguasajo had been arrested for his part in the sacking of the mission in November 1775. He remained steadfastly anti-Spaniard and recalcitrant.

“Over the next several months and then years, expeditions to the north continued, and new missions were established at Carmel, Padua and San Gabriel. Short on supplies, threatened by local Kumeyaay and with many of the sailors and soldiers still suffering from scurvy, the new outpost hung by a tenuous thread. From his command post to the north in Monterey, Lieutenant Pedro Fages bristled at the thought that he was expected to protect the missionaries. This set the stage for decades of competition between the military and the church, leading at times to outright animosity.

“For five years, the new settlers toiled on the hill to build a small church, housing for the troops, bastions to mount their two cannons and other elements of the fort. The term presidio, derived from presidium, meaning “to preside,” was applied to the settlement although it was not officially recognized as a royal presidio for several more years. Under Spanish law, the presidio and especially the mission were expected to fend for themselves, with only limited support from the Spanish government in Mexico City, more than eighteen hundred miles to the south and San Blas, thirteen hundred miles distant. The priests and colonists were instructed to grow their own crops; raise successful herds of cattle, pigs and horses; and defend the little hillside settlement from Native and foreign forces. For the first year, the military element consisted of fewer than ten ill-equipped men.”

About the Writer

Carrico is an award-winning author of nonfiction and historical fiction with a focus on Spanish borderlands archaeology, indigenous people, and true crime. Carrico grew up in San Diego before serving in the U.S. Army in the late 1960s. He holds a BA in history from San Diego State College and a BA in anthropology from San Diego State University. As a postgraduate, he earned an MA in history from the University of San Diego. He taught history, anthropology, and Native American studies at San Diego State University for thirty years before retiring in 2024. 

For more than forty years, Carrico participated in archaeological studies in California, Baja California, Arizona, and Hawaii. He directed the San Diego Presidio excavations for two seasons and conducted research on the site for more than forty-five years. He has authored more than twenty academic articles that appeared in professional journals and at least twenty articles in popular magazines, including SkyWest Spirit, San Diego Home & Garden, San Diego Reader and Ranch & Coast Magazine. He has published five books on a variety of topics.

This book is Carrico’s second publication with Arcadia Publishing/The History Press. His book Ramona, in the Images of America series, was a well-received portrayal of a rural community. His Strangers in a Stolen Land, the story of San Diego County’s Native Americans, is used as a textbook at several universities. His most recent book, Monsters on the Loose, won second place at the 2024 Book Fest and was a Silver Falchion Award Finalist at the 2024 Killer Nashville event. His short story “Animals Who Talk, Sing, and Dance” received an Honorable Mention Award from Writer’s Digest Magazine. His most recent piece, Habla Espanol? If You Rodeo You Do was published in Cowboy Up rodeo magazine.