Bakersfield native brings debut novel to Brewery and Books tour | Entertainment

Foothill Highgrad, now calling West Sacramento home, was inspired by a summer camp trip to Lake Huntington spent with friends in his twenties and thirties this year to promote his book he said. It hits several breweries in the summer.

In the novel, men gathered for a trip to the lake have lost the deceased organizer Jim, but they bring his ashes and his rattle notes recording his previous adventures. Together on the last weekend, they work to accept their sorrows as they read Jim’s diary and relive the moments of their lives, revelations and regrets through his uncensored eyes.

Wetzel lives in West Sacramento with his wife and two children. He started his career as a sports writer for Antelope Valley Press and the Auckland Tribune. He has also published editorials in The Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, and LA Times. He currently works as a government operations coordinator for a major non-life insurance company.

Although he has lived in Northern California for nearly 20 years, Wetzel still has strong local ties, visiting family and friends in the area, and the signature of the local book was perfect for his tour.

“There is no doubt that I wanted to go home to promote this book,” Wetzel said in a news release. “This book contacts and encourages those who know you best. To get out of this pandemic, we need more of those relationships than ever before.”

This will be the second stop on the tour, following the Bike Dog Brewery in West Sacramento in May. Wetzel is doing another work near Pomona in July. It will stop in the Bay Area in August and then in Fresno.

Wetzel is at Lengthwise Brewery on the Marketplace (9000 Ming Ave.) Mondays from 6pm to 8pm.