Today I’ll share a couple of great places in California. Though I wasn’t born in California like hubby was, I consider Los Angeles my home. After all, it’s where I had my first career, went to university, met my husband, got married, began my second career, and started my first novel. If the beach itself isn't enough to fuel your writing imagination, then take PCH or Pacific Coast Hwy 1 up the coast from any beach suburb of Los Angeles, and you’ll eventually find yourself in the Santa Cruz area.

Once there, be sure and look up a place called The Mystery Spot. A must-see, in my opinion, for anyone interested in science fiction. If the drive through the giant redwood forest doesn’t set an alien-like mood for you, then the weird gravitational anomaly of the place certainly will. While here, I tried not to think about the scientific explanations but instead gave myself over to the awesomeness of the place. Trees that grow with twisted trunks, birds that avoid the area, the fun-house effect inside the buildings, and the amazing gravitational pull you feel when hanging onto the handles provided for the experience. To add to the mysterious feel of the place, Hubby and I arrived just in time to get on the last tour of the day and were the only tourists left.

If you still want more mystery, you go north and a little inland until you’ll reach San Jose, home of the Winchester Mystery House. According to our tour guide, the woman who owned the mansion back in the 1880s was a Winchester Rifle heiress, so she was loaded. She was also a bit of an odd duck. When told by a fortuneteller that she couldn’t stop building on her home or else she would die, she took this advice to heart and continued building onto the mansion over the remainder of her lifetime.

She died anyway almost forty years later, but what she did to the mansion makes for an amazing tour. In addition to Victorian grandeur and gaudiness, there are doors that lead to no place and stairs that dead-end into ceilings. I could almost imagine Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart taking place in one of the rooms. Horror and paranormal writers would have a field day writing tales at such a place as the Winchester Mystery House. If you’re like me, you’ll eventually use aspects of them in your work.

Happy reading!

The odd gravitational pull at the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. The door is straight. I'm the one being pulled by an invisible force.

Where hubby proposed to me back in the day. Notice the dangerous condition sign. There's a cliff that drops off the other side of that fence. Any book ideas yet?