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The Centre County Gazette
August 14-20, 2014
Arts & Entertainment
State College author O’Dell comes full circle By MICHAEL MARTIN GARRETT StateCollege.com
STATE COLLEGE — Bestselling author and State College resident Tawni O’Dell has finally come full circle. While writing her new novel “One of Us,” which comes out on Tuesday, Aug. 19, she realized something about herself and her work. Since her first novel — the New York Times bestselling “Back Roads” — she’s always written about characters struggling to come to terms with their hometown roots. “Every one of my protagonists is dealing in some way with the question of ‘Do I want to stay and be part of this place, or do I want to leave?’ I never realized it until I was writing ‘One of Us,’ but it was staring me right in the face: That’s what I’ve gone through all my life,” O’Dell said. Granted, O’Dell has probably never returned to her hometown to find a psychopath and a murder somehow related to a dark family secret like Dr. Sheridan Doyle does in “One of Us.” She has, however, struggled to understand her place in the coal-mining region of Pennsylvania, just like many of her characters. “I grew up in a small town where I didn’t feel like I fit in, and I left with a vengeance,” O’Dell said. She said she felt Indiana, Pa., couldn’t offer her the life she wanted to pursue, spending many years working in Chicago after college.
The lure of Pennsylvania’s lush valleys weighed on her while living in the city, eventually leading her to find her way to State College. Like Danny in “One of Us,” she “did feel guilty for leaving” her hometown and found her life in the city overshadowed by her more rural roots. This common strand runs through her work, starting with her first novel “Back Roads.” Published in 2000, the darkly lyric tale follows the story of a 19-year-old in a failing coal town dealing with the aftermath of his mother murdering his father. After being selected for Oprah’s Book Club, O’Dell skyrocketed to the top of the bestsellers list. Director Adrian Lyne, of “Flashdance” and “Fatal Attraction” fame, is currently adapting “Back Roads” into a film with a screenplay written by O’Dell, which has progressed slowly through preproduction over the past three years. Though O’Dell is excited for the final product, she says she’s stopped paying attention to the frustrating ups-and-downs of filmmaking. “I have to just pretend that project doesn’t exist,” she said. “That’s what you have to do, or you go crazy.” Liza Dawson, O’Dell’s agent, said “One of Us” has also been in the works for the past three years. She says O’Dell spends time getting to know her characters when working on a new novel, allowing the plot to grow naturally.
“With ‘One of Us,’ she spent a lot of time figuring out who Danny really was,” Dawson said. “That’s why writers write — to explore the arc of their transformation and find out what’s going to happen to their characters.” O’Dell said this TAWNI O’DELL process can be difficult, especially when the characters are especially off-kilter, like the wounded Harley Altmyer of “Back Roads” or the psychopathic Scarlet of “One of Us.” She describes being an author as “kind of playing God,” brining tragedy to characters she loves. “You feel like you’re living that life with them, like being in an abusive relationship with your characters,” O’Dell said. “Anytime something bad happens to the characters you love, it feels like a stab in your heart.” Despite this, she has repeatedly thrown her characters into turmoil across her five novels. “One of Us,” like much of her the rest of her work, is a kind of thriller novel — a style that O’Dell loves, having written several unpublished crime-suspense novels before “Back Roads.” Dawson said that O’Dell is a literary writer, but all her books have been thrillers in that “you’re turning pages as soon as
you start reading.” Balancing humor and character study, Dawson said O’Dell always “creates a dark secret of some kind to solve.” Though “One of Us” hasn’t even hit shelves yet, O’Dell is already waist deep in another novel. Tentatively titled “A Small Fire,” it is the start of a crime-suspense series, bringing her full-circle with her first forays into writing. While some of her works, like “One of Us,” took years for the characters to come together, she felt an immediate understanding of the protagonist of her new novel. She’s a 50-year-old female police chief in, as is customary for O’Dell, a small coal town in Pennsylvania. Though she shares some traits with the author, O’Dell says this new protagonist is a character she struggled to write before now. “The main character of my next book is someone who loves her small town and never left it,” O’Dell said. “Maybe I can write that character now; I couldn’t do that before.” With frequent visits to her daughter in New York and her father in Indiana, O’Dell feels like she’s finally resolved her divergent roots and passions. Now, with the film and her new novels coming out, she has accepted the past and is looking toward the future. “I’ve come to the point where I’m content with myself and where I come from,” O’Dell said. “Which is good; life is too short to get caught up in negativity.”
Masons create endowment in name of their daughter UNIVERSITY PARK — Dr. John M. Mason Jr. and Michelle R. Mason, of Auburn, Ala., have created The Meghan R. Mason Program Endowment for the Center for the Performing Arts. The $25,000 endowment is named in honor of their daughter because of the role the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State played in her life while the family lived in State College. “The Penn State community is still very dear to us. The Center for the Performing Arts provides a space for families to experience performances of national and international caliber, exposing children to artistic excellence that they otherwise might not see,” Michelle Mason said. “Being able to introduce Meghan to a wide range of performing art forms throughout her childhood instilled her with a lifelong appreciation and curiosity for the arts. We wanted to ensure, in some small way, that such a great community asset would continue for other Penn State families to enjoy.” George Trudeau, director of the Center for the Performing Arts, applauded the Masons’ long-time commitment to the performing arts at Penn State. “John and Michelle have continued to be perhaps our most long-distance supporters, maintaining their membership at the Center for the Performing Arts over the years since relocating to Alabama. I am thrilled with the establishment of their endowment, ensuring that programs that have been meaningful for their family will have support in the future.”
John Mason, a Penn State alumnus, is vice president of research and economic development at Auburn University and president of the Auburn Research and Technology Foundation. Prior to joining Auburn University, he was the associate dean for graduate studies, research and outreach in Penn State’s College of Engineering. While the family lived in State College, Michelle Mason was a biology teacher at State College Area High School and a general science teacher at Mt. Nittany Middle School. The Masons, who recently purchased property in State College, said they plan to spend more time visiting Centre County. Meghan Mason is working on a doctorate in epidemiology and is a teaching assistant at the University of Minnesota. She is also an assistant professor at St. Catherine University in Saint Paul, Minn. She did work as an undergraduate research assistant at the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute at University Park in 2006. Her years attending events at the Center for the Performing Arts continue to influence her decisions, she said. “I certainly feel as though the Center for the Performing Arts has made me feel at home teaching public health at a liberal arts institution,” she said. “I continue to appreciate and attend the robust performing arts programming that exists in (Saint Paul and Minneapolis).” Barbara Korner, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State, shared more about how the establishment of this endowment will impact future genera-
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DR. JOHN M. MASON JR. and Michelle R. Mason have created The Meghan R. Mason Program Endowment for the Center for the Performing Arts in honor of their daughter, center. tions. “The Masons raised their daughter to appreciate the performing arts. Their endowment will help the Center for the Performing Arts to continue to provide opportunities for both children and adults to experience the finest national and international theater, music and dance presentations.”
The Mason endowment will be activated when it is fully funded in five years. The $25,000 program endowment will provide support to educational performances and special educational events hosted by the Center for the Performing Arts. Other donors or organizations are welcome to make contributions to the endowment.
Faculty member’s play to be PSU Altoona’s Beatles part of festival in New York conference receives award UNIVERSITY PARK — A play written by a Penn State faculty member will make its debut with three showings in New York City later this month. “An Evening With Aphrodite,” written by Pamela Monk, a senior lecturer in the College of Communications, will be performed Friday, Aug. 15, and Sunday, Aug. 17, during the Thespis Theatre Festival. The play — about a goddess who warns her devotees of the dangers and terrors of getting what they want, even though she knows the information will not quench their desire — will be performed at Roy Arias Studio II,
PAMELA MONK
located at 300 W. 43rd St. Show times have been set for 9 p.m. on Friday and 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. More information about the play, the festival and ticket purchases may be found at www. thespisnytheaterfestival. com/evening-aphrodite. The festival is organized to bring the Play, Page 34
ALTOONA — Penn State Altoona’s spring conference, “It Was 50 Years Ago Today! An International Beatles Celebration,” will be recognized with an Association for Continuing Higher Education’s 2014 Distinguished Program award. The award will be presented to members of the program’s staff at the ACHE annual conference and meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 28, in Las Vegas. Awards are presented based on a program’s originality, including topics, content and delivery system, and the program’s success.
The International Beatles Celebration was created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the musical group’s legendary appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” In addition to panels and presentations, the conference included film screenings, musical performances, art and photography exhibits, and keynote addresses by leading Beatles critics and musicologists. The conference concluded with a commemorative screening of “The Ed Sullivan Show” as it was originally broadcast on Feb. 9, 1964.