Nowhere Zone“I’d been renting an apartment over on Georgia Street, the sort of border area between North Park and Hillcrest. From one month to the next, they raised my rent by $200. I’m a teacher …
December 4, 2023
Laura Rhoton McNeal holds an MA in fiction writing from Syracuse University and is the author, with her husband Tom, of four young adult novels published by Knopf: Crooked (winner of the California Book Award in Juvenile Literature), Zipped (winner of the Pen Center USA Literary Award in Children’s Literature), Crushed and The Decoding of Lana Morris. Laura’s solo debut novel, Dark Water, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the San Diego Book Award in young people’s literature in 2010.
McNeal's notable Reader stories from the archives:
I Know That One Day, Not Very Far Off in a Corner of This World, Someone Is Going to Say, We Need You (war stories of the baby market)
Their Babies Smell Like Freshly Opened Hickory Nuts (squirrels' lives)
Fairy Godmother's Art (sewing and class-consciousness - about the author's mother)
Vampires on My Front Porch (the care and feeding of pale wigglers)
Articles by Laura McNeal
Normal Heights on its way back
South Bay gated community may not be safest place to avoid danger
The Chula Vista kidnapping of Eddy Tostado by Arellano cartelAt 3:39 a.m. on January 7, 2007, Columbia Street was almost deserted. Little Italy had been plagued with car burglaries — “It got where you couldn’t …
October 22, 2023
Tom Deméré takes us to Mission Valley of 50 million years ago
More or less sudden mountainsThe rocks in and around San Diego have composed amazing, fiery stories for a very long time. An ancient ocean once covered this county; volcanoes used to spew here; and more …
October 1, 2023
The most important woman
The woman we never forgetBy Abe Opincar, Amy Gerstler, Barbarella Fokos, Deirdre Lickona, Ernie Grimm, Geoff Bouvier, Jeannette DeWyze, Jeff Smith, Jennifer Ball, Jim Morris, Laura McNeal, Mary Grimm, Matthew Lickona, Patrick Daugherty, RF Jurjevics, …
September 30, 2023
San Diego punk bands close up
Real hardcore true punkThe roots of the San Diego music scene run deep. Musicians who began gigging around town in the mid- to late 1980s later became the bedrock of the diverse early ’90s scene, …
September 16, 2023
30 tugs do the pulling in San Diego Bay
Tugboats of San Diego Bay“We got a call from a friend with the Navy on a Saturday morning before Easter, and he said, ‘How fast can you get to Camp Pendleton?’ We said we could …
September 11, 2023
General Grant's heirs made mark on San Diego
San Diego's least-remembered great man – U.S. Grant Jr. On a Sunday in September of 1929, 15 members of San Diego’s elite gathered to carry the coffin of an old friend. Among the pallbearers were …
August 26, 2023
The Fletchers leave a cautionary tale about alcohol
What happened? A pioneer family's tragedy There was nothing to do but walk back to the house. Eric and his wife walked 10 yards, 20 yards, 30. The sky was still pink in the west. …
August 21, 2023
Fallbrook – a door into the past
I want the backwards clock to go forward and the forward clock to go backwards Outside the barbershop, the street is usually sunny. Cars stop for the light and move past us, windows down, arms …
December 11, 2022