Book Nook - The Lightning People Play

 From Tim Cummings, the award-winning author of Alice the Cat, comes another captivating tale set in the fictional town of Weirville, where strange magic transforms the inimitable teens who live there.

"I grew up with a severely epileptic brother. His name was Matthew. We shared a room growing up. The seizure scenes in this book between Kirby and Baxter are drawn from real life," says Tim Cummings in the author's note of the book. "Matthew succumbed to epilepsy in the summer of 1997 when he died of complications caused by a grand-mal seizure. He was 26. With this story, I manifested a different destiny for him, and, for my heart. This is what one can do as a storyteller; fiction is a gateway, a wormhole, a shaman pointing to fresh and gladder dimensions." 

In The Lightning People Play, Fourteen-year-old Kirby Renton is a gifted theatre kid who wants to fix things, like his dads' marriage and 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.

I had a chance to learn more in this interview.

How did your brother inspire the story?
My brother Matthew, two years older than me, was epileptic. He had grand mal (or tonic clonic) seizures his whole life. One day he had a grand mal seizure that caused him to fall and break his neck. He eventually died from his injuries. He was 26. I wanted to write a story that honored him, and others living with epilepsy. I wanted to amalgamate two otherwise disparate forces in my life: the ferocity and mystery of seizures with the magic and healing of theatre. At the summation of the book, I wrote an author’s note that illuminates this—

The book you just finished reading is fiction and also very real. I worked as a professional actor for 38 consecutive years before taking a sabbatical. I performed in over 200 projects during that time, mostly theatre, but also film, TV, dance, voice over, and other uncategorizable miscellany. I’ve always wanted to write about being a thespian, share tales untold from deep within the theatre fold. Tales of lived stories, inhabiting a myriad of characters, of meeting soulmates, of peerless bliss. Of being an artist: battle scars and victories, discoveries and defeats. It’s a mercurial life, rife with elation and melancholy in equal parts, but it has suited me.
I grew up with a severely epileptic brother. His name was Matthew. We shared a room growing up. The seizure scenes in this book between Kirby and Baxter are drawn from real life. Matthew succumbed to epilepsy in the summer of 1997 when he died of complications caused by a grand mal seizure. He was 26. With this story, I manifested a different destiny for him, and for my heart. This is what one can do when one is a storyteller; fiction is a gateway, a wormhole, a shaman pointing to fresh and gladder dimensions.
The symbols are everywhere.
Life is theatre.
Seize the day.

Can you share a little bit about the research you did into epilepsy for the story?
The seizure scenes in the book are primarily drawn from life, from memory. My memories of him having seizures in our bedroom in the middle of the night are visceral and terrifying. I wanted to bring the reader into the room, if I could. To show what my protagonist, Kirby, is dealing with and why he is motivated to help his little brother Baxter by putting on a play that explores the visions Baxter has when he has seizures, all of it aimed at raising funds for a seizure alert dog.

I also spoke with neurologists, friends who have kids with epilepsy, watched videos on YouTube, and did some reading. My brother’s epilepsy existed in a period of time with limited information and resources available. Mostly the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. We have made some progress, such as newer antiepileptic drugs, advances in neuroimaging and electroencephalography (EEG), and surgical procedures like focal cortical resection. In this book, Baxter takes medication, visits with his neurologist, gets tests, discusses treatment plans, including a seizure alert dog, which sparks the protagonist’s journey.

Can you explain the title?
The title is a double entendre! The play that the kids put on is literally called “The Lightning People Play’ (they all vote on it) but the word ‘play’ also acts as a verb here, because the lighting people are interacting with them in their mysterious ways….