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The
Maplewoods Mirror #36 - March 2009 (Part Two)
Welcome to my monthly newsletter on life and
writing. If you want to see my website for past issues and other
news, please visit www.chrismeeks.com. I also have an author site (click
here)
This issue is just a quickie. Short. It's
mostly about the news people who came last night.
Monica Himmel as Margaret in Who Lives?
THIS AMAZING WEEK
First, thank you to everyone who leapt in and
bought a copy of The Brightest Moon of the Century. As I wrote in
the last letter, I hoped to move the book’s ranking on Amazon that Friday
from near #600,000 to what I hoped would break the record set by my last
book, #65,000. By 11:15 p.m., the book was ranked #8,233. Incredible. Thank
you! Amazon has now reduced the price 32%. For the direct link to the book,
click
here.
The reading on Saturday at Vroman’s Bookstore
went extremely well, and many more books, which I signed, were sold there.
I loved seeing everyone who came, and I appreciate your time and
enthusiasm. Vroman’s has more signed copies. If you want a signed copy,
call the store at (626) 449-5320 or email them at email@vromansbookstore.com.
WHO LIVES?
The big news of the moment is my play, Who
Lives?, which opens tomorrow night at the Pico Playhouse in West Los
Angeles. Three television stations (Channels 2, 7, and 9) came to the first
dress rehearsal last night because two of the actors happen to have had
kidney transplants. If they had had their disease in the sixties when the
play is set, they would have died.
Committee members, clockwise from upper left:
Matt Crabtree, Bob Klein,
Dale Wade Davis, John Timmons, Rachel Kimsey,
and Alice Ensor
You can see a streaming video of last
night’s ABC 7 news broadcast by clicking here.
The play’s opening has also been written about
in Germany. Click here.
A homepage for the play has been created here. It’ll give you the latest
news as it happens.
There are still seats for this weekend. If you
want a direct link for tickets, click here.
Matt Gottlieb as Gabriel Hornstein and his
secretary,
Jenny, played by Tracey Rooney
For those of you not living in Los Angeles and
feeling left out, you can buy the published version of Who
Lives? by
clicking here.
Lori Hartwell, a three-time
kidney transplant recipient, has produced this play with such vigor and
determination, I’m in awe. She’s assisted by Brett Fisher, and they found
the top designers and two stage managers. Director Joe Ochman, has
worked with me closely in trimming my play slightly as I’d wanted, and he’s
pushed me well. He’s meticulous.
The actors bring such passion that if you see
it, I’ll be amazed if you don’t walk out with tears in your eyes. I thank
them all for memorizing more than I ever could. The violinist, Richard
Adkins, brings the kind of musical splendor and poetry I’d only hoped
as when I first heard a lone violinist one day at CalArts.
THE ROLLERCOASTER CONTINUES
While I’ve been going to rehearsals, more
reviews for my novel have streamed in. I’ve also been interviewed twice for
the book in the last week, which I’ll get to in the next newsletter. I’m
not sure how to convey what an Alice-in-Wonderland world I’m experiencing.
It’s not that I’m feeling important. Rather, I wrote the play twelve years
ago, and I started the novel in the fall of 1999, so I find it odd and
astounding that the two things hit the same week. It’s a week that I
suppose I’d always wished for. I take it an hour at a time.
The book has eleven reviews so far, which you
can see by
clicking here.
The two most recent ones are from Rebecca
Schinsky (click
here) and Wendy Robards (click
here). I cherish these reviews for their depth and insight, quoting
from the text and placing the book in relation to my short story
collections. Thank you to them and to the world of literary websites, which
is growing.
What keeps me particularly humble is my
family—thank you Ann, Ellen, and Zach in Arizona. Also I’m writing a new
novel during this time just to remind myself it’s about process. Nothing is
more humbling than a first draft, where I feel like a beginner.
See you next time,
--Chris
For reviews or more
information on my books below, click on the cover. Who Lives? will
be mounted in a new production in Los Angeles starting March 12,
2009.
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