MERCURY'S WAKE is a fictional metaverse of characters who follow in the wake of JOHN K, where the paranormal, alien encounters, parallel universes, quantum jumping, and karmic destiny can’t hold a candle to the gamble of real life, MERCURY'S WAKE is a story that has a stickiness of a comedic-sci-fi soap opera on steroids, telling the before-and-after of an unforeseen tragedy.

HOW THE BOOK JOHN K INSPIRED THE NOVEL MERCURY'S WAKE: 

"The book I have titled JOHN K was my Pandemic obsession. It was one among several curios contained in a book bag belonging to a professor of Anthropology and Ontology at the University of Denver by the name of A.R. Eyes. 

While A.R. Eyes was a disappearing act, the book bag was not. 

A.R. left the book bag with Emily. 

Emily met A.R. while on a mid-life crisis road trip across Arizona. Her encounter with the professor was so disturbing that she could never bring herself to look inside that unreturnable book bag. But, that’s another story. Emily bequeathed A.R.’s book bag to me. To a storyteller, the bag represented a Pandora's Box of wild speculations with magnificent potential to morph into sagas or fairy tales. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

The first item that drew my attention was a journal of an astronaut named John K. Mercury. Its prose was distinctive, occasionally archaic, sometimes obscure, and often trite, yet, it resonated. Tucked inside the journal was a handwritten note by A.R., no doubt part of what she hoped would become the Foreword to John K’s journal. I have excerpted some of it above. Like A.R., I embraced the profundity of John K’s words, while marveling at the crazy possibility… As A.R. would say, “All you gotta do is look everywhere and in everything, and there’s a story to be told.”

--- Stephanie Vlahos 

NOTES

Two-time 5-star EdFringe director STEPHANIE VLAHOS steps into the virtual spotlight in a one-woman show that puts a unique spin on an "author's reading" of a story within her novel MERCURY'S WAKE. "I Am Alone – John K" blurs author with character, thought with creation, telling a bedtime story about a long-shot astronaut who talks his way onto the first manned mission to Mars in order to escape the havoc of the planet (“I am a motorcyclist in a hailstorm recklessly speeding by the grace of a slipstream.”). 

This performance is offered in the virtual space as an exploration into how we can create in that space. The character of John K is not only featured in the upcoming Audible novel MERCURY'S WAKE, but also featured in a podcast series based on that novel. We have used a setting evocative of a blackbox theatre performance in order to focus on the word, the story and the actor’s intention. 

Songs "Town-down" and "My Me" written and sung by S Vlahos Am I Alone - John K underscore written by S Vlahos with Apple loops on Logic Pro Artwork – David Eccles for We Are Vocal Our thanks for gift performances by Gwyneth Mackenzie and William Godfree at top and tail of the show. American born, STEPHANIE VLAHOS started her career as an international opera singer. Her creative work includes performance artist, mentor, Equity stage director as well as script reader and treatment writer for film companies. Stephanie now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Series One of MERCURY'S WAKE is currently available in Audio Drama format on all major Podcasting channels and will be available as a book on Audible in the Autumn of 2022. It is an expanding story offered by Indie creator We Are Vocal with a multiple cast of characters. The abridged book JOHN K (Am I Alone?) is available at online bookstores. More information on Mercury's Wake, American InTent and Indie Creator We Are Vocal is available via
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All Materials ©SVlahos 2020.