Darren Carrington’s Writing Career Is in the Pink as Life Comes Full Circle

Darren Carrington is a full-time single father and youth minister at Paradise Valley Seventh-Day Adventist Church, but the returning La Mesa resident has still found time to write a book. In fact, he just finished his second edit earlier this month and submitted his final draft for publication.

“A lot of my life has been coming full circle, and a lot of stories that began to emerge in my childhood are in this book,” Carrington said of the sports-action teen novel whose main character, Ricky Katana, is an injured Japanese athlete juggling single-fatherhood and his dream.

His 12-year-old son Drew isn’t a character in the book, but one of his favorite childhood toys makes a cameo.

“He lost a stuffed animal when he was a kid and it makes an appearance in the book,” said Carrington, who now lives on Acacia Avenue three doors down from where his son took his first steps. “It’s a bear and its name is Pinky. He always hid it because he said, ‘I’m a boy and I shouldn’t like pink.’ ”

Carrington says he’s OK with giving away that secret right now because his son is out of town and will probably never see this. But his now-empty house gives Carrington cause for a pause.

“I have no idea what I’m going to do when Drew’s 18,” he said. “He goes to Texas to see his mom for just a few weeks and I’m already starting to get a foretaste of empty-nest syndrome.”