Santa Clarita resident chronicles childhood experiences in book

Santa Clarita resident Collin Fowler poses with his recently published book, "The Oxford Chronicles." Courtesy
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While now Santa Clarita resident Collin Fowler was dragged, kicking and screaming, from his Florida home to Connecticut when he was 10, it was the experiences he had living in that small New England town that have stuck with him all these years.

So much so that Fowler recently self-published “The Oxford Chronicles,” which shares some of those experiences he and his friends had growing up in Oxford, attending a private high school in the mid-1980s.

“I have lived in Santa Clarita for over 20 years now, but have never forgotten my oddball group of friends and the adventures we had together,” Fowler said.

Oxford was such a small town, it didn’t have its own high school, so he went to a private high school a couple of towns away, getting close to three other boys.

“Our school was in a city, so these are all city kids, and I grew up half a mile from a dairy farm,” Fowler said, adding that while Oxford was just 15 miles away, no one seemed to know where it was. “So, we kind of banded together. We didn’t get invited to a lot of parties, we didn’t exactly go on many dates, but we tried to make things as interesting as possible.”

In trying to break up the monotony, he and his friends began to mess around, really just trying to make each other laugh.

“We were always working on something else to do to amuse ourselves, and because we were good students and didn’t get in trouble, nobody ever suspected us of doing the things that we were doing,” Fowler added.

Santa Clarita resident Collin Fowler’s recently published book, “The Oxford Chronicles.” Courtesy

It’s these shenanigans that are told through the stories in “The Oxford Chronicles,” which Fowler described as “what the smart kids were doing while everyone else was ignoring them.”

Around two years ago — after hearing enough times from friends that he needed to write a book about his experiences — he took a writing class, using his high school experiences as his main premise, and soon, he’d started writing the book.

“Most of it is as it happened,” Fowler said. “There’s a little exaggeration here and there, but not much.”

Since published in May, Fowler’s been pleasantly surprised by the responses he’s received and the number of people who’ve taken the time to read his book.

“Nobody knew who I was, but getting these emails and friend requests from people (from high school) saying, ‘Hey, I read your book, I thought it was hilarious’ … (has) been great,” Fowler said.

For more information, visit oxfordchronicles.com. 

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