![\""Oaks](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Opper1.jpg\")
\u201cOaks from Acorns Grow\u201d is the final book in the Oakheart trilogy by Point Loma resident Richard Opper. (Provided by Richard Opper)<\/p>\nThough some authors might be ready for a break after completing a trilogy of novels, Richard Opper is already working on his next book.<\/p>\n
Opper released \u201cOaks from Acorns Grow\u201d in December, following up the first book of his Oakheart trilogy, \u201cThe Body in the Barrel,\u201d and the second, \u201cIn Deep and Far Out.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many things that happened in the \u201970s that totally tie into being where we, as a culture, are now,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was a growing sense of the empowerment of the sexes, family formations were different and began to be seen more and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe \u201970s 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 \u2026 capture a time and a place, and sometimes bring you to a place you\u2019ve never been.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having lived through that era, Opper writes about the \u201970s based on a combination of his own imagination, experience and history.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to make the books fun to read and full of twists and turns,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are works of imagination. Primarily it\u2019s memory, not research-oriented for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOaks from Acorns Grow\u201d is the final book in the Oakheart trilogy by Point Loma resident Richard Opper. (Provided by Richard Opper)<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe overall arc of the story was inspired by the life of a young woman [who] went through a lot of challenges. She inspired me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The book also features a reimagined history of the Theosophical Society, whose Lomaland<\/a> community is now the site of Point Loma Nazarene University. The old campus also is the setting of \u201cOn a Sundown Sea: A Novel of Madame Tingley and the Origin of Lomaland,\u201d<\/a> the latest book from Opper\u2019s friend and fellow Point Loma author Jill Hall.<\/p>\n \u201cThe two books were released, unknowingly, within weeks of each other,\u201d Opper said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t 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\u2019re both enjoying the coincidence.\u201d<\/p>\n Opper, a retired lawyer and former professional photographer, said he had wanted to write books his entire life.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mom was a first-grade teacher and I was reading at a very young age,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was all wonderful. I would just fall into books and learn and always wanted to keep doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n The twists and turns in his books mimic some of the adventures of his own life.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s office there.<\/p>\n Both of their children, Nico and Wes, were born in Guam.<\/p>\n \u201cIt turned into a great adventure that ended up with me becoming the attorney general of Guam and living there for nearly a decade,\u201d Opper said.<\/p>\n When his time in Guam was over, Opper didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n After surviving the \u201ccoldest winter on record\u201d in Boston, the couple were eager to get back to \u201csomewhere warm and sunny.\u201d<\/p>\n On a former classmate\u2019s suggestion, they bought a home in Point Loma.<\/p>\n \u201cI bought a house a couple of blocks away from the Naval [Training] Center, what is now Liberty Station,\u201d Opper said. \u201cThe amazing thing to me is that it used to be a drab, gray military base and now there is so much stuff happening there.\u201d<\/p>\n As a lawyer working with redevelopment agencies, places like Liberty Station \u201cmade me more sensitive to history and capturing how things were at a point in time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Opper also was part of the group that organized the original plan for Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the process, I learned a lot about how some people research history and how to capture the history with time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Though Opper said he\u2019s worked on hard projects as a lawyer, \u201cnone have been as hard as writing a novel. It was a learning process that pushed me to my limits.\u201d<\/p>\n The Oakheart trilogy isn\u2019t Opper\u2019s first attempt at writing. His first book was about amazing bicycle riders of the past.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought it was a good book and I worked on it for years, but wasn\u2019t successful publishing it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n With the trilogy complete, Opper is busy writing another book. This one, based in San Diego in the 1960s, focuses on a draft dodger.<\/p>\n \u201cMy life is on a steady keel around here \u2014 writing books, cooking, bike travel with my wife, working on learning classical guitar, being creative and thankful,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot for me, but I do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n His to-do list, however, does not include leaving Point Loma.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so lovely, with the harbor and the boats and the history. It\u2019s been the most wonderful place to live,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Opper6-rotated-1.jpeg\")
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)<\/p>\n