Reality Sucks: A Hollywood Story

By Jared Reed

Douglas, living a humdrum life in Spokane, Washington, yearning to escape working as an accountant, borderline suicidal, leaves his life behind to pursue his dream of working in entertainment. Hollywood, full of sin, seduces Douglas, distracting him in many ways. The men in the town are quite intoxicating and he exposes some pretty explicit parts of his life while making the transition to Hollywood. Douglas finds his way to cope living with the craziness of Hollywood, but finds himself overcorrecting his life as it was in Spokane.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Apr 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9781528989343

Jared Reed

He always had a notebook with him to constantly write about his experiences and thoughts of every bar he visited.Still on the road to recovery from alcoholism, he will continue to create a series, making this his first book ever published.

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About the Author

Jared Reed originally from San Francisco, worked as an accountant for 20 years. Yearning to write, finally got around to writing his first novel after moving to Hollywood in 2018. Leaving his old life behind, and starting anew, his candid Hollywood experiences are an interesting story for the reader. Enjoy!

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my grandmother Bea, who was an inspiration to me while growing up. Her eccentricities made my life interesting. I wouldn’t trade her friendship for the world.

Copyright Information ©

Jared Reed 2024

The right of Jared Reed to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The story, experiences, and words are the author’s alone.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528989336 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528989343 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2024

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge Anna; without her encouragement to pursue my dreams, I’d still be an accountant.

Chapter 1

Life in Vacaville

Darrell was born in Fairfield, California on September 11, 1970. Beginning life with such an incredible memorable birthday 31 years later is a sign for a life for which would be an eccentric ride, to say the least.

Growing up in Vacaville, California, a town with about 8,000 people at the time consisting of your average suburban track homes, running about $16,000. About 45 miles Northeast of San Francisco, it would also be ironic for what seemed like a sleepy town. Darrell, later in life, would be taking on the world, just within an hour of such an eccentric city like San Francisco.

Darrell’s parents, Neal and Bea, were your average mixed-race couple. Neal was of English descent, and Beatrice was Mexican. The two met during the summer of 1969, got married just two months after meeting, then had Darrell only 11 months later. Living in Vacaville, the two had a typical suburban life. The husband went to work at the local Air Force Base working as a mechanic while the wife stayed home, took care of the kids and took care of the home. Sister Marlene, born almost two years later, all living as one happy family in their 960 square foot three-bedroom one bath rancher in the centre of the new Vacaville tract home community.

Neal had purchased the small home in 1969 at the age of 23 just before marrying Beatrice, 19. He also had the foresight to invest in a couple of acres in the country, just outside of Vacaville for $6,000. The family would go out on evenings after work and on weekends in their old 1959 Chevy Pickup with a 55-gallon drum of water to go out and water the plants. The family loved going out to the country, and eventually, Neal would build a barn, fencing and get a few horses. The family lived in the city for just a short time after Marlene was born, and eventually moved out to the country in 1974.

Neal thought he was an old country boy; however, he grew up just minutes from the bustling city of San Francisco in Richmond, CA. Ironically, Richmond is far from anything resembling a country lifestyle. Beatrice despised every minute of living in the country and was always trying to get Neal to move back to the city. However, they would live in the country for almost nine years and Beatrice would bitch about it every chance she would get.

Darrell’s parents eventually grew to hate each other, however, they stayed married. Once, Neal even talked to Darrell about divorcing his mother, but Darrell shrugged it off and told his dad to settle down and suck it up. They stayed married, but Darrell would later wonder if he had given good advice.

Darrell and Marlene led an eccentric life growing up. They would ride horses around the property, shoot guns, chase rabbits; they had chickens, bunnies, dogs, cats, cows, horses. However, they also loved the city. It was somewhat of a schizophrenic lifestyle, to say the least, and would plant the seeds for even more schizophrenia later on in life for Darrell. Living in the country and the city set the stage for what would become such a gypsy life.

Chapter 2

Grandma and Grandpa Martinez

Darrell’s grandmother, Bea, on Darrell’s mother’s side, was such a character. Bea had grown up in San Antonio, Texas. Born in 1923, she grew up living a very modest life. During World War II, she bore a child, Rudy, in San Antonio, with an unknown person that she would never divulge the person and she took that information to her grave. However, during the war, she moved out to the San Francisco Bay Area and became a Rosie the Riveter, working on ships. She left Rudy at home in San Antonio with her mean old mother, Guadalupe, Darrell’s great-grandmother. During the war, Grandma Bea, about 22 years old at the time, met Grandpa Pete. Pete, at the time, was about 33 years old, married with two children, living in San Diego.

The two had a torrid affair. At the end of the war, Pete would go back to San Diego to his family, but the love was too much to ignore. Bea would retreat back to San Antonio to take care of her child and work in her mother’s flower shop in San Antonio. After a couple of years, the intense romance was too much to ignore, so Pete left his wife in San Diego and drove out to San Antonio to bring his love back to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Come to find out years later, from Darrell’s first cousins by Grandpa Pete’s first marriage, that their grandma, Grace, had tried to commit suicide because he left her with two kids at home. She didn’t die instantly, however, had died later on from complications that became of the attempted suicide attempt.

Pete & Bea too purchased a small home just outside of San Francisco in a small town called, West Pittsburg, California. The home was only a couple thousand dollars and was just down the street from an inlet of the San Francisco Bay. Their payments were only $25 a month and they even had another rental property down the street. Pete would get a job working for the union as a plasterer and they had seven children together within seven years. Later on, Pete’s older two children would come to live with the large family, temporarily prior to moving out, since they were quite older at that time.

They had a full house, were doing well, financially, and even purchased a couple of rental properties together. They were both hard workers and would eventually purchase a couple of acres in Concord, California and converted an old barn into a larger home for the large family.

The neighbourhood that the Martinez family lived in was primarily a white neighbourhood. The large family was quite rambunctious and probably not the most welcome family. The kids roamed the streets throwing rocks at cars, playing in the streets all hours of the night and pranking the neighbours.

Beatrice, Darrell’s mom, the eldest of the seven children that Pete & Bea had, was always the grown-up type. Pete & Bea were always out and about partying with family members, taking off to San Francisco, which was only 20 miles away, so daughter Beatrice was always at home babysitting and tending to her drunken parents who would often stumble home after a night of partying. However, Beatrice was growing tired of this type of lifestyle, however, she did love her parents very much. Too many times her dad would come home drunk and Beatrice and Bea would have to get the dad as he would get drunk and disorderly. Grandma Bea told stories that sometimes she would chase after Pete with a broom and beat him with it and break glass with the end of the broom handle because she would get so angry with him coming home drunk all the time.

Chapter 3

Grandma and Grandpa Reeves

On the flip side, Darrell’s grandparents on his father, Neal’s side, were quite the opposite. Well, later on they were. Everybody has a back story. Columbus and Julia, both born in Northeast Oklahoma. Columbus grew up in Caddo, Oklahoma on a farm with his parents and five other siblings. Julia grew up about 20 miles away in a small town called Durant, Oklahoma. The two met around 1943, also during WWII. Columbus would find a job working for a major manufacturer of bath products such as sinks and toilets.

Grandma Julia told stories of how they used to make wine and smoke. Julia had mentioned that Columbus was on the back of a work truck going out to the fields of Oklahoma to work and Julia was waving at another guy. However, Columbus thought she was waving at him. The mistake was fruitful and created six children and numerous grandkids, including Darrell. Good thing that Columbus waved back at Julia that day.

When they met, Columbus was only 16 and Julia was only 14. However, they fell madly in love. Back in those days, it wasn’t uncommon for young adults to lie about their age to get married, and these two were no different. They both lied about their age on their marriage certificate at the local general store/post office/justice of the peace and were married just like that. A year later, they would have their first child, Camilla, in 1944 in Durant, Oklahoma. Right after the birth, they moved to Richmond, California to live the big life – well, get a better paying job in the San Francisco Bay area, just like tens of thousands of others living in middle America. California was booming and everybody was doing it. Jobs were aplenty, homes were cheap and the California lifestyle was oh so attractive.

Columbus & Julia would have five more children in the San Francisco Bay Area. They purchased their first home in Richmond, California for $1,500 and settled down for a few years. Later, they would move out to the suburbs of Concord, California where they paid an EXORBITANT amount of $6,700, with payments of a ridiculous amount of $60 per month, which they never paid a dime more and paid it down over the full 30-year term.

With six kids in the house, Columbus would convert the garage into two more bedrooms to house the small bunch. Living in Concord, Columbus and Julia found Jesus and God. Columbus even helped build a Southern Baptist church where Columbus would also be a deacon and the two would teach Sunday school. The children lived a very strict lifestyle. Going to Sunday school, church on Wednesday and never swearing, never talking about sex and living a life of solitude and righteousness. Ironic that Columbus and Julia’s parents weren’t all that churchy, but the bug had certainly hit Columbus & Julia. Living outside of San Francisco this would prove to be a huge feat, especially during the 50s and 60s with all the hippies and sin surrounding the small suburban town of Concord.

Columbus would continue to work in Richmond for the manufacturer while Julia stayed home with the kids and insisted on a strict, wholesome life for the children. Considering how strict they were, would prove the old adage that if you are too strict with the kids, some would fall off the wagon and live a life of smoking and drinking, which, in this case, would prove to be true.

Darrell’s dad, Neal, was a high school jock. An extremely handsome boy, however, coming from a strict household, would hardly date. In fact, not sure if he even had a date prior to marrying Beatrice, however, truth yet to be discovered in that area. The Vietnam War had come up when Neal was 17. The draft was inevitable, so Neal had decided to enlist in the war so he would get to choose his duty. He enlisted in the Air Force and became an airplane mechanic. He also worked for the water department in Vietnam, where he would use these skills later on for quite some time. Neal’s brother, Nathan, would also enlist but was sent off to Germany. Come to find out years later, that while these two children were off to war, Columbus had a major emotional breakdown that was never discussed until he passed away which Grandmother Julia had confessed just years before her passing in 2018.

Chapter 4

Beauty School Dropouts

As a teenager, Darrell’s mom, Beatrice would find a job scooping ice cream at a local ice cream shoppe. However, she would only last three days. The ice cream was too hard. Beatrice always took care of herself and liked to do her hair nice. She was very pretty and the boys really liked her.

Beatrice would sign up for beauty school, where she met with a nice young lady by the name of Camilla. Camilla and Beatrice hung out and had a great time. Camilla was extremely outspoken, almost to a fault. Her opinions were strong, she talked a lot and thought she was funny, however, many times, was just obnoxious and rude. However, the two were peas in a pod and got along great. They offset each other. Beatrice was more soft-spoken, in her younger years, and Camilla did all the talking.

Camilla had a handsome brother named Neal. Neal had just returned from duty in Vietnam and Camilla thought the two would hit it off. Well, they did. The two dated for just a short time. The two decided to marry, so Beatrice ditched beauty school, grabbed a few of her belongings, a pillow, a suitcase and nailed down this catch before anybody else could! He had a house in Vacaville, a couple of acres of land. Why the hell else wouldn’t you??

Chapter 5

Big Fat Mexican Wedding

Neal & Bea wanted to get married quickly. They really liked each