premiere post: 2007 in review and what's to come in 2008

Greetings, blog readers:

I am Fletcher Rhoden, and while this is the premiere post of the fletcherrhodenblog, some of you may already know me or my work. If not, this year-end review will help introduce my canon. Old friends and associates can catch up, and we can all take a look ahead together.

The first thing to consider is that all the work you will read about can be found at the home site, www.fletcherrhoden.com on various pages, such as MUSIC, PAINTINGS, ANIMATED SHORTS and so on. Everything on the site is free to view, although you can buy dvds, my 2001 novella THE TRIAL OF DAVY CROCKETT (Trafford) et al. if you so desire. There're plenty of links and lots of information on the site.

2007 was really a fantastic year. As 2006 rolled over I was creating BALLOONZEE, a children's program featuring bright-eyed balloon animals that entertain, educate and enthrall. The 1/2-hour dvd features an 11-minute pilot segment and 20 minutes of shorts, songs and gags created to California Content Standards. Teachers should really check this out! The first Webisode is up at Yahoo! video and Youtube and is accessible on the BALLOONZEE page of the home site. Two manuscripts for picture books are currently making the rounds at major publishing houses. I moved on to a romantic comedy screenplay SISTERELLA and then wrote a "chick-lit" novel of the same story, a modern-day Cinderella about three sisters who find disharmony when a budding rock star enters their lives. An excerpt is available free on my site, along with excerpts of FREEDOM HALL, WARRIOR TIDE and a few other unpublished novels. My agent, LEW WEITZMAN at PREFERRED ARTISTS, has sent SISTERELLA to New York as well. In May I wrote and illustrated another child's book, this one for early readers called THAT'S RUDE, JUDE, about a hyper-observant little boy who learns a valuable lesson about what NOT to say. It's out in two exciting digital formats: as a page-by-page readable version on the THAT'S RUDE, JUDE page of my site, and also as an animatic presentation narrated by the author. Rights are available to major publishers. That summer I had my first art show, a solo exhibit in NoHo called FLETCHER RHODEN SLEEPS WITH THE FISHES, featuring my marine scapes, fans and so on. It was so successful that it was extended from one month to two! There's a link to ENCHANTED DEVA'S, where I had the show, on the LINKS page of my site. I also did my second mural in Los Angeles, a tropical scene called KENMORE ISLAND -- see the MURALS page. Many of you may know my animated short subjects, such as RABBIT IN THE MOON or FRANK BEANS IN WALKEN THE WILD SIDE, but this year I returned to live-action shorts with my "Ice Road Truckers" parody MUDDER TRUCKERS and the Geico ad parody GIECO: CAVEMAN MEETS GECKO. These shorts earned some of my better numbers on Youtube in their first few weeks and are currently available to rent on a dvd called PIMP MY SHORTS, along with BALLOONZEE and a bunch of other DVDs. They're at a variety of the cooler rental outlets in LA like Rocket Video and Vidiots -- check the home site's DVD page for a complete list. All in all, my most popular web shorts remain RABBIT IN THE MOON, the dv short THE CHRISTOPHER WALKEN ECSTATIC DANCE ACADEMY and the live-performance video of the short's theme song, CAN'T STOP TALKIN' LIKE CHRISTOPHER WALKEN. They're on Youtube and on the VIDEOS and PERFORMANCES pages of my site, www.fletcherrhoden.com. This year also saw the release of STUMP THE BAND, produced by my friend Robbie Rist from a story by me. It's won 7 awards so far at various indie festivals, including best sound, best feature (twice, I think) and a bunch of others. Go to STUMPTHEBAND.COM to see the cool trailer. This year I also wrote a short subject for Robbie, which he hopes to direct in 2008. As if all this weren't enough, I've been busy performing at kids parties as FLETCH THE CLOWN -- full southland coverage, unbeatable rates and top-notch clowing. Check out the FLETCH THE CLOWN page at the site. The very latest news is that the Eva James single, "I LOVE YOU, NOW CHANGE" (Rhoden/Galbrath) is now on the Songsalive cd sampler 9, rights available to publishers. Check out this pop gem on the MUSIC page of my site (there's also a performance video of the tune on the PERFORMANCES page). You can check out the Eva James Band video JUDGMENT DAY on the VIDEOS page or go directly to Youtube. I play guitar (also played bass and sang on the recording, produced by Robbie Rist).

All of which brings us to the end of 2007 and into 2008. My next major project is a two-act stageplay to have its premiere run in Jan/Feb of 2008. I don't want to give too much away, but it involves the fabled friendship between two actors, at least one of whom is a bonefide legend. I have also written a novella of the same story, to be published by Trafford in Jan 2008. Trafford published my acclaimed novella THE TRIAL OF DAVY CROCKETT, which was called "A must read...not to be missed" and "thoughtful yet riveting from the first page to the last" by Midwest Book Review and wound up on a lot of Alamo recommended reading lists. You can sample it and buy it from Trafford or Amazon.com (5 stars!), or go to the links page of my site, www.fletcherrhoden.com. There will be a new page at the site for the new project after Thanksgiving, when performance and reservation information will be announced.

Various other scraps of info: People have been trying to contact me on MySpace, which is great, but I can't seem to access my page there anymore. I've tried, but I'm blocked -- don't know why, don't really care. But those of you who are trying to reach me there and can't can join the fletcherrhodengroup or mightyoneproductions group at Yahoo for free and post messages there if you like. You can also hear mp3s and see jpegs available nowhere else. There will be a new group for the new project soon as well.

Okay, that's all for now! Stay tuned for more information and don't forget to check out www.fletcherrhoden.com -- it's fun, it's free. It's me.

Fletcher Rhoden