Over the last few weeks, I’ve been enjoying getting my first copies of Secret San Jose out into the world. I’ve loved hearing from readers about what they think, especially which things surprised them and all the memories they’ve shared about the stories and places mentioned in this book. I tried hard to celebrate some of the best parts of our community and I feel like my readers – my neighbors – are responding well to this.
Have you gotten a copy of it yet? If so, let me know what you think! You can email me, message me on Instagram or Twitter, or use the hashtag #SecretSanJose as you are exploring. Also, if you can take a second and write a quick review on Amazon or Goodreads that will help other people find out about it!
If not, pick up one now! You can buy a copy right here (if you live in San Jose, use coupon code LOCALDELIVERY for free shipping – I’m delivering most of these myself) or pick one up at our local independent bookstores. I know for sure that Hicklebees in Willow Glen and Books, Inc in Campbell are carrying it.
I’m excited to launch a blog right here to help supplement the book and share additional stories going forward
Some of you may be familiar with my sadly neglected California travel blog, Ever In Transit. I love it and I feel a lot of guilt for not posting there much recently, but I just haven’t had the time or emotional bandwidth recently to invest in it, but I am planning to get back at it one day soon.
That said, I think my primary way of sharing updates and additional stories going forward will be on social media. Right now I’m posting almost daily to Instagram @SecretSanJose, and sharing most of those photos plus some additional articles and assorted weird and wonderful things on the Secret San Jose Facebook Page. I hope you’ll join me there!
But, I do plan to use the blog here on this site to share more in-depth posts on the other stories that didn’t make it into the book (I had to cut a lot!) and things I want to update or clarify. In light of the pandemic, one thing I’ve been wanting to do is put together an “Open Now” status page showing which spots listed in the book are open right now & safe for socially distant exploration. Watch for that coming very soon!
I’ve also gotten a few ideas of topics that people asked about at some of my recent events, so I plan to dig into those stories and share more in future posts. California’s legendary bandits like Joaquin Murrieta, have come up a few times, as have questions about local haunted places and spooky ghost stories. And at the Open Space Authority last week, someone mentioned a little-known Civil War skirmish that happened right here in the Coyote Valley, just south of San Jose. I had never heard of that before so I’m waiting to get the video back from that event so I can try to find out more about that.
Of personal interest, someone on Reddit asked if I’m from the same family that “Kifer Road” in Sunnyvale was named after! I’m not, to my knowledge, but I’ve always been really curious about who exactly that is – it’s not a common name. So, I definitely plan to dig into that!
What kind of stories do you want to see here? Let me know!