Local author writes spiritual book for children
Leonard Jacobson was in search of the light. According to him, he found it and now shares his epiphanies with people in Santa Cruz and beyond by way of his nonprofit, The Conscious Living Foundation. (Visit leonardjacobson.com to take a look.) An accessible version of his search and subsequent discovery of “the light” is unveiled in the local author’s new book, aptly titled, “In Search of the Light.” The children’s storybook was released on June 1 and sells at Bookshop Santa Cruz and Capitola Book Café. The story was 30 years in the making, and, in a way, mirrors Jacobson’s own spiritual journey.

REGRET
I’d like to take back my not saying to youthose things that, out of politeness, or caution,

I kept to myself. And, if I may—

though this might perhaps stretch the rules—I’d like

to take back your not saying some of the things

that you never said, like “I love you” and “Won’t you

come home with me,” or telling me, which

you in fact never did, perhaps in the newly

Local publishing company brings a spirit of entrepreneurship and creative collaboration to the book industry
It seems an auspicious sign of the times that it started with a text message. A single question was relayed across the honeycombed cellular network from New Jersey to Santa Cruz in December of 2009: “What if [we] joined forces and created our own publishing company?”

Now, a mere year and a half later, the company is an entity, the first two books have been published and several more are slated to go to press in the next couple years. Stephanie Casher calls it the multiplier effect.

Casher, part owner in the Santa Cruz-based publishing company, Pantheon Collective, met her partners James W. Lewis and Omar Luqmaan-Harris in 2006 at the Black Writers’ Conference in Dallas, Texas. At the time, the three authors were in the process of shopping their unpublished manuscripts to agents and publishers.

Editor’s notes: Each year, Santa Cruz County high school students are invited to submit poems and local authors act as judges to select three for cash prizes, several for honorable mention and about 50 for publication in an anthology.  Poetry Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz County Office of Education will present The 18th Annual Santa Cruz County High School Poetry Competition Reading, Awards Ceremony and Celebration of the Publication of the Annual Anthology at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 17 at the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, 400 Encinal St., Santa Cruz.

Kiki-Boy
Dreaming through a screen,
Kiki with the yellow hat and black eyes.
Tú eres la manzana del ojo.
As he drums his fingers, they turn to ash.
Kiki with his blue eyes, red lips.

Sunset magazine’s ‘One-Block Feast’ takes local cuisine to the next level
It began with the idea of an end-of-summer feast—though this wasn’t just your average backyard barbecue. Taking the local food movement to its extreme, the staff of Sunset magazine set out to prepare an entire meal from ingredients they had grown, produced or raised themselves in a backyard-sized plot at Sunset’s Menlo Park office. This meant they not only would have to make do without common ingredients like baking soda or vanilla, but they also would produce their own fat, flour and sweetener—starting with olive trees, a wheat crop and bees.