Commuters, tourism workers and stay-at-home moms – those descriptions might come to mind for southwest Riverside County’s nearly half million folks.
Creative writers and illustrators not so much.
Yet 62 writers and illustrators combined recently to produce two anthologies. First is “Stay Awhile: Scenes From Temecula Valley” and the second the same title, just “more scenes” and “stay awhile longer” added.
The group is called Temecula Valley Writers & Illustrators and they meet at 11 a.m. the third Sunday of the month in the conference room at Temecula City Hall, 41000 Main St.
It started unofficially with two writers, Stacia Deutsch and Felicia Horton, meeting at a local coffee shop in summer 2022. Today the group includes about a hundred.
Trond Hildahl, who has been published in four anthologies and edited another five, spearheaded the big project.
The group’s website includes endorsement of the books from five authors. Novelist Gail Webber says, “The rich variety of genres, voices and creative styles kept me turning pages to find new treasures – folk tale, ghost story, science fiction, fantasy, slice of life, drama and more – set in time periods ranging from Temecula’s legendary past to its possible futures.”
Among the talents I recognize are former Temecula Mayor Jeff Comechero and his wife Pat, historian Rebecca Farnbach, massage therapist Wendy Hammarstrom, longtime local resident Bonnie Martland and retired Murrieta educator Karen Robertson.
The fact there are more than 50 other writers and illustrators I haven’t heard of (I’ve lived here since 1988) speaks volumes about the hidden creatives here.
Not something you’d expect given our busy, family oriented, suburban lifestyle.
Hildahl, 52, a data engineer, has lived in rural Aguanga, east of Temecula, for 20 years. His wife Sacha Hope is a painter, “so together we really live a creative life,” he said.
He wrote his first poem when he was seven, he said, but as an adult he was busy making a living. His creative talents lay dormant until he entered a fiction contest about a decade ago, “and the hook set quite firmly this time,” he said of his now-established author life.
He also is an administrator for an online writing group and a facilitator for a monthly meeting of writers for the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in Temecula.
Hildahl got involved with the group that produced the anthologies early last year and 14 months ago was asked to lead the collections of the group’s many talents.
“The expectation was one book,” he said. “We had so many creatives come out of the woodwork in the Temecula Valley that we ended up with two volumes.” It’s a good problem to have.
Every story has art and he fondly recalls a vigorous debate over the illustrations being black and white, or color. The “earnestness of the color brigade swayed the room,” he said. Sounds like the great energy creative people bring.
The introduction to Robertson’s story says she has written comedy, poetry, novels, memoirs, speeches, manuals, grants, newspaper columns and a couple plays. Clearly, a mere short story was easy.
Robertson, 81, has already written her own eulogy “because she wants people to laugh, rejoice and celebrate a life she enjoyed living.”
Her story is inspired by her husband Barry, the last cowboy hired by the legendary Louie Roripaugh of the also famous, at least locally, Vail Ranch.
Robertson wrote her first love story when she was in seventh grade and had a poem published in her school newspaper. She moved here in 1971.
Barry came to Murrieta in 1969, so in her story, “it was easy to add memories of all the old historic places in Temecula. I even get to tell about our wedding on a hay wagon, cowboy style.”
Her piece called “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?” was a way to tell her husband’s story “and kind of memorialize him.”
One of the great things that can be done creatively as a number of local residents have demonstrated in not one, but two anthologies.
Who would have thought.
Reach Carl Love at carllove4@yahoo.com.
