Author: Eric Margerum

Starcatchers

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – April 26, 2024

I mentioned in an earlier newsletter that I’ve been directing a play called Peter and the Starcatcher, which I recommend highly if you ever have a chance to see it. High schools, colleges, and local theatres have been mounting some very entertaining and creative productions in the last few years. Ours included, if I do say so myself.

If you’re not familiar with the premise, it’s a prequel to Peter Pan where we learn the origins of certain characters, and how their fates became intertwined. The pirate Black Stache is a particularly gregarious comic character who, along with his sidekick Smee, plots to steal the queen’s treasure that will make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. He doesn’t know that the treasure is, in fact, starstuff, a magical substance that gives powers to those who come in contact with it.

I don’t want to give any spoilers other than to say the ending has a very well-crafted wrap-up that answers all your questions about the Peter Pan story we all know and love. The play makes use of narration and story-telling techniques to draw in the audience and encourage them to use their imagination to fill out the picture.

In preparation for directing this play I read the novel Peter and the Starcatchers, which I also recommend. It’s a middle grade adventure like my book, MAMLA*, written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Yes, the same humorist Dave Barry who had a nationally syndicated column from 1983 to 2005. And Ridley Pearson who had a successful series called the Kingdom Keepers, among others. Together they weave a good yarn! 

The play version adds a little bit of music through a handful of well-placed songs and simplifies the plot effectively, like paring three sailing ships down to two. The reason for the differences in the titles is that the novel refers to the Starcatchers as a group, while the play focuses mainly on Molly, an apprentice Starcatcher and how she teams up with Peter to keep the starstuff in the right hands. The Broadway show only used 15 cast members, deciding to make Molly the only female on stage to emphasize her struggle for respect in a man’s world. You can find several productions on YouTube.

Until next week or, as they say in the play: TTFN

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*MAMLA – The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles – available for pre-order from the Book Baby Bookshop or on Amazon (just search for Margerum).

Caret, Carat, Carrot

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – April 19, 2024

Caret, Carat, Carrot 

One’s an insertion,

The next is a weight,

The last is a veggie with peas on your plate. 

You’re welcome. I hope that’s helpful. 

I got the idea from Ogden Nash, who wrote: 

The one-l lama, He’s a priest. 

The two-l llama, He’s a beast. 

And I will bet 

A silk pajama 

There isn’t any three-l lllama.

These are much more useful, I think than the old “i before e except after c” ditty which really doesn’t hold up if you’re talking about a neighbor whose feisty foreign dog has seized you weirdly by the vein in your foot! 

Hopefully that never happens to you! I’ll let you know if I come up with any more useful verse.

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I’ve been invited by my local library to set up a table for their Summer Reading Kickoff outdoor event on the same day that The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles will be released: June 1st! I’ll be selling and signing books, giving away bookmarks, and all in front of my mother’s name on Sonya L. Margerum City Hall. She was mayor for 24 years. She also read early drafts of the book and said she could just picture it as a movie. Miss you, Mom!

Writing A Joke

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – April 13, 2024

I’m currently directing a production of Peter and the Starcatcher and I had a discussion after rehearsal with the actor playing Black Stache. We were talking about about a line in the play (spoiler alert: I’m about to reveal a joke from the play). His character complains that the treasure he seeks is as elusive as the melody in a Phillip Glass opera. 

It’s a funny line if you’ve ever heard a Phillip Glass composition. His minimalist music is often very repetitive and upends the standard concept of melody. 

But would the audience get it?

Suddenly our casual observation turned into a sitcom writer’s room in my head. What else would be elusive and funny? And why? I turned off my podcasts during the long drive home and teased out the possibilities like a kitten unraveling a cashmere sweater. 

As elusive as…

…a melody in a Mariah Carey medley 

…a closed-door meeting at a cat convention 

…a charging station in Chattanooga

…a greased pig at the state fair

…a credit score in cryptocurrency 

…the pickle in a game of pickleball 

…a bar of soap in a gang shower

…Waldo in a windstorm 

The play makes copious use of alliteration so I tried to incorporate that in my ideas as well.

The Waldo one is my favorite. It can be a challenge to find the right balance of what is elusive and what context makes it funny.

A Movie Called Ponyo

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – April 5, 2024

I subbed for an English teacher last fall and got to see the movie Ponyo with a couple of her classes. It’s an anime film by the creator of Spirited Away, and I was charmed by the two main characters and how quickly they bonded. The boy who rescued Ponyo from the sea thought she was a special goldfish and when she started sprouting limbs and talking to him, he found out she was extra special!

The teacher left instructions for the class to compare Ponyo to The Little Mermaid and I could see the similarities. Just roll Ursula and Triton together into Ponyo’s undersea father trying to protect her from the humans who live on land. But Ponyo’s mother is a kindly sea spirit who sees an opportunity for her daughter to learn more about the world and about love.

Watching the movie with two classes helped me to relearn something I need to remember: no two audiences are alike. Whether I’m submitting stories to a magazine, or listening to the audience at a play I’ve directed, everyone is different. One class watching Ponyo was very vocal, commenting and laughing at the dialogue while the other class just listened to the same scene without comment. 

It’s one of those really good G-rated movies but I admit I never got to see the ending before the bell rang. I’ll have to borrow the teacher’s DVD to find out for sure. (Also available on HBO’s Max.)

Posts

Eric Margerum

In July I sold a short story to “Galaxy’s Edge Magazine” using a secondary character from the later chapters of MAMLA. Watch this space to find out which issue it will be.

Published in “Galaxy’s Edge Magazine” September 2019, Issue 40