Readings range from Shakers to high tech
By Sara Fasy

San Miguel Literary Sala
Wim Coleman, Monserrat Coleman and Russ Archibald
Thu, Sep 10, 5–7pm
Posada de San Francisco
Plaza Principal 1
(across from the Jardín)
70 pesos, or pay what you can
Includes wine reception

As Dorothy Parker famously said, “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” To satisfyingly scratch the curiosity itch, husband and wife collaborators Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin have created novels, plays, essays and videos for youngsters of any age.

On September 10, Wim reads from the young adult novel Anna’s World; his 11-year-old daughter Monserrat reads from the first installment of The Taker and the Keeper. For those who want an insider view of sprawling industrial projects, Russ Archibald reads from his work, looking back at his astounding career.

The central premise of Anna’s World is the timeless question: How can someone be a good person in an unfair world? Protagonist Anna Woburn is growing up in a Massachusetts Shaker community in the 1840s. Coleman and co-author Perrin spent years researching the world 14-year-old Anna inhabits, an insular community in a wider world beset by slavery and war.

The authors explore the coming-of-age questions that arise for the sensitive heroine, Anna. Placed by her beleaguered father in a utopian community after a devastating flood destroys his livelihood and, nearly, her life, Anna copes with dizzying changes. When her father rebuilds his fortune as a munitions manufacturer, his business life directly conflicts with the militant pacifism espoused in Anna’s adoptive community. Where should Anna place her loyalties? The principles of the Shaker community drew the admiration of prominent thinkers of the day, including Henry David Thoreau, who befriends the young Anna.

Today the Shakers are nearly extinct, with only three members in the sect, but their heyday in the nineteenth century still makes itself felt through their design innovations. In the wake of today’s wretched excess, Anna’s World brings us into a community whose philosophy was based on humanistic ideals of sharing and “less is more.”

This fascinating moment in US history forms the backdrop of Anna’s quest to understand the moral issues that will shape her life, bringing history to life for readers young and old.

In The Taker and the Keeper, Coleman and Perrin establish the Red Monocle Series of fantasy novels for younger readers. The monocle is the lens through which the young protagonists fall, like Alice through the rabbit hole, into vivid explorations of stories and myth. With their eccentric science teacher and the trusty red monocle, the intrepid middle-schoolers Gregory and Yolanda travel into the King Arthur legend to set the world aright. Future installments explore African folktales and myths that shape the beliefs of world cultures.

Monserrat (Monse) makes her debut public performance after years of behind-the-scenes collaboration with her parents. Monse is a student at Victoria Robbins School and is already an aerial dancer, violinist and jeweler.

Wim and his wife Pat have collaborated for 20 years on 65 books, including the cult classic The Jamais Vu Papers and the mainstream thriller Terminal Games. Their far-ranging interests have synthesized their collective experience in theater (Coleman is an actor and playwright) and education (Perrin is a teacher and editor). Aside from their literary career, they’ve raised horses, grown their own food (Pat) and worked as set designer and bartender (Wim) before settling in San Miguel.

Their interest in exploring ideas and moral issues in books and plays for young adults led them to establish Chiron Books, which has recently acquired the rights to Lucina Kathmann’s Payshapes series. Besides future volumes in the Red Monocle Series, other books and plays are in the works. “We currently have more story ideas than we can hope to realize. Our main frustration is not having more hours in the day!” they say.

If your curiosity itch takes you to the world of mythically tough engineering projects, don’t miss Russ Archibald. The engineer and project manager has written numerous texts that detail the drama behind some of the world’s most challenging projects. Who makes the decisions about where and how a nuclear plant may be built (e.g., the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant). What happens when a corporation “featherbeds” a project to usurp public monies? Archibald’s consultant team testified the US$2 billion imprudently spent on the Alaska Pipeline should be excluded from the royalty rate base.

Archibald’s books on high-technology project management have been translated into several languages. He is listed in Who’s Who in the World, and his honors include the Jim O’Brien Lifetime Achievement Award and an honorary doctorate in strategy, program and project management from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Lille.

Archibald’s 50-year global experience provides a glimpse of how things get done and how major projects get funded (I was mesmerized by the inside story of building the Holland Tunnel). The aerospace and telecommunications industries have gone through staggering changes in our lifetimes. They have been guided by leaders and problem-solvers like Archibald, who demonstrate the ability to turn plans into action.