Steve Blinder
Steve Blinder was born in 1955 in Inglewood, California. A baby boomer, he has lived in Los Angeles most of his life, witnessing the rapid growth of the city, and the full spectrum of possibilities from The California Dream on one end, all the way to poverty and death on the other.
He has now experienced four different periods of intense social unrest: 1965 Watts, 1968 Martin Luther King, 1992 Rodney King, and most recently, 2020 George Floyd. Spending over half a century in the enormous melting pot of L.A, Steve has been able to interact and establish lifelong relationships with an incredibly diverse set of people - spanning the range from multi-millionaires all the way to convicted drug-dealers and murderers. Counting as friends several rock-stars and superstar athletes alike, he has seen fortunes amassed, as well as lost. He has watched acquaintances and relatives go to prison. He has witnessed large amounts of cash trading hands in diamond deals and drug deals; on several occasions, he has also seen some of those deals go south. He has seen friends die from overdoses. He has been held at knife-point, and he has had guns against his head. He has survived 32 surgeries.
His first novel, THE LAST CITY, set in racially tense 1992 Los Angeles, weaves in a myriad of historically accurate events - especially poignant to L.A. - such as the assassination of Robert Kennedy, forced bussing, the Charles Manson murders, controversy over the missions founded by Father Serra, and the aftermath of the jury's decision to exonerate four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King.
Steve's latest novel, PANGA, begins where THE LAST CITY ends. The story is set in 1995, when the crackdown on immigration has driven smugglers to begin bringing refugees into California by sea. The U.S. Coast Guard is tasked to stop the smuggling of both narcotics and people onto the Southern California shores in Panga Boats. Often the motivation is so great to leave Central America or Mexico, that the desperate immigrants will pay any price to the gangs for a seat on the Panga, climbing onto the tiny boat with little more than a life jacket & a dream. The ramifications of this bold decision - the number of people's lives that are affected - be it by the refugees themselves, the gang members who facilitate the smuggling, the Coast Guard, the families left behind, and even the ordinary citizens of California, are as staggering as they are thought-provoking.
Steve began his entrepreneurial experience at the age of 18. During his college years at UCLA, he developed and brought to market a novelty item that reached huge popularity in the late ‘70’s, known as The Plant Shoe. Later, he began investing in L.A. Real Estate, which enabled the freedom to explore different avenues of artistic expression and adventure. He has traveled extensively, on all 7 continents, including recent adventures to: Antarctica, Botswana, Sahara Desert, Inca Trail, Amazon Jungle, New Zealand, Turkey, Greek Islands, Israel, Honduras, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Patagonia. He has received numerous awards for photography. In addition to talks on his book, Steve has given presentations on a broad range of subjects ranging from Elephants in Botswana, to Icebergs in Antarctica, to Drone Photography. He wrote, directed and produced the play, "Signs: God on Trial."
Steve is attracted to a wide variety of cultures in different lands. He is enchanted with the nuances between peoples, religions and traditions, especially from political and socioeconomic standpoints. His travels and ability to immerse himself into unique situations has led to his passion as a fiction writer, and his desire to empathize with his characters, ultimately capturing their innermost thoughts, desires and fears in his writing. He is just as comfortable in a canoe up the Amazon meeting with indigenous tribes of Indians and photographing jaguars, riding in a jeep across the Sahara Desert to drum with Bedouins under a full moon, dodging icebergs from a small raft in Antarctica, hitchhiking in Honduras, diving with sharks or sailing up the Sea of Cortez, as he is sitting with a laptop in his own backyard.
In addition to writing, business and photography, Steve’s interests include hiking, sailing, scuba diving and tennis. He is a lifelong Dodger fan. He is married with three kids, and lives in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
Contact the author via email: raindance7@sbcglobal.net Or, visit the author's website: www.steveblinder.com
