A Tough Journey: to the Heart of Happiness

Set in Huntington Beach, California and briefly in France, A Tough Journey examines domestic violence and a community's obligation toward its battered women. Bernie Perkins, local surfer and photojournalist is in conflict with his father over local politics on one level and his father's insults on another. His father owns the local newspaper. Bernie is a lay philosopher and a lapsed artist. He tries to love his wife, who, like his father, insults him. He adores his three-year-old son and his mother, a native of France. His son dies; his wife leaves him. Someone murders the neighborhood dogs one by one. Bernie tries to find the murderer. He runs for city council to protect the women's shelter. Due to his father's sabotage, he loses the election by a few votes. He chooses an affair with his married neighbor over a woman who is too available, takes his neighbor to France. When he loses his mother, he travels from the despair of attempted suicide into the mysteries of his own heart. He returns understanding some of the complexities that fuel family, neighborhood, and community conflicts and discovers who really killed the dogs and why. It's a wild ride all the way!