Tripping on “Blood Red Syrah” blends a psychedelic rush of reality with the far-out fantasy of fiction – bittersweet as a hallucinogenic smoothie, dude.

Although my first novel’s set on the California Central Coast, the book’s roots go deep into Los Angeles. Birthplace of protagonist Jesús Zarate, LA’s where his mother, Zita, sought refuge after escaping Sinaloa, Mexico cartel country and the killers who lynched her husband, his father, and his father over decades of violent crime and corruption.

That’s why my manager, Stephanie, and I are leaving Friday for LA to stoke the story and build on the historic legacy of those people real or imagined who stand against evil – men and women who refuse to buckle to injustice and fear.

Sound good?

Because that’s exactly the kind of rap I expect to lay on people who stop by the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society tent this weekend at the LA Times Festival of Books, the largest book fair in the country. Readers might dig my take on story-telling, fiction drawn from reality to curdle your soul with hope, despair and chaos. Readers might also beg off, apologize and run looking for the romance authors’ tent.

Different strokes, people.

I’ve got two days to talk about Jesús, Wally, Syrah, Tripper, Animal, Wallace, Rose, Om and the rest who live and breathe between the pages of my book. Not all my characters get out alive. But those who do live to fight another day better for the ride.

I’m also better for the ride.

So, when the book fair on the campus of USC ends, the ride continues. We’re heading south to the San Ysidro border crossing to check out the scene and see what we can see.

I’m 60 pages into the sequel, “Weed Wine Magic” and need detail about the mutual border that actually extends and ends in the Pacific Ocean. Has anybody ever tried to surf into the United States? I’ll let you know. We booked a few days in Ocean Beach so I have time to talk.

On Wednesday we’ll turn around and head north, stopping in Laguna Beach for lunch with my longtime friend from Penn State, Chris Green, a former Special Forces Vietnam combat veteran who has lived on America’s far western edge for decades.

Then we truck up to Santa Maria where we used to live and are scheduled to set up a table at a community street fair on Friday night. We’ll see friends and hide out at the Laughing Buddha Cottage in Shell Beach where we stayed last November when we fired up the book tour for “Blood Red Syrah: A Gruesome California Wine Country Thriller.”

Now it’s “Weed Wine Magic” that takes us back to the West Coast for “A Freaky California Pot Country Thriller” set in Mexico, Ocean Beach, Los Angeles, Santa Maria, Shell Beach and the mysterious sand dunes in Oceano near Halcyon, a utopian community where our Theosophist friends offer real magic through good will and harmony.

The world needs more good will and harmony.

Wish us luck on our journey.