Join us when YA novelist and actor of stage and screen Tim Cummings comes to Secret World Books in celebration of his new novel, The Lightning People Play!
In it, fourteen-year-old Kirby Renton is a gifted theatre kid who wants to fix things: his dads’ marriage, his younger brother’s epilepsy. When ten-year-old Baxter’s seizures start involving visits from “the lightning people,” who descend from the sky and show him strange symbols, Kirby knows he needs to protect his brother, but how? He thinks he’s found the answer when the neurologist advises his family to consider a seizure-alert dog, but the cost is too much for his family to afford.
Determined to raise the money himself, Kirby enlists his best friends and a crew of brilliant teens from his theatre troupe to put on a play in his epic forest of a backyard. At first, the play brings its own pressures as the drama between Kirby’s dads worsens and his fears for his brother intensify. But little does Kirby know of the magic that awaits him and his friends—and the portals that will open—from his daring to make a difference.
From the award-winning author of Alice the Cat comes another intriguing tale set in the fictional town of Weirville, where more strange magic transforms the lives of the inimitable teens who live there.
Our own Gayle, who loved being Tim's mentor at Antioch University Los Angeles' Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program, calls The Lightning People Play "Sheer magic. The magic of the theatre, the magic of community, the magic of being one's truest self all shimmer from the page like stars. This book will change lives-it's a breathtaking celebration of creativity and neurodivergence and connection. The Lightning People Play will forever sizzle inside me."
Tim's debut novel, Alice the Cat (Fitzroy Books) was chosen as an American Book Awards 'Best Book' Finalist for 2023, received a Bronze Medal in the 2024 Feathered Quill Book Awards, and is a Finalist in both the 2024 National Indies Excellence Awards for Teen Fiction and the Independent Author Network's Book of the Year Awards. He has appeared in 200+ projects across theatre, film, television, voice-over, and new media. Recent publications include F(r)iction, Scare Street, Lunch Ticket, MeowMeow PowPow, From Whispers to Roars, Drunk Monkeys, Hare's Paw, Lit Angels, The Wax Paper, Excerpt, and Critical Read/RAFT, for which he won the ‘Origins’ contest for his essay, "You Have Changed Me Forever." Tim is an octopus and spider enthusiast. He goes wild for anything with eight legs. He possesses enviable collections of stickers, labradorite, night-sky projector lights, vintage vinyl, and rare first-edition hardcover copies of some of his favorite novels. No one has ever made a better vat of chili, and his lasagna is infallible. He teaches writing for UCLA Extension Writers' Program.
We hope you can join us for this magical event!
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