This month, I acted in my second stage play since last year. This one, titled Shenandoah Moon, is what I think of as a romantic musical docu-dramedy. It was written by Elizabeth Massie, Barbara Lawson, and Duane Hahn, with music by Richard Adams. This was the first time the play was ever performed. It tells about the construction of the Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park by FDR's Civilian Conservation Corp in the 1930s. The main role I played was Louis Taylor, cousin to Kathy Shiflett (seen here, played by Tara Stoll), a good ol' boy caught between the displaced mountain families and his desire to earn money from the CCC during the Great Depression. Kathy is in love with a CCC boy, and I try to make peace between them when things get rough. It was a lot of fun being in this production with the Waynesboro Players, a local community theater company. Press coverage and more photos can be found at their website, which I maintain.

As part of the NEA Big Read

Mike Tripp, News Leader

The fifth annual Book 'Em fair in Waynesboro, VA, sponsored by the local police department, was both a challenge and a pleasure. It's always a challenge to sell books in a room full of dozens of other authors all doing the same thing, and where at any given time the authors may outnumber the patrons. But it was of course a pleasure to meet new readers and to sell as many books as I did, a portion of which goes to crime-prevention programs.

The News Leader ran the above picture on its website. Other interesting photos are here and here.

It was a blast to be involved with my first theatrical production since the seventh grade, when I assayed the role of Phillip Bax as Bazzard in Drood. This Tony Award-winning musical by Rupert Holmes adapts Charles Dickens's unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood—and because it was unfinished (Dickens died while writing it), the audience gets to vote on the ending. By the last day of the run, I was circulating campaign flyers (pictured) among the audience to ensure I was voted the murderer. It didn't work, but I was voted the detective on two of the nights.

You can learn more about the show at the promotional website Deena and I built at this link. Deena also painted all the sets and handled sound effects.

The publisher's launch of Horror Isn't a 4-Letter Word: Essays on Writing & Appreciating the Genre at the Horrorfind Weekend convention was an unqualified success! Here's a video of me reading the foreword. More Horrorfind pictures are at the RDSP website.

This year, I've been getting heavily involved with the River City Radio Hour, a monthly variety show presented by the Wayne Theater Alliance in Waynesboro, VA. For the past three months, I've been the voice actor portraying the "Night Hawk," a private detective in Watauga, TN. Here I am at a performance we gave to the Waynesboro Rotary Club. Notice the thick beard, which I'm growing for my part as Bazzard in an upcoming musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It's been interesting to get more involved in the local theatrical community—a good outlet for that performance urge I've satisfied by giving readings of my fiction at writing conventions.

The Wayne Theater Alliance has also hired me to write the four-part radio serial for September through December. The Radio Hour isn't actually on the radio—not yet—but has so far functioned as a Prairie Home Companion-style variety show to promote downtown Waynesboro. Previous authors of radio serials have included the lovely Elizabeth Massie.

Deena and I had a great time at the Hypericon convention for sci/fi, horror, and fantasy folk. She had a couple panels in the art show, and we got to have dinner with the legendary Joe Lansdale.

In this picture, I'm wondering if Matt Wallace has a third hand in the middle of his stomach that he's not telling me about.

Go to Deena's photo gallery to see the rest of the pictures.