RANCHO SANTA FE — Local author Edward Cozza made a full circle at Rancho Santa Fe Library. Frequently, Cozza made a beeline to the library to write his fiction work and just recently took part in the Local Author Showcase and Book Signing. He is now an award-winning contemporary fiction novelist for both works, “Near Somewhere” and “Nowhere Yet.”
“So, here we are at the library and that’s a big deal for me because I worked on parts of my books in this library,” he said, adding how he also made stops at the Cardiff and Encinitas libraries.
The ambience of the libraries, Cozza said, differed from the ones in his hometown of Colorado. He pointed out that they were built to withstand a nuclear attack.
“They were made of brick and were very dark except for the few places that you could read,” he said. “As soon as you walked in there, you kind of felt like you couldn’t get out.”
When he moved to Florida, the libraries had minimal windows to block out the hot sun.
“It was dark in there, too. The air conditioning ran so high that it just made you want to fall asleep,” he said.
He didn’t get much work accomplished in those libraries of the past, but made up for it in San Diego County, especially when there was a Pacific Ocean backdrop or quiet ambience of Rancho Santa Fe.
He worked in every library. However, Cozza was quick to point out that he never used the experience for research.
“My books are fiction and I’m not smart enough to write about anything true,” he quipped.
For him, libraries were a change of scenery as opposed to writing from home every day.
Being a true humorist, Cozza said that his dogs became annoyed when he talked to them about the book — they really didn’t care about the characters, so a solo journey to the library was a good thing.
“Going to the library has been a real change and hopefully it uplifted by writing a little bit,” he said. “You’ll have to be the judge of that.”
