Why subscribe to After Santa Cruz?

When I moved to Ireland from Santa Cruz in 2017, I posted short essays about my life and observations of Ireland as a Californian with Blogger, a technology Google orphaned long ago. In this new version of After Santa Cruz, I can use Substack’s modern interface and tools. I have reposted the best of old essays. Because it’s a form of social media, more people might discover it and subscribe, but I’m not here to make money.

While living in rural Ireland, like many retired people do, I wrote a novel. A Circle Outside is set in the 1980s Santa Cruz mountains and tells the story of a commune of twenty-something lesbian witches who learn that you can’t ever throw anything away, not even the parts of yourself that you hate the most.

Unlike most un-agented writers of first novels, the book found a publisher, Eye/Lighting Books. If you like my essays, you will probably like my fiction too. It’s available in paperback in UK/EU now, and as an eBook in North America. The North American paperback release is February 2026. Please buy it, and write an amazon review even if you didn’t buy it there.

This publication has a section called A Circle Outside where I write short annotations giving cultural context about lesbians and Santa Cruz.

Please subscribe if you like what I write and you will be emailed when I post something. I’m not here to make money.

After Santa Cruz is easy to read in the Substack app.