Cierra Elizabeth Carr (l) & Derek Brown (m) reading into the future.
Patricia Hopper Patteson (r) author of "Kilpara." Thanks Patricia!
The talented Derek Brown (l) & Mara Monaghan (r) performed the infamous "ketchup scene" from "Zombie Texts." Thanks Derek & Mara!
We had a zombie-fun evening last week at Morgantown Public Library, complete with cat poems + plus a glimpse into a possible dystopian future (which we have the potential to change with consciousness: Hope exists!)
My deepest thanks to Jay Gummer and Bonnie Mullins Dwire of the library on Spruce Street. Jay and Bonnie went above & beyond to get the word out, prepare for & make the event happen. I appreciate Jay, Bonnie & the entire library staff beyond words. Jay also had a great idea to hang the large zombie poster (see pics above, thanks to artist Ashton EB Cutright-Bray who did the original art in 2014.)
Speaking of zombies, the talented Mara Monaghan & Derek Brown of the original "Zombie Texts from the Future" premier joined us to reprise the infamous "ketchup scene." Mara directed the original show at Monongalia Arts Center and has acted and directed/co-directed numerous productions atM.T. Pockets Theatre. Derek, who played the fictional character of obsessive Richard Nash in "Zombie Texts," easily stepped back into the role, garnering laughs from the audience. My hat's off to Mara & Derek, two talented actors. Much appreciation to Derek & Mara & everyone in the original cast, which also included Donnelle Bohnke, Sadie Crow, Tracy Lynch, and Josh Rocchi, as well as a special appearance by Amy Wong Loomis, David Loomis & Gretchen Corona of Swing Dance WVU. Much love!
Mara & Derek are hard acts to follow, but I did my best salute to "Queen Loo-Boo," a humorous poem about a fictional royal (& quite demanding!) cat based on a (in real life, cool, sweet) cat loved by me & friend Emily Jewson.
After that, I went forward to the future, taking on the voice of Simon Laramie, the 15-year-old narrator of my dystopian novel,The STARLING Connection. I read the 1st chapter, "The World Under Watch," describing the Orwellian 2045 world in which Simon and his friends struggle to exercise their freedom of speech. I followed "World Under Watch" with "Lifeline," the chapter describing Simon being severely bullied. In the dystopian artificially "connected" world of 2045 in which all the kids are totally absorbed in Alternate Reality (A.R.) on SUPERNET, only one student who refuses to live her whole life in A.R. has the courage to stand up to the bullies and reach out to save a life, the tough-minded, hard-charging Jaya Ceyes. Love you Jaya! Love you Simon! (As I told folks during the reading, although fictional, I feel I know Jaya, Simon & my other characters. I've spent a lot of time with them & they feel real to me. So I love them like any friends.)
Out of all the chapters in The STARLING Connection, I feel "Lifeline's" the most important. I'm thankful I had a chance at our local library to share the book's anti-bullying message. I was glad to see a few kids in the audience. I hope as The STARLING Connection gets further out into the world, this book will help encourage folks to reach out, to be a friend and to save a life. Encouraging people to reach out and make a real connection is the purpose of The STARLING Connection, the reason I wrote the book. (For those who couldn't make it to the library reading, check out the free sample of The STARLING Connection here.)
I appreciate everyone in the audience and enjoyed chatting with Nicole Townsend, Cierra Elizabeth Carr, Patricia Hopper Patteson, Glenn Gallagher and other folks. Big thanks to Michael Nikolaus who contributed to the food table! I appreciate your support. Patricia is the author of the "Kilpara," a novel about an Irish-American family returning to their roots. If you have a fond spot in your heart for Ireland, I encourage folks to check out "Kilpara." Patricia & I go way back with the Morgantown Writers Group (MWG) which meets at Morgantown Public Library. We also had a great time back in December doing a reading together with several other West Virginia authors at Kingwood Public Library in Preston County. Special thanks to Patricia for always being a friend of writing and for sharing her stories, both in the United States and in Ireland. I also want to thank early readers and reviewers of The STARLING Connection, including Tamara Woods (penpaperpad.com) Scott Emerson & Morgantown Poets, Michelle Bowser, Joseph Madia Jr. (Seven Stories Theatre Company), Phil Anderson & Charlotte Firestone (Spiral Spark), Kevin E. Lake, Carmen Fullmer, Bill Reger-Nash and others. It's because of these folks the book got off the ground and continues to make progress. Much love to you all!
Last, but not least, I'd like to thank Geordie Smith of Paragon Print & Design, 549 Beechurst Avenue, Morgantown, West Virginia, for going above & beyond to make sure we had paper copies of the full-length STARLING Connection available to the public for the first time. We'd had a bad snow storm a few days before the reading & things were a bit tight. But Geordie made it happen. I'm a huge fan and supporter of local businesses & am proud to have the current print copies printed by Paragon. Paragon is a great resource for anyone with business printing needs in the community and is conveniently located for West Virginia University students who need copies of research papers or other documents.
I'm thankful for the support, friendship & encouragement of folks in the Morgantown community. I'm glad to be writing here & it's your friendship that inspires me to keep writing and to work harder. I can't think of a better way to kick of 2016 than doing an event at Morgantown Public Library. I'm looking forward to being out and about sharing my work in person more throughout the year.
Speaking of which, I'll be sharing poetry at the open mic at Morgantown Poets at 7 p.m. this Thursday, Jan. 21, at Monongalia Arts Center (this is free & open to the public, so join us!) and I've recently linked up with poets Avery Williamson, Caleb Milne, and Matt Jarrett, as well as several talented mixed media artists and musicians, involved with the new artist collective in town, The Bench. The Bench is a fantastic idea bringing together many different artists and voices to get Art further out into / personally connected with the community.
So stay tuned here at theodorewebb.com for upcoming events, stories, poems & more in 2016. You can also catch me at my author page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theodorewebbauthor & on Twitter: @theodoretedwebb. Note: A very few of the locally printed PAPER hard copies of The STARLING Connection and limited edition original scripts from the 2014 premier of "Zombie Texts from the Future" are currently available (though I'm not sure how long, there are not many...) If you want a paper copy of either, be sure you get in touch with me as soon as possible, or you can catch me around town.
My deepest thanks to Jay Gummer and Bonnie Mullins Dwire of the library on Spruce Street. Jay and Bonnie went above & beyond to get the word out, prepare for & make the event happen. I appreciate Jay, Bonnie & the entire library staff beyond words. Jay also had a great idea to hang the large zombie poster (see pics above, thanks to artist Ashton EB Cutright-Bray who did the original art in 2014.)
Speaking of zombies, the talented Mara Monaghan & Derek Brown of the original "Zombie Texts from the Future" premier joined us to reprise the infamous "ketchup scene." Mara directed the original show at Monongalia Arts Center and has acted and directed/co-directed numerous productions atM.T. Pockets Theatre. Derek, who played the fictional character of obsessive Richard Nash in "Zombie Texts," easily stepped back into the role, garnering laughs from the audience. My hat's off to Mara & Derek, two talented actors. Much appreciation to Derek & Mara & everyone in the original cast, which also included Donnelle Bohnke, Sadie Crow, Tracy Lynch, and Josh Rocchi, as well as a special appearance by Amy Wong Loomis, David Loomis & Gretchen Corona of Swing Dance WVU. Much love!
Mara & Derek are hard acts to follow, but I did my best salute to "Queen Loo-Boo," a humorous poem about a fictional royal (& quite demanding!) cat based on a (in real life, cool, sweet) cat loved by me & friend Emily Jewson.
After that, I went forward to the future, taking on the voice of Simon Laramie, the 15-year-old narrator of my dystopian novel,The STARLING Connection. I read the 1st chapter, "The World Under Watch," describing the Orwellian 2045 world in which Simon and his friends struggle to exercise their freedom of speech. I followed "World Under Watch" with "Lifeline," the chapter describing Simon being severely bullied. In the dystopian artificially "connected" world of 2045 in which all the kids are totally absorbed in Alternate Reality (A.R.) on SUPERNET, only one student who refuses to live her whole life in A.R. has the courage to stand up to the bullies and reach out to save a life, the tough-minded, hard-charging Jaya Ceyes. Love you Jaya! Love you Simon! (As I told folks during the reading, although fictional, I feel I know Jaya, Simon & my other characters. I've spent a lot of time with them & they feel real to me. So I love them like any friends.)
Out of all the chapters in The STARLING Connection, I feel "Lifeline's" the most important. I'm thankful I had a chance at our local library to share the book's anti-bullying message. I was glad to see a few kids in the audience. I hope as The STARLING Connection gets further out into the world, this book will help encourage folks to reach out, to be a friend and to save a life. Encouraging people to reach out and make a real connection is the purpose of The STARLING Connection, the reason I wrote the book. (For those who couldn't make it to the library reading, check out the free sample of The STARLING Connection here.)
I appreciate everyone in the audience and enjoyed chatting with Nicole Townsend, Cierra Elizabeth Carr, Patricia Hopper Patteson, Glenn Gallagher and other folks. Big thanks to Michael Nikolaus who contributed to the food table! I appreciate your support. Patricia is the author of the "Kilpara," a novel about an Irish-American family returning to their roots. If you have a fond spot in your heart for Ireland, I encourage folks to check out "Kilpara." Patricia & I go way back with the Morgantown Writers Group (MWG) which meets at Morgantown Public Library. We also had a great time back in December doing a reading together with several other West Virginia authors at Kingwood Public Library in Preston County. Special thanks to Patricia for always being a friend of writing and for sharing her stories, both in the United States and in Ireland. I also want to thank early readers and reviewers of The STARLING Connection, including Tamara Woods (penpaperpad.com) Scott Emerson & Morgantown Poets, Michelle Bowser, Joseph Madia Jr. (Seven Stories Theatre Company), Phil Anderson & Charlotte Firestone (Spiral Spark), Kevin E. Lake, Carmen Fullmer, Bill Reger-Nash and others. It's because of these folks the book got off the ground and continues to make progress. Much love to you all!
Last, but not least, I'd like to thank Geordie Smith of Paragon Print & Design, 549 Beechurst Avenue, Morgantown, West Virginia, for going above & beyond to make sure we had paper copies of the full-length STARLING Connection available to the public for the first time. We'd had a bad snow storm a few days before the reading & things were a bit tight. But Geordie made it happen. I'm a huge fan and supporter of local businesses & am proud to have the current print copies printed by Paragon. Paragon is a great resource for anyone with business printing needs in the community and is conveniently located for West Virginia University students who need copies of research papers or other documents.
I'm thankful for the support, friendship & encouragement of folks in the Morgantown community. I'm glad to be writing here & it's your friendship that inspires me to keep writing and to work harder. I can't think of a better way to kick of 2016 than doing an event at Morgantown Public Library. I'm looking forward to being out and about sharing my work in person more throughout the year.
Speaking of which, I'll be sharing poetry at the open mic at Morgantown Poets at 7 p.m. this Thursday, Jan. 21, at Monongalia Arts Center (this is free & open to the public, so join us!) and I've recently linked up with poets Avery Williamson, Caleb Milne, and Matt Jarrett, as well as several talented mixed media artists and musicians, involved with the new artist collective in town, The Bench. The Bench is a fantastic idea bringing together many different artists and voices to get Art further out into / personally connected with the community.
So stay tuned here at theodorewebb.com for upcoming events, stories, poems & more in 2016. You can also catch me at my author page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theodorewebbauthor & on Twitter: @theodoretedwebb. Note: A very few of the locally printed PAPER hard copies of The STARLING Connection and limited edition original scripts from the 2014 premier of "Zombie Texts from the Future" are currently available (though I'm not sure how long, there are not many...) If you want a paper copy of either, be sure you get in touch with me as soon as possible, or you can catch me around town.
Get in touch ASAP! FB: https://www.facebook.com/theodorewebbauthor
