ABOUT THE BOOK

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

Hollywood Buckaroo tells the improbable and unintentional coming of age of Sander Sanderson, whose filmmaking aspirations are in the toilet after the death of his father, a successful Hollywood plumber. Unable to grieve for his dad and face running the family business, Sander wangles a shot to direct a commercial in the old west town of Buckaroo to live out his dream for one whole week before resigning himself to a life he dreads. As Sander struggles to rescue the imploding project, eccentric locals jumpstart his creativity and his heart, so he can mourn at last and love again.

HOW IT GOT WROTE

When I was going through a rough patch, a friend suggested a trip to the high desert to clear my head. More specifically, she invited me out there to work on a film. The Howling: New Moon Rising (seventh in the non-blockbuster Howling series) is hands-down the worst film ever made. On the one hand, I’m proud to confess I was a part of it. On the other hand, it’s not my fault it stinks. No matter. It brought me to Pioneertown, a replica of an 1880s wild west town built in 1946 by a small consortium of entertainment types including cowboy actors Dick Curtis and Russell Hayden to be used as a permanent film set. With small cabins and larger ranches set among Pioneertown’s surrounding foothills, cast and crew could roll out of bed, plant their pointy-toed boots on the ground, and pop down to Mane Street to for first call. Over the years, Pioneertown has become quite the magnet for musicians, painter, photographers, sculptors, filmmakers, horse and Harley aficionados, desert-sky watchers and all manner of folks who enjoy fringe living with a western flavor. In the book, “Buckaroo” is the name of a fictionalized Pioneertown: a place where miracles and bullshit happen daily, where a person can fall in love or fall off the edge of the world. And I know because I did both.