Author Archives: kristipetersenschoonover
Announcing 34 ORCHARD’s Table of Contents for Issue 8, Autumn 2023 – Coming November 10!
I’m thrilled to announce 34 Orchard’s Autumn 2023 issue’s Table of Contents!
Teeming with unreliably-narrated ghost stories, Issue 8 includes many burgeoning and experienced voices as well as special surprises. We’re privileged to bring you a brand new tale by Read the rest of this entry
Theatreworks NM earns a white star with SCOTLAND ROAD
review by Kristi Petersen Schoonover
Robert Ballard’s 1985 discovery of the Titanic wreck promised answers to many questions about that horrific night in April of 1912. What it failed to remind us is that sometimes, when we get those answers, they may not be the ones we want.
This is the crux of Jeffrey Hatcher’s 1992 play Scotland Road—originally produced in Cincinnati and New York City—running now through mid-October in a solid production at Connecticut’s Theatreworks New Milford.
Set nearly a century after Titanic’s sinking, Scotland Road embarks when a woman in Edwardian-era clothing is discovered clinging on a North Atlantic iceberg—and the only word she can utter is Titanic. A wealthy skeptic and a doctor descend to determine her true origin, skirting their ethics in an attempt to gain their answers. To disclose more than that would be spoiling it.
The “ship of dreams” is the big draw here—she’s captivated the world since she sank—but Scotland Road isn’t exclusively for Titanic buffs. Part psychological drama, part mystery, part ghostly tale, this gripping Read the rest of this entry
Getting a CLUE
Sometimes you can make peace with your past in the strangest ways.
Nathan and I love board games, and over the years, we’ve amassed quite a few. Recently—in the interests of downsizing becoming not too much longer than a decade away—I decided to go through them, and keep only those we actually played/enjoyed on a regular basis.
We love Clue, and have two versions: the 1972 release, which I got for one of my birthdays—I’m thinking I was 9 or 10 and yes we played the crap out of it when I was growing up; and Disney Parks’ Haunted Mansion Clue in a shiny tin, which we bought on one of our many Disney trips (not sure which one; I’m sure there’s a photo someplace). But then I found another version in the trunk, one that I’d gotten for Christmas of 1985: the Clue VCR Mystery Game.
The CLUE VCR MYSTERY GAME box. It’s in really good shape for being almost forty years old, although I did tape up all the edges with clear packing tape to reinforce it, because I plan on using it a lot in the near future.
I was actually shocked Read the rest of this entry
HAPPY 4th OF JULY!
Hello everyone!
We wish you a happy, healthy, and safe 4th of July!
— Krissi, Charles, Nathan, and Mikey the kitty
It’s always Tiki Time…
Writer Elaine Pascale and I cocktail it up at TT’s Tiki Bar in Punta Gorda, FL. Photo by Michele Ingram
…when you’re a Gen-Xer! When I was in Florida, fellow writer and I Elaine Pascale got together at TT’s Tiki Bar down in Punta Gorda and had some serious fun with icy tropical cocktails and a few of the anthologies in which we share a Table of Contents.
If you haven’t already, join the party and get your copy of the Generation X-ed anthology full of short shocking trips down memory lane by Elaine, me, and a formidable f-ton of horror-slinging Gen-X writers edited by Rebecca Rowland today—AND you can even get it in good old-fashioned hardcover if you wish!
What the hell’s that pretty blue think I’m drinking? It’s called an Under the Sea Colada. Elaine had herself a Tiki Tai (that’s like a mai-tai. YUM!)
HARD RESET!
My bags (how cool are THESE that my hubby bought me for my birthday this year?) are packed!
The last three years have been thrilling and blessed—they’ve also been overwhelming and SO workaholic that I’ve been barely able to keep up (and yes, the blog is the first thing that goes to the wayside). Couple that with some personal and health issues, and the fact that I haven’t been on a “real” vacation since 2018 (one that wasn’t a writer’s retreat, which is fun, yes, but also, work)… I’m burned out. It’s time for what I think of as a hard reset. No writing, no editing, no work of any kind, no THINKING about writing, editing, or work of any kind. After polishing and subbing one last short story before I shut everything down, it’s brain erasure time, people!
So, I’m off to visit my friend Michele in Florida, and we have a whole week of NOTHING planned. The pool, lunch at a Tiki bar with a fellow writer (okay, we’re doing some Insta/promo pix, but we’ll be drinking while we do it, so that’s not work except making sure I don’t look like a slob), and other than that, hanging out. Except for maybe an airboat ride to fossil hunt if the weather cooperates (and if we don’t just decide that doing nothing is better on that particular day).
I will have some VERY big announcements I haven’t yet made here on the blog because I’ve been too busy to get to it, so there’s a chockablock of good news coming your way.
Stay tuned, have a great week, and see you on the flip!
34 ORCHARD ISSUE 7 HAS BURST ONTO THE SCENE!
IT’S RELEASE DAY!! I’m thrilled to announce that 34 Orchard ISSUE 7 is here! Heralding the coming of spring and the concept of the fresh start, Issue 7 has another winner from Nigeria’s Ernest O. Ògúnyẹmí (Issue 1’s “Christmas Chicken,” about which we STILL get mail!) and a few other 34O alums, as well as work by others familiar and brand-new.
Plunging into the visceral rip tides of lost love, medieval history, personal agency, folklore, witchcraft, grief, motherhood, and so much more—and rendered in everything from magical realism to soft science fiction, horror, and literary—there’s something for every taste!
Get your free copy here: https://34orchard.com/issue-7/
Once again, our ToC:
Cover Art: Optic Nerve – Page Sonnet Sullivan
An Old Romantic – Mark Towse
Little Monster – Elin Olausson
The Doe – Brandon McQuade
Wildfire – Alexandra Provins
The Flute – Ernest O. Ògúnyẹmí
The Perimeter of Others – Marie-Andrée Auclair
Simulacrum Vehemens – Remo Macartney
Twenty Birthdays with You – Karen Cline-Tardiff
Penelope Learns to Weave a Double Helix – Shelly Jones
The Squealing – McLeod Logue
Where’s Lucy? – W.T. Paterson
The Procedure – Jeff Adams
poisoned earth – Corey Niles
There Is No Tomorrow – David H. West
The Triple G – Gregory Jeffers
I Once Worked There – Christian Hanz Lozada
The Last Day – Elaine Pascale
The Choice – Jenna Moquin
With the Turbulent Flow … – Angi Shearstone
The Shrine of Saint Amandus – Rex Burrows
How to Make a Vase – Kieran Thompson
A look at MoMA’s CRAFTING DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO exhibit
I’ve been so overwhelmed and deep into projects I’ve barely had time to breathe—but even though there’s light at the end of the tunnel, the burnout is real.
My friend Kristina and I, along with our friend Brigid, had planned a trip into New York City to see the Crafting del Toro’s Pinocchio exhibit this past Saturday, and it turned out to be Read the rest of this entry
HAPPY EASTER!
From our house to yours, we hope that whatever holiday you’re celebrating today–or even just the coming of spring–is wonderful and magical!
Kristi, Charles, Nathan, and Mikey the Cat
