The Shooting Shrink's Palm Springs

Downtown Palm Springs Starbucks

"I turned the corner on Tahquitz and headed up to Starbucks… The wind was blowing a sensory sampler of sand, fertilizer, engine exhaust and freshly-brewed coffee."

Desert Regional Medical Center

"Desert Regional is located at the intersection of Tachevah and Indian Canyon, a mile from our house…"

Valley Station, Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

"When we arrived at Valley Station, Matt was sitting in the department tactical Suburban at the upper end of the parking lot, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper… 'Chief said you might need some back-up,' he said."

“Thursday night Street Fair was the weekly central social event of the ‘the historic village of Palm Springs.’ There were fancier, more exclusive events in the city, but they weren’t weekly and they weren’t egalitarian — the heralded and the homeless were both welcome at Street Fair.”     Doctor Tom Reynolds, Gun Play.

“It was just after sunset. The sun, had given up until tomorrow, and we creatures who hang out in deserts, humans and others, had made it through another day. Cause to celebrate. The Street Fair was the human equivalent of all the desert creatures waking up from their afternoon stupor of hiding from the heat, and scurrying about in the cooler evening air looking for food, water, and even entertainment.” Doctor Tom Reynolds, Gun Play. 

 
Michael hands out Gun Play tee shirts at Village Fest

This writer owes a debt to Village Fest, one demonstrated in the above picture of me handing out Gun Play logo tee shirts in February of 2007. As a local author, initial sales of Gun Play, before the Shooting Shrink Series went national, were driven by my appearances at Village Fest. Even before I wrote Gun Play, I was in love with Village Fest and I viewed it, along with the Tramway, as the premier signature locations of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley.

Jasmine Wait, Village Fest Coordinator, and her staff do a fantastic job each and every Thursday evening to provide residents, visitors to the Coachella Valley, and vendors a premier experience. In my opinion, the Village Fest experience is equal to the small open air markets of Europe. 

Village Fest appeared several times in the Gun Play plot, once as the location of a shooting incident. As I continue to evolve the Shooting Shrink Series, it will be hard to resist the temptation to return to Village Fest.

Now, when I appear at Village Fest to promote the series, I no longer have my own booth. You’ll find me at Peppertree Books. However, I will always remember my several experiences as a vendor. On those occasions, when I was signing books or logo tee shirts, I always ended my evening with a walk through the entire event. If you run into me signing at Peppertree Books or simply walking through the vendors stalls, be sure to come up and say hi! If there’s anything I like more than writing, it’s talking.

-Michael Thompkins

Officer Harvey Reed and JAG on duty at the Palm Springs Airport

"We secured the tell-tale tapes, left police headquarters ... walked across El Cielo to the fountain. The spray from the fountain was caught by a westerly breeze and covered the walkway. We tracked wet shoes across ... the lot and walked into the main terminal of the airport…the overhead speakers reminded us not to leave our baggage unattended." - Doctor Tom Reynolds, Gun Play.

In Gun Play, the Palm Springs Airport fountain provides a meeting spot for Doc Reynolds and his team as they search for Bocca, a sociopathic hitman, and attempt to bring him to justice. In the real city, the fountain serves as resting and cooling off spot for my favorite black Labrador retriever in town, a police dog named JAG. His handler, Officer Harvey Reed, brings JAG there for a well earned break from their full-time job protecting the passengers that fly into or out of Palm Springs Airport.

In their daily schedule, Harvey and JAG, are responsible for hundreds of confidential tasks all designed to insure your travel safety. Some of these tasks involve explosive-detection. This summer this author was privileged to watch Harvey and JAG run through a detection exercise at the airport and ride-along on a reconnaissance tour of the airport. I can assure you that I sleep better and fly with less anxiety knowing that this dedicated team and others like it are doing their jobs.

Dog lovers might wonder if JAG, with all his serious police responsibilities, is any less a contented canine. Labs happen to be my favorite dogs and I can attest that JAG is good-natured and happy and SMART!

No living person more embodies the sense of the place that is Palm Springs than the Cowboy Mayor Frank Bogert. Frank, born in Colorado in 1910, came to Palm Springs in 1927 as a wrangler. Frank managed the Racquet Club for Charlie Farrell, undeniably the king of early Palm Springs decadence. Racquet Club membership included Gloria Swanson, William Powell, Judy Garland, Rock Hudson Douglas Fairbanks, Cary Grant, Errol Flynn, Al Jolsen, Bob Hope and Marilyn Monroe. Palm Springs continues to be a favored escape for Hollywood movie stars.

Frank served as mayor of Palm Springs from 1958-1966 and 1982-1990, a total of 16 years. On March 3, 2005 Mayor Ron Oden declared Frank, mayor emeritus of Palm Springs. Frank has written two books: Palm Springs, First 100 Years and View from the Saddle.

One early afternoon in late June, this writer had the privilege to meet Frank at his home in Palm Springs. It was a completely unassuming home for an equally egalitarian man. I spent a totally enjoyable hour with Frank discussing our writing and other careers, his mastered and mine fledgling. His opening remarks to me were that he had read Gun Play and, so far, he had only found one mistake. In Gun Play, I had written that the fountain at the airport had a concrete circular parapet. He corrected me that it truly was made of tile.

In our time together, the most significant impression I had of this man was his regard for all the citizens of Palm Springs that he had served, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak, and the residents of elegant desert castles and the homeless desert hermits. I look forward to another visit. Soon.