How author Rachel Stark revisits her ‘magical’ hometown in ‘Perris, California’

Rachel Stark didn’t return to her hometown of Perris when she was writing her debut novel, which is set in the Inland Empire city. It’s not that she didn’t want to visit her mother, who still lives in the house Stark grew up in — the two connected in other places. She just knew that the Perris where she was raised isn’t really there anymore.

“I didn’t want to go back and visit because I wanted to write from my memories of it, because Perris has changed quite a bit,” Stark says. “The Perris that I grew up in was so magical to me...