When ever I drive from Southern California to Northern Cal I get an impulse to write one of those Apocalypse books!

If you haven't done the drive from Santa Barbara to Sacramento you don't know what you're missing. You don't know California until you do it. You leave a place that is so beautiful you are certain that it's God's favorite spot on earth. Go 120 miles and swear you are driving through post apocalypse. I mean real planet of the apes barren yuck. Miles and miles of just plain nothing.

I do this drive once or twice a month. There are large sections without cell phone hot spots, radio that is only AM, and rest stops that look like something about of that Denzel movie where he lugs the bible around after the final war. You need to find ways to amuse yourself. This time I counted wineries. That's one of the truly bizarre things about California these days. There are wineries wherever there is dirt and a well. In the middle of planet of the apes barrenness hoity toity Chateau Kettleman City. So bizarre. It didn't use to be this way. Anyone writing an apocalypse book set in California you need to get it right: after the war to end all wars there is nothing to eat but grapes and wine to drink.

I'm thinking of naming my sci-book set in California Vintners after the Apocalypse. I don't doubt if we ever saw dooms day in the central the wineries will still be here.... oh and Cher!