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Larry Burns, author of 100 Things to Do in Riverside, CA Before You Die and The 52 Project member, has a new book! Secret Inland Empire: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure, shares the wildest, wackiest, and most wonderful places and people that make up the diverse and storied collection of communities that is the Inland Empire.
Join us for this ‘secret’ book launch on Saturday, May 25, 9 a.m.–10:30 a.m. This (okay, not-so) secret book launch is no ordinary book launch. While Secret Inland Empire will be available for purchase ($20.95) and there’ll be a super special deal on 100 Things to Do in Riverside, CA Before You Die (only $5 if purchased with Secret Inland Empire), we’ll also have a reading with the author, a bit of IE trivia, and GIVEAWAYS! This is going to be FUN!
This event is free and open to the public, but please RSVP! And keep it ‘secret’! 😉
About Secret Inland Empire: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure, published by Reedy Press
As the name implies, the Inland Empire is an ambitious collection of communities. The “I got this” ethos is alive and well here. It’s a confidence that comes from living in a place that is wide open like the fabled American frontier. The two counties that comprise the Inland Empire (IE), Riverside and San Bernardino, make it California’s largest metropolitan area. Its population and popularity grow year after year. The biggest secret about the Inland Empire is the number of ways that they lead the state, nation, and world in innovative practices, ideas, and commerce. Home of the first McDonald’s, it perfected the taste that took over the globe. Sampled a Flaming Hot Cheeto lately? Invented here by an hourly employee. This region’s citrus symbolized health and prosperity in the 20th century. Today, 90% of our dates come from the IE’s eastern deserts. Innovative? This is where Dr. June McCarroll redesigned highways by adding the white line—the first mile by her own hand. It’s home to the world’s first Tesla-inspired 3-phase A/C generator power plant, a method employed in 90% of the world today. The largest animatronics studio, Garner Holt Industries, Inc., is not in Hollywood, it’s in the IE. This is where NASA placed the world’s first Deep Space Communications Complex at Goldstone. Every single message from Mars, every probe photograph, comes here first. The purpose of this book is to share the wildest, wackiest, and most wonderful places and people that make up this diverse and storied community.
About the Author
Larry Burns draws inspiration and ideas from the heady mixture of sights, sounds, peoples, and places of his hometown, Riverside, CA. He is an active community leader, booster, and all-around fan of the recreation, entertainment, arts, and culture ready to be discovered across the Inland Empire. He is a founding member of the Inlandia Institute, a non-profit literary organization. He teaches English at Riverside City College and Humanities at Southern New Hampshire University.