Though some authors might be ready for a break after completing a trilogy of novels, Richard Opper is already working on his next book.
Opper released “Oaks from Acorns Grow” in December, following up the first book of his Oakheart trilogy, “The Body in the Barrel,” and the second, “In Deep and Far Out.”
All three books are set in San Diego and Guam in 1973, places and a time that Opper, a 40-year resident of Point Loma, knows well.
“There’s so many things that happened in the ’70s that totally tie into being where we, as a culture, are now,” he said. “There was a growing sense of the empowerment of the sexes, family formations were different and began to be seen more and more.
“The ’70s were a time of a big pivot in American culture, and I wanted that to be reflected in the books. The most fun books can … capture a time and a place, and sometimes bring you to a place you’ve never been.”
Having lived through that era, Opper writes about the ’70s based on a combination of his own imagination, experience and history.
“I try to make the books fun to read and full of twists and turns,” he said. “They are works of imagination. Primarily it’s memory, not research-oriented for me.”
“Oaks from Acorns Grow” is the final book in the Oakheart trilogy by Point Loma resident Richard Opper. (Provided by Richard Opper)
All three novels focus on the character Mona Oakheart, who is loosely based on someone Opper knows and whose real identity he is keeping secret.
“The overall arc of the story was inspired by the life of a young woman [who] went through a lot of challenges. She inspired me,” he said.
Another character in the new book, Gary Reines, is a former Navy and Harbor Police officer. Opper changed the agencies a bit for his novels. For example, there is no port agency in his story.
The book also features a reimagined history of the Theosophical Society, whose Lomaland community is now the site of Point Loma Nazarene University. The old campus also is the setting of “On a Sundown Sea: A Novel of Madame Tingley and the Origin of Lomaland,” the latest book from Opper’s friend and fellow Point Loma author Jill Hall.
“The two books were released, unknowingly, within weeks of each other,” Opper said. “We didn’t plan it. Both books feature similar covers as well. But her book is carefully researched and historical, while mine is a work of imagination. We’re both enjoying the coincidence.”
Opper, a retired lawyer and former professional photographer, said he had wanted to write books his entire life.
“My mom was a first-grade teacher and I was reading at a very young age,” he said. “It was all wonderful. I would just fall into books and learn and always wanted to keep doing that.”
The twists and turns in his books mimic some of the adventures of his own life.
His father was a university professor, and when he was younger they traveled frequently. Later, Opper lived in Europe for a year and Asia for a year.
He and his wife, Ann Poppe, met while attending UCLA and they married in the 1970s. They opened a law firm in Santa Cruz after graduating. They were invited to visit Guam, and two weeks later, Opper was asked to join the attorney general’s office there.
Both of their children, Nico and Wes, were born in Guam.
“It turned into a great adventure that ended up with me becoming the attorney general of Guam and living there for nearly a decade,” Opper said.
When his time in Guam was over, Opper didn’t want to just go back to being a lawyer. Unsure of his next steps, he enrolled in a program at Harvard University while his wife studied piano.
After surviving the “coldest winter on record” in Boston, the couple were eager to get back to “somewhere warm and sunny.”
On a former classmate’s suggestion, they bought a home in Point Loma.
“I bought a house a couple of blocks away from the Naval [Training] Center, what is now Liberty Station,” Opper said. “The amazing thing to me is that it used to be a drab, gray military base and now there is so much stuff happening there.”
As a lawyer working with redevelopment agencies, places like Liberty Station “made me more sensitive to history and capturing how things were at a point in time,” he said.
Opper also was part of the group that organized the original plan for Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres.
“In the process, I learned a lot about how some people research history and how to capture the history with time,” he said.
Richard Opper and his wife, Ann Poppe, show copies of all three of his Mona Oakheart novels at a Point Loma Assembly event. (Provided by Richard Opper)
Though Opper said he’s worked on hard projects as a lawyer, “none have been as hard as writing a novel. It was a learning process that pushed me to my limits.”
The Oakheart trilogy isn’t Opper’s first attempt at writing. His first book was about amazing bicycle riders of the past.
“I thought it was a good book and I worked on it for years, but wasn’t successful publishing it,” he said.
With the trilogy complete, Opper is busy writing another book. This one, based in San Diego in the 1960s, focuses on a draft dodger.
“My life is on a steady keel around here — writing books, cooking, bike travel with my wife, working on learning classical guitar, being creative and thankful,” he said. “That’s a lot for me, but I do my best.”
His to-do list, however, does not include leaving Point Loma.
“It’s so lovely, with the harbor and the boats and the history. It’s been the most wonderful place to live,” he said.
For more information about Opper and his books, visit richardopper.com.