Get the latest scoop on Buzz Anderson and his books!
A Jar of Water, the latest book by Buzz Anderson, is a collection of poems inspired by nature and living near the sea.
Five Hundred Moons, an 814-page saga of “passion and sorrow, violence and spirituality,” tells the story of Spanish conquest in Alta California. It is a story of the resilience of love and the human spirit.
REVIEWS AND MORE: FIVE HUNDRED MOONS
Lisa Crawford Watson | Monterey Herald:
“Buzz Anderson sat in his Santa Cruz home, researching, writing, and revising a story that had been simmering in his mind until it began to take shape.
“His depth of research, paired with a natural proclivity for vivid descriptive detail, yielded a work of historical fiction…that’s hard to put down. The book begins in Alta California circa 1793 and continues, for nearly 800 pages, through the trials, torment, and triumph of humanity, moving both forward and backward through the late 18th century. Despite gains and losses throughout the story, its readers never get lost.
“Part of the authenticity of Anderson’s story comes from paying attention to his characters—who they are, what they represent in the story, and what they could possibly be feeling. His slow and simmering sensuality between principal characters Drina and Francois reads like feeling silk.”
Nick Sestanovich | Santa Cruz Sentinel:
“Anderson has two goals with the book: to entertain readers and provide a voice for the Ohlone people.
““I wanted them to not come across as just a simple people,” he said. “I decided…to put their dialogue, their conversation, on equal footing with other groups in the book.”
“Anderson also wanted to provide a balanced portrayal of Serra, who has been remembered as a controversial figure for many reasons, portray(ing) Serra and the Franciscans in a more nuanced way. ‘I wanted to treat him fairly, but at the same time, acknowledge that his behavior led to the deaths of thousands and thousands of local people and that was a real tragedy,’ he said. ‘It would have happened regardless of whatever European people came to California, and he gets a lot of blame for that because he was the one who led the charge into California with the Spanish and the Franciscans, but if it wasn’t him, it would have been someone else.’
“Anderson hopes readers will come away with an appreciation for history, the characters, story, and the different tribes that once inhabited the Santa Cruz region. ‘(I hope) they learn about how they treated the land and how they were able to live here for a long time basically unchanged,’ he said.
“Anderson also hopes to instill a sense of consciousness in the reader about these tribes. ‘I’d like to hope there’s some of that consciousness that’s still in us that can bubble to the surface sometimes and give us an appreciation for what we are as humans on this earth and in this special place here.’”
From Johanna Miller | Arts & Culture | Local News | The Pajaronian:
“Author Buzz Anderson always dreamed of writing the great American novel.
“Born in San Jose and then moving with his family to Capitola, Anderson has remained in Santa Cruz County for most of his life, attending local public schools, Cabrillo College and UC Santa Cruz.
“After studying journalism and literature, he shifted focus, getting into the auto parts business with his brother and then receiving a teaching credential. He published a book of poetry, A Jar of Water, and continued to write on the side. All the while, a much bigger story was forming…”
READ MORE HERE: Local author pens debut history novel
READ MORE HERE: Local author spins a story with the weight of religion…
“The more he studied the genealogy of the people who saw California as a landscape, the more complex became the story, and the more confident he became that this was something he felt compelled to write….”
Contact Buzz for a book signing!
Five Hundred Moons and A Jar of Water are available in paperback and Kindle Editions.
Thank you,
Bookshop Santa Cruz
for featuring
Five Hundred Moons
Thanks to Zoom Forward! for the opportunity to give an online reading of Five Hundred Moons!
Capitola Soquel Times, February 2022 edition.
Book signing, January 2022.
Thank you, Downtown Book & Sound!
Contact Buzz for a book signing!
Photo courtesy of Downtown Book & Sound