Huntington Beach Chronicles

"A selection of Huntington Beach Independent columns by Chris Epting on local people, businesses and history"--

Amid the tourist bustle in the biggest beach city in Orange County, hometown personalities and their stories are Chris Epting's business. As a widely published author and columnist for the "Huntington Beach Independent," Epting has covered the famous and not-so-famous, the local people, places and events of Surf City's beachscapes and street scenes with a reporter's curiosity, a historian's exactitude and an ambassador's pride. "Huntington Beach Chronicles" offers a diverse collection of stories about the everyday people and extraordinary events that have woven together a community with a charm and character unlike any other.

For more than 100 years, Huntington Beach has been a scenic haven for locals and tourists alike. Huntington Beach has also been the subject of many postcards. After all, Surf City, USA is a wonderfully picturesque place. Compelling printed images of the famous pier, downtown, the parks, people, agriculture, and businesses became some of the citys most popular souvenirs. Postcards such as these evoke the magic of long-gone summers; wistful, nostalgic glimpses of a classic Southern California beach cityand they are just as lovely today as they were decades ago.

A teenager becomes a lifeguard in Huntington Beach, California and discovers something he has to keep secret.

Sunrise Calling - Book I of the Lara Chronicles - begins on the boardwalks of Huntington Beach, California (a.k.a. Surf City, U.S.A.), where the ocean meets the sky and drop-dead, gorgeous sunsets provide a perfect backdrop for love and romance. But in those dark hours between sunset and sunrise, a sadistic killer hunts and tortures young girls, and only one person can stop him - Lara Coleman, a twenty-three-year-old girl who comes head-to-head with a terror she has never known before.When Lara is only seven, her best friend, Cody, is attacked on the playground at school. Using her supernatural powers for the first time, powers she didn't know she possessed until now, Lara saves Cody's life, but in fear of something she doesn't fully understand, she represses her abilities and tells no one. Now, sixteen years later, Lara meets Don, a boy from Texas with an irresistible, lopsided smile who loves to skateboard. The attraction is undeniable, and Don immediately asks Lara for her phone number, but as Lara and Don begin to date, strange things start to happen. Lara starts hearing threatening voices in her head, then sees horrifying visions. Fearing for her sanity, she turns to her family for answers and discovers she's capable of things she never imagined. While Lara struggles to understand and cope with her own destiny, the police start to suspect that Don is connected to the murders. Desperate to protect the man she's falling in love with, Lara, with her friend Cody, travel to Texas to unravel Don's mysterious past, and after meeting Don's mother, Savannah - a woman with many secrets - she makes a shocking discovery that changes everything.After returning home, Lara finds she must confront a monster no one even believes exists. Will her growing powers be enough to save her...?

Today Placentia is part of the vast suburban Orange County sprawl that extends eastward from Los Angeles into Southern California's "Inland Empire." This landscape of homes and shopping centers was a windswept wilderness until a Mexican land grant helped transform it into ranches that dry-farmed hay and irrigated fruits and vegetables. The arrival of the Valencia orange and the discovery of oil reshaped the future of Placentia again as groves and derricks covered the land in the first half of the 20th century. The railroad also arrived, followed by more oil discovery to the east and the coming of laborers of Mexican heritage, who formed a community to the south. Schools, churches, and civic buildings remained ancillary to the predominantly agrarian society and economy that existed through the World War II era.