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Local, California

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Local, California

Local, California is a fictional town whose deeply-rooted fractures get highlighted in the year 2047 when a 13-year-old known victim of bullying is charged with double-murder. The trivial spats between the town’s founders almost 200 years prior had hardened into unchallenged societal guardrails that govern Local today. Written from the voice of Local’s most successful writer, JV Troops, this novel explores the intersectionality of inherited bias and groupthink in the many tentacles of a town.

Why I Wrote It

I never read Harry Potter growing up. I was introduced to it around 2014 when I watched the first film. I remembered people saying that the movies were exactly like they imagined the books. After watching the film, I had to read how someone could write so well that people pictured what I was seeing on the screen. After reading Harry Potter, I vowed to create my own world, and in January 2015 I started the outline for Local, California. I kept track of things that wouldn’t be legal in my world; how human-computer interaction could look in 2047; or how quickly misinformation could become doctrine with the right factors in place. Over the next ten years, I revised the script nine times before finally getting it right.

About the Book

Synopsis

Local, California isn’t just a town — it’s a legacy. Founded in the late 1800s by the Pembroke family, Local grew into a place where old grudges hardened into tradition, and biases became law without anyone remembering why. By 2047, those unexamined beliefs shape every corner of the city — from classrooms to city hall.

When two middle school boys are gunned down and their classmate is accused of murder, the tragedy ignites a firestorm. Was it cold-blooded violence or self-defense? As the trial looms, the case fractures Local along invisible lines of race, power, and politics. A rising mayoral candidate seizes the narrative, journalists dig for truth, and a grieving mother demands justice, while the past — from the Pembroke founding to forgotten Cherokee stories — seeps into the present.

Told through a chorus of voices, Local, California is part murder mystery, part political drama, and part generational saga. It asks a simple but urgent question: how much of what we believe is truly our own, and how much is inherited without question?

Themes

Legacy

Bias

Politics

Justice

The World of Local

19th Century Timeline

Local was founded in 1890 by the seven children of Joseph Pembroke, the original settler of the land and its original developer. Joseph’s seven children (Marin, Geoff, Wallace, Leonard, Hannah, Mason, and Geny) each inherited one-seventh of their father’s land and grew their families on them. That grew into seven distinct districts, each carrying on the personality of its founding Pembroke. Over the generations, those traits and characteristics became hardened behaviors and eventually normalized expectations. Let’s meet the Pembroke 7.

Marin Pembroke
Genesis

Geoff Pembroke
Geoffersonville

Wallace Pembroke
Stonewall

Mason Pembroke
Mason Bluffs

Geny Pembroke
Kumama

Leonard Pembroke
Maineville

Hannah Pembroke
Triumph

The Year 2047

The modern day culture of Local is still very much governed by the Pembroke 7 and their feelings towards each other. After several generations, however, their differences normalize into a pattern of behaviors that shape society of the town. The murders of Tariq Hazelton and Gerald McElroy exposes these cultural fissures and the solutions only lie in unraveling the troubled past.