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A Napa Valley native and former twenty-year San Francisco resident, P. L. Cowger writes from the heart. After a varied professional life as a math teacher, software developer, and, for thirty-two years, an architectural interior designer, she began her retirement devoted to a personal project: bringing family stories and memories to life. That project became her debut novel, Petra's Quest, an affectionate tribute to her Italian-American heritage and to San Francisco, the city she remembers as the most beautiful in the country.
Its companion novella, The Man from Córdoba, followed a year later. Set primarily in San Francisco with chapters in Córdoba, Spain, it reflects her long-held fascination with historic corners of the Old World Mediterranean, and her enduring curiosity for events time has blurred.
Dear Reader,
When I was a young girl growing up in rural Napa Valley in the 1960s, there were only two places where my mother and I wore white gloves—Sunday Mass and San Francisco.
"The City," as Northern Californians called San Francisco, was a magical place in this country girl's eyes with its iconic bridges, Victorian Painted Ladies, clanging cable cars, and downtown architecture. The grandeur of Union Square, the intrigue of the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, and the distinct neighborhoods thriving with cultures from around the world were spellbinding. How I loved the soothing notes of the baritone foghorns… and the food! My parents' go-to restaurants were Scoma's and Alioto's in Fisherman's Wharf, and the Cliff House, precariously overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
San Francisco was less than an hour’s drive from Napa. My father, who was raised in the City, always chose the scenic route through Marin County rather than the east side of the Bay. We were partial to the Golden Gate Bridge and the magnificent sight waiting for us as we exited the Waldo Tunnel (a.k.a. the Robin Williams Tunnel.) Whenever my grandparents joined us, we'd stop at North Beach's Little Italy to visit relatives. In my early years, I remember them speaking a foreign language with jovial gestures while aromas wafting from the kitchen kept my taste buds eager with anticipation.
As a college student at Cal in the 1970s, I often visited San Francisco, and throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the City was my home. Whether single or married, employed or in post-grad, holding Giants and Symphony season tickets or a Tennis Club day pass, it was my magical and wide-open playground. I lived in Presidio Heights and the Marina—both within earshot of those beloved foghorns.
I eventually moved back to my hometown of Napa where, in addition to expanding my interior design business, I was given the unexpected opportunity to write a design column for the Napa Valley Register. Until my retirement in 2021, I returned to San Francisco regularly, often taking clients to furniture showrooms at the Design Center. I'd share memories while driving through neighborhoods or passing by historic buildings. Some stories were colorful, some juicy, and some nostalgic—like ones about a mother and daughter wearing white gloves.
Petra's Quest was inspired by these memories along with a memorable pilgrimage to my grandparents' village in Tuscany and a lifelong passion for genealogy. It is a story of rememberance, honor, and tribute, bridging past and present in hopes of preserving family heritage for the future.
After it was published, a few readers asked me, "What happened next?" Given that the story ended in 1964, the answer could only be... a lot. Characters (my family, really) grew older. Some passed away. Could I really bring myself to write about these happenings... especially the losses? I didn't think so. I also believed I had already left everything within me on the table.
Some months later, a story came to me... one where I could explore a place, an era, a topic that has always fascinated me. I titled it The Man From Córdoba. It turned out to be a novella—longer than a short story but shorter than a novel—and is inspired by a book I read over twenty-five years ago: Naomi Ragen's historical novel, The Ghost of Hannah Mendes. While I have long forgotten its modern-day fictional characters, the real sixteenth-century Doña Hannah Mendes, known also as Gracia Mendes Nasi, and the events that occured during her life, left a lasting impression that has never faded.
The Man from Córdoba continues to incorporate my passion for European history, philosophy, family heritage—and even a bit of interior design. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.
