Point Loma author’s latest novel finishes a trilogy set in San Diego

POINT LOMA – It’s time to turn the page, or perhaps turn over a new leaf.

Retired Point Loma attorney Richard G. Opper has completed his fictional series about Mona Oakheart, a self-taught businesswoman, bar owner, and X-rated film producer with the novel “Oaks From Acorns Grow.”

His third book in the trilogy follows his first novel in the series, “The Body in the Barrel,” as well as its sequel, “In Deep and Far Out.”

Like his first two novels, both of which take place partly in Point Loma, this third installment is set on the old Theosophical Society campus, now the current site of Point Loma Nazarene University.

“It is an interesting bit of synchronicity that my book, and another new book, ‘On A Sundown Sea: A Novel of Madame Tingley and the Origin of Lomaland’ by another Point Loma author Jill Hall, are both coming out relatively close together,” said Opper, adding both books are “set, at least in part, at the old Theosophical Society.”

But that’s where the similarities in the two novels end, Opper said.

“My book re-imagines how the society became a fictional institute, while Jill tells a story more grounded in history,” he said.

Lomaland, founded and led by Madame Katherine Tingley, was a Theosophical community in Point Loma from 1900 to 1942, where PLNU is today. T

Theosophy draws from Hinduism, Buddhism, Neo-Platonism, and many other belief systems to understand the universe and humanity’s place in it and to attempt to merge religion, magic, and science. The group came to Point Loma to establish a community that would model Theosophy’s philosophical and humanitarian goals.

Lomaland became a school, cultural center, and residential facility for Tingley’s followers. Theosophists actively studied ancient cultures, as exemplified by the first Greek amphitheater built in the United States, which still stands on the university’s campus.

The Mona Oakhart trilogy involves a triple homicide where Mona, the protagonist, “leaves her X-rated movie past and creates a new vision for her future — but finds she can’t escape all of her old life.”

Opper summarized his trilogy as “boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back.”

Opper pointed out his trilogy is set in 1973, which he characterized as “an amazing time of great change in society and in our own culture.

“All three books actually take place over a three-month period between October and December. The first book happens during just one week in October. But a lot of things happen in that week.”

Regarding the difficulty of writing a trilogy, Opper said it gets easier as you go along. “I had a plot outline for the third book,” he said. “I knew where I was going by the time I got there.”

Of his novel’s characters, Opper said, “I live with my characters. I try to get into their heads as deeply as I can.” By the end, “I felt like I knew them personally.”

Book discussion

Point Loma authors Richard G. Opper (“Oaks from Acorns Grow”) and Jill Hall (“On A Sundown Sea: A Novel of Madame Tingley and the Origin of Lomaland”) will be jointly discussing their two novels at a book signing presented by La Playa Books during a holiday party at Point Loma Assembly, 3035 Talbot St., on Thursday, Dec. 11 from 5 to 7 p.m.