It's 1981 and Hollywood is no wonderland. The drug scene is rampant, the punk music scene is prevalent, and the city is dirtier than its star-studded sidewalks.
Wounded young widow Heather arrives from New York to establish a new life. Among the veteran alcoholics and social deviants she encounters she meets Don, the ambitious musician with the heart of gold. But life is never that simple. She also begins to fall for abusive male prostitute and addict, Bobby, an intimidating and charming fugitive from Manchester.
Erotic, ridiculous, always straightforward and gritty, CALIFORNIA KING follows their story of friendship, pain and obsession.
CALIFORNIA KING is available on Amazon and all its affiliates. You may also order from Vroman's Books and Vroman's Online. For others retailers in the Southern California area, check out Stories in Echo Park, Book Soup in West Hollywood and Skylight Books in Los Feliz.
Praise for CALIFORNIA KING:
"Cox is merciless. She can be quite cruel. She is a neutron bomb who destroys fantasy and make believe and leaves behind empty unadorned buildings. Like really rough scotch or bourbon, she can only be read in doses. In fact, her writing is an acquired taste. If you don't want to see into the core reality of life, do not buy, let alone read her books. But if you are into honesty and courage and already know that no good deed ever goes unpunished, please enjoy. Cox's works are an affirmation of reality. Hobbes would love her. Ohm."
-- Irvine Welsh
“CALIFORNIA KING is a gritty, powerful, multi-layered novel that pays homage to both an era and a subculture of Los Angeles. With pitch-perfect dialogue and elegant prose, Heather Cox gives us a gripping, unforgettable story about characters struggling with life's vices and searching for escape."
-- Andrew Porter, author of The Theory of Light and Matter and In Between Days
"Heather Cox has penned a gruesome, absurd and no-holds-barred tale about life in the underbelly of '80s Hollywood. Ride along on her roller-coaster of drugs, sex and a breakneck search for love, if you dare."
--Jillian Lauren, author of the NY Times bestselling memoir Some Girls: My Life In A Harem.
"Can romance co-exist with heroin addiction, a stream-of-consciousness approach to day-to-day living, and a heart beating to the staccato rhythms of early-80's punk rock? CALIFORNIA KING answers the question with a powerfully gritty, tour-de-force narrative that sees its Hollywood Boulevard-based heroine pinball between ambitious musician Don and charismatic male prostitute Bobby and back again –- with the reader ultimately as conflicted about the life-altering choice as the story's protagonist. With a streamlined style offering little in the way of scene-setting but boundless riches in its evocative discourse and teeming verisimilitude, Heather Cox has crafted a novel that captures a time, and a place, and a personage with a kaleidoscopic specificity that's stunning to behold."
-- Tom Lavagnino
"An artistic and modernist retake on Jackie Susann who as you know I consider the greatest writer of the 20th century..."
--Dan Watanabe, USC, Professor of Film
"What goes on in the creative mind of a former mortician, model and production designer? In the case of author Heather Cox, the answer is a dialog-driven, swerving tale of addiction, darkness, and obsessive love.CALIFORNIA KING is her first novel, and despite all its creaky planks and rough edges, it’s an interesting untamed piece of storytelling. Set in early 1980s Hollywood, the novel follows the rambling, sometimes stumbling, journey of a self-destructive young widow, also named Heather. She runs away from old pains of lost love into the arms of sometimes sparkling, but often seedy and sad, new agonies via two love relationships. One is with the warmhearted yet wayward musician Don. The other is with the consummate bad boy Bobby. Heather (the character) is as street-smart as she is desperate, often living out her own subconscious desires through connections with people who are more ruthless and impossibly lost than she is. She finds these people by putting herself in the most precarious of positions or hanging around in dangerous places. Her story makes a few sharp turns here and there with new characters popping out of nowhere, but overall, it’s a solid effort that fearlessly explores the real underbelly of the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll world we all tend to glamorize at one time or another."
-- Norene Cashen, Your Flesh Magazine
"[I] had no idea whether or not she could write a book. Well, allow me to tell you all that she can indeed write. She can write her ass off! When I read books most of the time there is a moment or two where I laugh, cringe, or very rarely get emotionally involved...Taking place in Hollywood in 1981 it follows a young Widow named Heather as she survives everything from alcoholics, drugs, and the devil himself (not really), Bobby. Now, I say Heather“survives” but in all honesty, she is a trouble maker herself. This isn't one of those “Oh, this poor young girl...” type of story. Heather is a tough ass chick that manages to find trouble and dangerous situations no matter what time of day and does as much harm as good. I found myself sighing at her multiple times. It made me feel like a disapproving mother or something.
Bobby, who I mentioned, is a bastard. Likeable, but still a bastard. Most times when there's a character similar in some way, meaning an asshole, they can end up being redeemable. You hated them and now you like them. My god, Bobby seems at one point to turn over a new leaf and then bam! There he is being a dick again. But for whatever reason you still want him to get his shit together. Whenever Bobby discusses his prostitution I just look out of my window at all the cruisers and go 'Yep. Look at all them Bobbys.'
When reading this I started to feel like I knew these characters which is not something that happens often with books. The characters that were falling apart I wanted to get better and the ones that managed to get away I wanted them to stay away..."
-- Dante Ross, Folks Still Read
Former mortician, model and production designer, Heather Cox is the founder of the Los Angeles-based independent publishing house, Anabasis Publishing. She splits her time between Los Angeles and London. This is her first novel.
To contact Heather Cox, for professional or media inquiries, or to schedule events, contact her management at heathercox@unitedagents.co
