Episode XVII: Reaching Across the Seas

Hello all you wild and zany people I call my friends!

You guessed it, now that the Christmas and New Year craziness is over (and the Valentine's Craze has begun), I have finally found some time to write the next installment of The Adventures of SuperMaren.

When last you saw our heroine, she was battling the minions of Monstrus Giggus, the supervillain most musicians at one time or another have had to deal with. Disguised as a Napoleonic rabbi, he had made a particularly bad impression of the High Holy Days for me (no offense to those of you who celebrate them, of course). Luckily, I escaped with both vocal cords intact, if not my pride.

So, what have I been up to since then? Quite a bit. Despite my bad gig experience, I stuck to my guns and kept on the Path of the Musician. During the month of December, I sang Christmas Carols with the Coventry Carolers (headed up by Kim Breden of BeMused Productions, and including Steve Fontaine, Kim, Dan Feyer, and yours truly) at various and sundry holiday parties, lunches with Santa, etc. I had so much fun singing at beautiful clubs and watching velvet-clad children take in the magic of the holidays.

Although I did not perform in any shows per se, my voice was played on that CD I recorded for the show Independence, which I saw -- it was very good, by the way.

Most of my holiday season, however, was spent writing, not performing. Right around my birthday, my friend Josh Feltman (the composer I had been writing some songs with) asked me if I would be interested in writing the libretto for a children's opera he had been commissioned to write. For a couple of months, the theme sort of see-sawed between an adaptation of The Lorax or Harry Potter, neither of which would actually be feasible because of the difficulty in getting the rights to perform it. Finally, he needled me enough (and told me that we were under a small deadline) that I came up with a story of my own. Since Josh happens to be living in Switzerland right now, it was up to me to contact the woman from the Orleans Academy of Music who was commissioning the show. We met, discussed pricing (which was a big deal in of itself, not having written an opera before and not knowing what to ask for), and our proposal has been approved by their board of directors.

Since I hadn't written very much recently, I thought it would be a good idea to get back in the habit of it. At the same time, I was getting back in touch with my aunts Maggie and Nina, who live in Spain and whom I haven't seen in 13 years; they asked me what had been going on in my life since I had last seen them, so I wrote The Lost Episodes of The Adventures of SuperMaren for them, chronicling my life since high school until now. Writing them turned out to be quite therapeutic, and certainly exercised that writing muscle in my brain.

Getting back in touch with my long-lost aunts also made me realize how important it is to keep tabs on the people I care about (that would be all o' y'all). My friends and relatives seem to be leaving the U.S. mainland and spreading around the globe; I've got my two aunts in Spain, some distant cousins in Ireland, a cousin in New Zealand, another cousin in Japan, Braden Rhetts just moved to Japan, Josh Feltman is in Switzerland, Kate E. Deeming is in Scotland, and my own mother just moved to Hawaii to be with my ailing grandfather! I'm going to have to plan a world trip one of these days just to stay in touch with everybody. For now, though, I think I'll just buy a map so I remember where everyone is.

As for my singing and acting career, don't worry: it's not on hold. This opera I am writing with Josh will take at least two years before the school gets the grant money to produce it, so I've got plenty of time for that. I have enrolled in a voice-over class which started on Jan. 22, and will run for 5 weeks, and I'm very excited about learning that part of the business. My friend Dave Bickle is now in New York, and I hope to be working on a cabaret with him in the future; I'll give you more information as that develops.

I have also put together a website (thanks to my wonderful boyfriend who is giving me space on his server), which has pictures and links and all sorts of fun stuff on it. Please go visit it at www.bigfoot.com/~watermaren [no longer in service because Bigfoot is a pain in my ass; please go to www.marenmontalbano.com]. I'm constantly updating it, since my mother just sent me all sorts of memorabilia, so my past will soon be revealed on said website (thanks to Ray, my wonderful boyfriend who lets me play on his computer).

Please feel free to write back with any news! Or just write to me to chat. I may not be talking to you or writing to you on a very regular basis, but I most certainly am thinking about you. Take care, and may the Year of the Snake (that's today, folks!) fill you with happiness and prosperity.