Tell us a little about what you've been doing lately:
I took up Swing Dancing in the late 90's and that was how I met my current wife, Madeleine, so that was not only good exercise and fun, but life-changing in a most positive way. But now that many years have gone by, the old legs and knees are just that--old, so we have not been dancing much these days. Since Maddy had been a theater major and born performer, she decided that at the very least she should teach me a little about playing the guitar. Having never had a music lesson, other than listening to a nun in grade school blowing into a pitch-pipe, I had my work cut out for me. Surprisingly, I have taken to song-writing as a hobby in a big way. I guess all those English Lit classes way back when at least gave me a sense of storytelling and poetry to build on. The results have not been professionally produced, but nonetheless I put a bunch of my work up on a website. If you care to listen go to my YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7iaPhUR5GBqPVM_GUYwFYQ/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=1
In 2014 I wrote a slightly fictionalized memoir called "The Hat Fluffers of Buckingham Palace" which recounts my life up to age 18. It is available at Amazon as an e-book download at their Kindle store, or as a paperback in the Books section. There is quite a bit that you will recognize in these pages, and although I became a lapsed-Catholic in my Watterson days, I think it will bring back fond memories of our Catholic grade school and high school experiences even if you didn't share my problems of wavering belief. If you check it out, please write a review for me on the Amazon site--unless you hate it, in which case please keep your hostile opinions to yourself, :-).
In 2015, my son, Derek, and I finished a short film that we collaborated on. I was the writer, and one of the producers, and he handled the directing and organizing everything else. It is a 30 minute musical drama called "Dreaming Don't Make It So" that competed (to no great acclaim) in a few short-film competitions. A DVD of this was included in the swag bag at our 50th Reunion, so I hope those of you who were there will check it out. Write me comments about it, or "Hat Fluffers" if you read that. I am always looking for feedback. My direct email address is: sparto@ca.rr.com. I would love to hear from you.
I also have completed a screenplay for an 11-part mini-series. It is a bio-pic about the life and times of Fréderic Auguste Bartholdi, the man responsible for the creation of the Statue of Liberty, an iconic piece of Americana that most of us have an affection for, but know very little about how it came to be. It is quite a fascinating tale, so I am hopeful this project might get some traction.
My two latest writing projects are plays. The first is called "An Evening with Jessie," which is a one-woman show recounting the life of Jessie Benton Frémont, who, along with her husband (explorer/'49er gold striker, politician/CivilWar General), John C. Frémont, led an extraordinary life in the 19th century. The challenge here, among other things, was to see if I could write convincingly in the voice of a woman, and a 19th century woman at that. She led one of those lives that makes most feel as if we have been standing motionless in comparison.
The second play is called "A Whiff of Ether," which incorporates some of the monologues from the Edgar Lee Masters' 1914 master work, "Spoon River Anthology" (now in public domain, yea!). "Spoon River" monologues are a staple in drama classes, so I thought it might be fun to incorporate a few of them into a new play set in the present, and perhaps appeal to high school and university drama departments.
Who knows, I may actually sell something some day. But in the meantime, I think these writing attempts are not a bad hobby to have.
2018 -- My latest writing project has been my first attempt at an historical novel, called "Verna" which follows our 19 year old namesake through the world of 1943 Detroit, which was booming from all of the WWII munitions manufacturing, while also seething with racial tension that culminated in one of our country's worst race riots up to that point in time. Then we move forward to 1961 to see 37 year old Verna becoming one of the Freedom Riders challenging the Jim Crow segregation of the South. I think I did a decent job packing a lot of useful historical information into the background of a story a troubled young woman, who becomes a single mom living in – where else, Worthington, Ohio. And in 2020, it resonates perhaps even stronger due to the racial turmoil we are experincing.
Anyone interested in reading this, please send me an email note at sparto@ca.rr.com.
